Potential Infield Corner Trade Targets

In Daniel Kramer’s post about the DFA of Rowdy to make room for Raley, he mentioned that they are looking to add someone at an IF corner at the deadline. This post is going to look at the options. AJDPX had a great fanpost about trade targets as well, but that was a month ago, and this one is focused only on the speculation from Kramer's post.

I’m going to go in order of inverse record up to teams that are about on the same level as the Mariners, and look at plausible options for 1b and 3b from each team.

Cellars

These teams are so far out of it that they should be selling at the deadline. That doesn’t mean all of them will or that they have anything the Mariners are interested in.

Rockies:

Fortunately the Rockies only Major League player happens to be at one of the positions they are looking for help. Unfortunately, he’s not necessarily that great. McMahon’s overall numbers look fine. But the park adjusted WRC+ is still slightly below average, and it’s easy to imagine it dropping off a cliff going from Coors to T-Mobile. Maybe if we wanted the best defensive third base platoon in the game it would make sense. It seems like the upside is turning a blackhole into a completely cromulent bat without sacrificing defense. And the downside is the 2nd coming of Jeff Cirillo, including 2 more years under contract at about market value. Plus this is the Rockies, so they probably wouldn’t trade him anyways.

White Sox:

People have been talking about the pros and cons of trading for Luis Robert for years. But he doesn’t play corner IF, so we won’t consider him here. Either of Vargas or Sosa would make the team better. But neither becomes a free agent until 2030, so a rebuilding team like the White Sox would have to be overwhelmed with a trade package to part with either of them. The good news is that they wouldn’t have to worry about blocking any of their many infield prospects in such a deal, as there probably won’t be any left if they do make the trade. But this seems quite unlikely.

Pirates:

Literally nothing to see here.

Marlins:

I mean there’s Liam Hicks, but how many backup catchers who can conceivably play first base does Cal need?

Nationals:

T-Mobile isn’t likely to turn Lowe or Bell back into good hitters. Rosario and DeJong would be the third base equivalent of thinking Taveras would solve the sudden outfielder problem. Hard pass.

Athletics:

If the Mariners just want someone who can hit around league average and stand at third base, then they would roll with some combination of Polanco and Solano. Those both seem like better internal options for the hot corner than either Andujar or Urias.

But the A’s do have some decent bats in Rooker and Kurtz. Rooker is good enough to displace Polanco at DH, though probably not Cal on his off days. Normally these sort of face of the franchise players are off limits, but if the A’s have any fans the front office doesn’t care about them. It’s easy to see them wanting to build up minor league talent for when they have their permanent home. So if the M’s don’t mind giving a division rival most of their top 100 prospects, they could probably pry one of these players away from the A’s. Not sure I'd recommend it, though.

Orioles:

An MLB article several weeks ago suggested O’Hearn was the best target for the Mariners to acquire, and that seems to still be the case. His numbers during a walk year make him the ideal trade candidate, and he certainly lines up well with the Mariners needs..

Other options are Urias and the perennially discussed Westburg. But based on the presumed return to contention next year for the Orioles, it’s hard to imagine a trade for Westburg that doesn’t require them to give up pieces currently on the major league roster. With the success of so many of their young infielders over the past few, Urias is fairly expendable, even with a year left under contract.

Braves:

Another team expected to compete this year with a terrible first half. Unlike the Orioles, however, this hasn’t resulted in any potential trade targets for the Mariners. The Braves don’t seem like the kind of team to trade away face of the franchise players on long term deals like Olson and Riley just because they are having a down year. And the Mariners don’t seem like the type of team that would be in the market for that anyways.

Borderlines

These teams are close enough to still consider the postseason as realistic, at least right now. If any of them go on a big enough losing streak they might reconsider, however.

Angels:

Haha!

No.

Rangers:

The Mariners didn’t even want Burger when he was presumably good. And the Rangers aren’t trading Jung or Smith within the division.

Twins:

We don’t want France back. But Castro is hitting better than ever in his final year under contract and will probably be made available if they are out of it. He plays all over, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be made the regular at third.

Guardians:

Maybe Jerry had a thing for Santana the way Jack had a thing for Morales? Probably not. Obviously Ramirez is not going to be traded. And Manzardo probably wouldn’t hit here if they did trade him, which they probably won’t.

Royals:

Pasquantino and Garcia are going nowhere.

DBacks:

Both Naylor and Suarez are having great walk years. Either or both would make a great addition, though the DBacks would probably want someone back who could contribute at the MLB level next year.

Reds:

Gavin Lux has played more games at third this season than all of his other seasons combined. That’s it. That’s the tweet.

The Rest

Every other team has a better record than the Mariners. So though it’s possible some of them will also end up as sellers, the Mariners probably will as well in that case. I won't list all of them, but perhaps it's at least worth looking at the next team which the Mariners aren't that far behind (half a game as of this writing).

Red Sox:

They literally seem like the most likely team to claim Tellez. So no, nothing to see here.