Rob Refsnyder's Mariners struggles are giving Red Sox fans feisty ideas

At this point, you wonder if the Seattle Mariners would be willing to listen if any of Rob Refsnyder's former teams called about getting him back. And if any given Boston Red Sox fan got ahold of Craig Breslow's phone, the odds of that happening would be higher than zero percent.

The mood in Boston right now is… not great. Perhaps things have been better than expected under Chad Tracy (7-7) since Alex Cora (10-17) got canned, but the Red Sox are stuck in last place in the AL East. They're also just hard to watch on any given day, hence the bags:

Dig deeper into the online discourse, and you'll come across what looks like lament for the fact that Refsnyder is A) not on the Red Sox anymore and B) not appreciated by Mariners fans.

Sure, he's only hitting .137 despite the fact he has literally one job, but I guess we're supposed to be on his side because he carries himself well? Or maybe because his major league journey is a genuinely cool story? Yeah, one or both of those must be it.

Rob Refsnyder is practically playing his way off the Mariners as Red Sox fans wax nostalgic

Whatever the case, if the Red Sox were to call the Mariners with actual interest in reacquiring Refsnyder, there would be no reason not to listen.

Even if he's barely more than a month into a $6.25 million free-agent contract, he's been bad enough as to put his roster spot into real danger. And the finer details only make the 35-year-old's tenure look worse. The whole point of having him is to use him as a lefty masher, and he's 5-for-42 with 13 of his 15 strikeouts against southpaws.

As much as Jerry Dipoto has tried to make workable platoons a feature of his roster construction, he's been failed by a long enough string of right-handed hitters to wonder if there's a curse. If so, this is not Refsnyder's fault. He's merely being felled by the same malignant forces that got AJ Pollock and Donovan Solano before him.

If Red Sox fans feel nostalgic anyway, well, who's to blame them? Nostalgia is comforting in times of distress, and they have more cause than most to look at Refsnyder through rose-colored glasses. He had a 123 OPS+ as a Red Sox. He's done no better than an 86 OPS+ for any of his six other teams.

Since a trade would be better for the Mariners than straight-up releasing Refsnyder, one can at least ponder a swap involving a player in the same salary bracket, such as Isiah Kiner-Falefa. We also like Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu and Aroldis Chapman, if you catch our drift.

Or, Refsnyder could simply start hitting and actually earn his $6.25 million. That would save everyone in Seattle a lot of trouble, even if it might burst some bubbles back in Boston.

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