After pair of Monday deals, Mariners mostly stand pat at trade deadline
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 18: General manager Jerry Dipoto of the Seattle Mariners looks on during batting practice at T-Mobile Park on July 18, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
SEATTLE - After trading closer Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday in the headline deal of the trade deadline for the Seattle Mariners, the team largely stood pat as Tuesday's 3 p.m. deadline passed with just a minor deal completed for reliever Eduard Bazardo.
Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez – the player most rumored to be on the move for Seattle – wasn't traded ahead of the deadline despite his impending free agent status at the end of the season.
With the Mariners at a season-best four games over .500 and just 3.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot, the team is in the best position it's been in the standings all year. President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais each expressed faith in the roster the team has and their belief they can be a factor in the postseason chase despite moving Sewald and adding only Bazardo, infielder Josh Rojas and outfielder Dominic Canzone.
"We came into this deadline with the intention of doing what we could to improve our opportunities, our chances in 2023 while building a bridge to 2024 and we felt like we did that," Dipoto said. "It was a fairly uneventful deadline by our standards, but we did the things that we thought were necessary to address holes on our current club. We do think we're a better, deeper, more athletic roster than we were this time last week.
"Moving ahead, obviously, we have a void in our bullpen and hopefully we are deep and good enough down there to cover. I think we are. And I know with the additions of Dominic Canzone and Josh Rojas and some of the guys that move out, I do feel like we are a better club today than we were yesterday. Our club's playing well. We think they deserve the chance to keep playing well."
The Mariners have a pitching staff capable of competing in the postseason. The offense has been the issue for the team all season long with several players underperforming. Of the five offensive pieces acquired this offseason to help bolster the roster, only Hernandez remains on the major league club after the trade deadline.
Kolten Wong was designated for assignment on Tuesday in order to clear a roster spot for the additions of Rojas and Canzone. He joins Tommy La Stella (released), outfielder A.J. Pollock (traded to San Francisco) and catcher Cooper Hummel (Triple-A Tacoma) as offseason acquisitions to no longer be with the team by August 1.
"If I knew we wouldn't have made the decisions we made, you know. Obviously it didn't go well as evidenced in the last 24 hours," Dipoto said. "Those players they didn't try to not play to their standards. They worked hard. I know they busted their tail every day starting in spring training. It just didn't work out. And these are guys with really good histories in our game, who've won hardware, done good things on really good teams over time. It didn't work here.
"Sometimes you just have to admit that you didn't do a good job of filling the roster and go and try to solve it."
Dipoto said Hernandez drew "a ton of interest" from other teams ahead of the deadline. There was a lack of productive offensive pieces available on the market and Hernandez was a sought after piece. However, Dipoto said they didn't receive an offer they thought was worthy of Hernandez and believe he can help them with their own playoff push.
"Simply didn't feel like we got a fair offer in what we think he's worth. And we don't feel like we've seen the best of what Teo has to give," Dipoto said.
Similarly, that lack of offensive pieces meant the Mariners didn't have a significant piece to add to their group to massively shift their offensive prospects either.
"There really were no bats available and our needs were on the offensive side," Dipoto said. "So we could have gone out there with a bag of money and a ton of prospects and we still couldn't have really done a whole lot outside of what we did. And we knew we were going to be threading a needle in terms of trying to make our club better now, while also building a bridge forward without tapping into our prospects in any meaningful way."
The hope by the Mariners it that Rojas will give the team a boost at second base with Canzone giving them an additional option at the two corner outfielder spots with Jarred Kelenic on the injured list with a broken foot. Both players are in the lineup and will make their Seattle debuts Tuesday night against the Boston Red Sox.
Dipoto said Rojas was the piece in the Sewald deal that they needed to get in order to complete a Sewald trade with Arizona.
"He can play defense and second and third," Dipoto said. "He's played some outfield. He can really run the bases. He's probably as good a baseball awareness IQ guy as you're going to find. Has been described as a clubhouse glue guy. And, oddly enough, we were engaged with the Diamondbacks on that for five or six days and Josh was the piece we just couldn't get included in the deal and we refused to do it until we could get them there. There was no shortage of interest in Paul Sewald and we felt like this was the best deal we can make."
On Canzone, Dipoto said they believe his bat will be able to produce at the major league level. Canzone was batting .354 at Triple-A Reno before being called up by the Diamondbacks and had appeared in just 15 major league games before the Mariners acquired him on Monday.
"Dominic, he plays both corner outfield spots," Dipoto said. "We think he can also play some first base. And he can really hit. He's hit everywhere he's ever been. If this guy makes contact, he makes hard contact. He makes barrel contact frequently. And he's just 25 years old. He's going to be here for a long time. We feel like he fits now and moving ahead."
The loss of Sewald will be significant. He's been a key fixture of Seattle's bullpen over the last three seasons and had already set a career-high with 21 saves this season with a 2.93 ERA, 14 walks and 60 strikeouts in 45 appearances this year for the Mariners.
"I love Paul. He's a wonderful guy. I like talking to Paul," Dipoto said. "I think Paul will come back here at some point whether it's to visit or to work in our front office. He's a good person. He's a good baseball person. He cares about what we do. He loves our team. And sometimes you have to make deals with the greater good or the bigger picture in mind. And you still have to make them. That's part of our jobs."
Dipoto said that reported interest in first baseman Ty France was not a reality until it was reported online and then a few teams inquired about his availability. Additionally, the idea of trading young starters such as Logan Gilbert or George Kirby as part of a chase for offense help never really got off the ground.
"We had some inquiries," Dipoto said. "We were of the mindset that you have to listen. We didn't get a lot of it after the initial wave. We effectively told teams there's only a certain number of teams in the league that we feel would even match with us on talent. And we would have no interest in doing this unless roughly we're getting a deal that was too good to walk away from. And we never even exchanged names with clubs. So it never got to that level."
Dipoto also said there had been some interest on catcher Tom Murphy but it wasn't strongly considered by the Mariners.
"We kind of disregarded it pretty quick. Mostly because I think Scott would have had a heart attack if he was traded," Dipoto said.
"We have a void if Murph goes away, and it's not just that we don't have a backup catcher, you know. And that's something we want to make sure we address."
The one move Seattle did make on Monday was the acquisition of Bazardo from the Baltimore Orioles. Bazardo, 27, was designated for assignment by the Orioles on July 30. The Mariners sent 25-year-old right-handed pitcher Logan Rinehat back to the Orioles in exchange for Bazardo, who will report to Triple-A Tacoma.
Bazardo had three appearances with Baltimore this year. He allowed four runs on six hits in 2 ⅓ innings pitched. He's pitched in parts of three major league seasons for the Orioles and Red Sox.
Right-handed pitcher Juan Then and outfielder Taylor Trammell were also optioned to Triple-A Tacoma with right-hander Trent Thornton being called up from Tacoma to add some length out of the bullpen with the staff a bit short-handed headed into Tuesday night's game.