Major League Baseball Winter Meetings

Jerry Dipoto of the Seattle Mariners and his staff are at the Winter Meeting in San Diego this week. They arrived on Sunday with meetings happening on Monday. Much of the meetings is to talk with other general managers along with agents.

The news came out Wednesday the Gerrit Cole formerly of the Houston Astros signed a nine-year contract with the New York Yankees at $35 per year. I am sure we all know that is a lot of money. Cole being a pitcher though 29 years old nine years seems too long of a contract to pay someone. We know the Yankees like doing something like that though.

Jerry Dipoto has been talking with different general managers and agents but nothing has been announced as far as picking up a player most likely a pitcher the Mariners would want. The pitchers will probably be marginal who may be coming off of injury or they non-tendered by their previous team last week.  They will be similar to the pitchers they acquired last week.

The Mariners will probably want to sign at least one more starter and at least one reliever.  On Thursday which is the last day of the Winter Meetings is the Rule 5 draft. They are players who played in the minor leagues for several years without making it to the majors.  Last year the Mariners picked up Brandon Brennan who had a good season coming out of the bullpen when he was healthy. He was on the injured list for a couple months. 

This year the Mariners will probably get another pitcher like Brennan in Rule 5 draft. Like Brennan, he will probably be a reliever though they could take a starter who could be the fifth starter. The rules of the Rule 5 draft the player must be on the major league roster all year long or be returned back to the team he played for before the draft. 

Next year the Winter Meeting might be quite interesting for the Mariners because they will probably be more active than this year. The reason is the Mariners figure they will be competing for a playoff spot. This will depend a lot on how the youngsters play this season. We will see, won't we? Go M's.