Mariner’s Sign Pitching Coach and More

This week the Mariner’s sign Paul Davis as pitching coach. He had been working with the St. Louis farm system with the pitchers for the past five years so Marco Gonzales is familiar with him. He is known for his knowledge of analytics which is what Jerry Dipoto and Scott Servais were looking for.  Now we have to see who they make as hitting coach in place of Edgar Martinez who will continue with the organization except in another capacity. He will spend time with the major league hitters when the Mariners at home and will work with hitters throughout the organization on an individual basis. This will allow him to spend time with his wife and children.

There were reports that the Mariners would retool the organization and the only players not up for trade talks would be Mitch Haniger, Edwin Diaz and Marco Gonzales. In a manner of speaking it is true but they won’t do a total makeover. Dipoto will look at trade request from other teams about the Mariner players but not necessarily trade as many as possible.

There is likelihood the Mariners won’t be able to trade Felix Hernandez and Robinson Cano because of their contracts. The Mariners could release Felix though they would have to pay off his last year of contract that stands around $27 million. No one likely take Cano’s contract either. 

Hard to know whether anyone would take Kyle Seager after the down season he just had unless the Mariners pay partial of his salary. Another high salary guy is pitcher Mike Leake. Not sure what the Mariners could get for him either except some prospects but they probably wouldn’t be high enough to warrant trading him.

Shortstop Jean Segura has a no-trade clause in his contract so likely won’t be traded unless he accepts a trade. Not really sure what the Mariners could get for him for the right value. Mike Zunino may be the right guy to trade at this time but what they could get for him is in question as well. The Mariners don’t have anyone else can catch on a regular basis unless they can acquire another catcher in return or sign a free agent. James Paxton could have the highest return where they could get a couple major league ready players and a prospect like they did when they traded TaiJuan Walker to Arizona for Segura and Haniger.  It will be interesting to see what Dipoto can pull off.

The Mariners will need to sign or trade for an outfielder especially one can play in center field. This could allow Dee Gordon be at second base pretty much full-time with a possible occasional time in center field. The Mariners then would have to use Robinson Cano at first base and dh. The question is still whether they plan to bring back Nelson Cruz or not.

Currently Dipoto is at the general manager meeting this week so a trade could happen anytime and again later this month or in December. I don’t expect he will wait until January to make any trades unless they are minor ones.  Interesting on the hot stove league; we hope answers will happen soon.