Happy Trade Deadline Day thread!

[D-train]

With the addition of Taylor Ward, Julio now has the 3rd highest bWAR of our OFers:

Randy: 3.7
Taylor: 2.6
Julio: 2.4

[AT Fresno]

No idea how are why but I get this in my inbox. First time I decided to read it. Actually really good.

Why a smart deadline still leaves Seattle one move short
Casey Bellon
The Mariners had a good deadline on paper. They traded Luis Castillo at the right time, shed roughly $30 million in future salary, added a useful reliever, a real prospect in Boston Smith, and then addressed their most obvious lineup flaw by acquiring Taylor Ward for a light prospect cost. Taken move by move, there is a lot to like here. The problem is that deadlines are not graded in a vacuum. They are graded against the needs of the roster in front of you, the market that existed in that moment, and the urgency of the competitive window you are actually living in.

That is where the Mariners come up short .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Call it a B-, maybe a C+ if the missing bullpen arm comes back to haunt them in September or October. That may sound harsh for a deadline with two genuinely good trades. But that is the point. The frustrating part is not that the Mariners were dumb. It is that they were smart, right up until the moment real conviction was required.

And by now, that feels less like a one-off deadline choice than the defining philosophy of the front office.

Enjoy Baseball.

What a great article!! I agree with the philosophy. I guess we are looking at Vargas coming off the injured list first. I. was thinking we were two moves short. Did not expect to get Mason Miller or Otto Lopez really, but losing one rotation starter like Kirby and one top 5 prospect along with lesser 15-30 prospects should have been enough to get us Seiya Sizuki and a Luke Weaver type.....I think it's just a bit of too little, too late.

[Seattle or Bust]

"They had an actual shot to turn that surplus into the lineup piece they have been chasing for years."

So, who did the writer have in mind?

The Red Sox sent their equivalent to Hancock for Curtis Mead... a fallen top prospect who put up the first good first half of his career.

The Angels traded Soriano for a a very good, pure prospect haul. The Mets traded Holmes for a top 50 prospect in the sport. No good MLB bats were moved for these pitchers.

Again... these writers bitch and bitch and bitch about how the M's needed to trade Kirby or Hancock for "lineup piece they have been chasing for years" but no trades happened where that lineup piece was moved.

Does this writer know something we don't? Was CJ Abrams dangled? How about Otto Lopez? Unless that's true, he's just shouting to the void without any evidence that "lineup piece they have been chasing for years" was available that matches the value of a Hancock or Kirby.

[DavidGee24]

So pretty much we're adding Ward, subtracting Raley due to injury and hopefully Refsnyder, and saying okay, other than the three guys (Young, Arozarena, Canzone) who showed up this season the rest of the position players need to pull their heads out of their asses. The question is, who's actually capable of doing that?

Julio can get hot, we know that even though his usual second-half surge hasn't happened yet. So can Naylor. I think Donovan will be fine. Cal is pretty much fucked for this season, his ceiling is probably .175 with 20 dingers. It probably isn't going to happen for Emerson until next year. Doubt we'll get much out of JP. Robles and Garver just suck and because we're idiots Garver will probably still get lots of playing time.

If Brash comes back healthy we have a good bullpen again. No idea what we're going to get from Sarasmile Dominguez.

I think that we will be playing postseason baseball.

[D-train]

"They had an actual shot to turn that surplus into the lineup piece they have been chasing for years."

So, who did the writer have in mind?

The Red Sox sent their equivalent to Hancock for Curtis Mead... a fallen top prospect who put up the first good first half of his career.

The Angels traded Soriano for a a very good, pure prospect haul. The Mets traded Holmes for a top 50 prospect in the sport. No good MLB bats were moved for these pitchers.

Again... these writers bitch and bitch and bitch about how the M's needed to trade Kirby or Hancock for "lineup piece they have been chasing for years" but no trades happened where that lineup piece was moved.

Does this writer know something we don't? Was CJ Abrams dangled? How about Otto Lopez? Unless that's true, he's just shouting to the void without any evidence that "lineup piece they have been chasing for years" was available that matches the value of a Hancock or Kirby.

Exactly! I literally saw dozens of people on X begging to trade Kirby for that mystical bat that didn't exist. So bizarre...

[bpj]

Jerry backed himself into a corner by waiting until they were contenders to try and have the pieces in place.

He has avoided the good free agents and trade opportunities like the plague the last few years.

The crest! The crest! The crest! We'll never be able to re-sign all our young players we want to keep if we just spend it all on free agents!

Result: those young players finish out their contracts and don't sign extensions, and we still have the same holes we've had for years.