Salk: The bats Mariners could pursue in limited trade market

Jul 17, 2024, 7:53 PM | Updated: Jul 18, 2024, 10:33 am

Seattle Mariners trade deadline Brent Rooker...

Brent Rooker of the Oakland Athletics goes down on one knee to hit a home run in May 2024. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

(Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

BY MIKE SALK

Host, Brock & Salk (6-10 a.m.)

By now you know – the Seattle Mariners’ pitching is elite, and their offense is, uh, not. They strike out too much, don’t make enough contact, struggle with situational hitting, and don’t have enough oomph in their lineup.

You know it. I know it. And yes, Jerry Dipoto knows it.

What Dipoto said about Mariners’ need to make more contact

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to what we’ve been able to accomplish in the first half,” the Mariners president of baseball operations told us Wednesday on Brock and Salk. “But we know that we need to do things differently and improve not just around the edges, but improve meaningfully on the offensive side especially … Otherwise, it’s not going to be quite as fun on the back end of this as it was for the majority of the first half of the season.”

Jerry wants meaningful improvement. Just like every Mariners fan. Of course, it isn’t as simple as wanting it or even being willing to part with the assets necessary to acquire such impact. You need to find a willing trade partner, and right now that market has yet to develop even with the July 30 trade deadline less than two weeks away.

With nearly every team within a few games of postseason contention, there simply aren’t many sellers. We’ve heard that from everyone from Dipoto to insiders like ESPN’s Jeff Passan and MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. But even if they hadn’t said it out loud, all you’d need to do to gauge the market is look at the standings.

Dipoto explains the trouble with this MLB trade deadline

But Jerry doesn’t just want meaningful improvement (which translates to me as “impact”). He also wants to fix the Mariners’ biggest weakness.

“We don’t make enough contact. That’s plain and simple. It’s our biggest hickey,” he said. “It’s the area where we need to make the most improvement. It’s hard to imagine us going into the postseason and doing damage without improving in that area, and that’s the simple truth of it. That’s going to come in some part from the guys that are on our club, and obviously as we come down here these next couple of weeks with the trade deadline, if we can improve in those areas, we’d like to.”

OK, impact and contact. And both of those things in a market that isn’t offering a lot of available options. There are no obvious or perfect solutions to that problem. Most of the players who make great contact and provide impact aren’t going anywhere. So it might force the Mariners to add multiple bats capable of one of those attributes.

Here are some options.

Bats that would fit the Mariners’ needs

• Brent Rooker, Oakland A’s

Rooker is becoming my favorite option for a few reasons. First, he has provided major impact in each of his two seasons where he has received regular at-bats. His current .942 OPS would exceed every other Mariner by nearly .200 points! And if the primary purpose of making contact is to get hits, he has done that to the tune of a .291 batting average.

Of course, there are downsides. He strikes out a ton. His batting average has been artificially propped up by an unsustainable high BABIP (batting average on balls in play). He is not a good defender. And while he has plenty of club control left, he is already 28 years old. But he is available because his team is one of the few not actually in contention. He would help the Mariners.

• Isaac Paredes, Tampa Bay Rays

Parades probably provides the best combination of contact and impact. He has 15 home runs after crushing 31 last season, and he makes contact with a whiff percentage and strikeout percentage both in the top 25% of the league. He’s not a great defender at third (though maybe that could improve at first), and he’d be yours for a few more seasons. But is he available? The Rays are just 5 1/2 games back in the wild card so maybe he’ll get there if they lose a few more games.

• Yandy Díaz, Tampa Bay Rays

Similar to Paredes but with higher contact and less impact. He is among the best in the league in making contact with the baseball but has the same questions about availability and defense as Paredes.

• Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies

If all you want is contact, Blackmon would work. He is among the league leaders for both K rate and whiff rate so he gets the bat on the ball. It’s helped him maintain a .259 batting average and a very enticing on-base percentage near .350. But at age 38, he doesn’t do much else anymore. He doesn’t hit the ball hard nor does he hit it out of the park. And while the Rockies are sure out of contention, he would have the right to veto any trade due to his 10/5 rights (players who have spent 10 years in the league and five with their current team have de facto no trade clauses).

• Nathaniel Lowe, Texas Rangers

Texas probably won’t sell and even if they did, he’s probably not available. But he would help on the contact side. His .262 batting average is just below his career average and he also gets on base nearly 35% of the time. He doesn’t hit the ball all that hard, but he does walk a ton and doesn’t swing and miss often. He strikes out, but more because of his patience than his contact rate. He is an excellent defensive first basemen. I’d be very surprised if the Rangers wanted to give up on a 29 year old who has helped them win a title and still has three years of club control, especially within the division. But it would be worth a call.

There are a few others who make contact but without much damage. Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner, A’s infielder Abraham Toro (don’t laugh), and White Sox second baseman Nicky Lopez all fit that description and play for teams that should be selling.

You may notice I am leaving a few familiar names off my list. White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. has a similar profile to Rooker (impact without contact) but would be considerably more expensive because of his upside, athleticism and positional value – the last of which the Mariners couldn’t take full advantage of because they already have a top-tier center fielder. Certainly no one could complain if they traded for Robert, but it would be harder to justify.

Miami center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. provides neither impact nor contact. He may be athletic and he can sure run, but his skill set does not fit in any way with what Jerry says he is looking to add.

The market is dry. The needs are clear. If Dipoto wants to make his offense meaningfully better while adding more contact, he will likely have to consider adding two of these players. Rooker is my preference because he should allow you to add another player to help with the contact. But these are some of the options the Seattle Mariners should consider based on their stated goals.