Great stuff from Morosi here. Can't believe I didn't add Teo in my contest entry after reading he was a likely target a week ago.
https://sports.mynorthwest.com/
“Teoscar Hernandez is a really, really good outfielder. In some ways he’s been a great hitter,” he said. “He is, I think, a comprehensive, really, really good right fielder. And yet, when it’s just one year, the price tag is, well, maybe your sixth- or seventh-best prospect and a really good reliever. But it’s not a frontline starting pitcher, it’s not an everyday position player in his prime. It’s a manageable cost when it’s a one-year player to bring in.
“And I think one thing about the Mariners overall, is that their payroll is in pretty good shape to where if they really liked what Teoscar does and he comes in and as a really good first half of the season, then they can always revisit the possibility of extending him during the course of the year in a way that it just didn’t seem like it was going to happen with Mitch Haniger.”
Morosi said he was told that the Mariners are still looking for another outfielder, and that trading 2022 left fielder Jesse Winker is “a very strong possibility” and he’s heard the 2021 All-Star has been discussed in trades over the last 48 hours.
If the Mariners do add another outfielder, Morosi thinks the team’s prefence is for it to be a left-handed bat, such as Masakata Yoshida, who was recently posted from by the Orix Buffaloes in Japan.
“I think the Mariners likely will add a bat in the outfield,” he said. But I think that by virtue of this trade, Brandon Nimmo is now less of a possibility for the Mariners and more of a possibility for the Jays as sort of a seesaw consequence of this trade.”
Also a consequence of this trade, Morosi said, is Haniger’s chances of returning to Seattle.
“I would be at this point surprised. I just think that Teoscar is going to play the role that Mitch Haniger played,” he said. “He’s going to bat where he was batting, he’s going to play right field. I just don’t see a real fit unless Mitch’s market really is not what he expects it to be and he comes back and it’s a cheaper one-year deal or a one-year plus an option deal as a DH effectively, or a left field combination. But it just seems to me that he’ll probably find another spot.”
Morosi also mentioned in the conversation that he thinks it’s still possible the team trades one or both of Marco Gonzales and Chris Flexen. He also said the M’s are “certainly” and “generally” involved in the four All-Star shortstops – Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts, Trea Turner and Dansby Swanson – but doesn’t think they’re the favorites.
Really???? I wonder why we aren't favorites to sign a great SS to play 2B???
