Salk: What direction should Mariners go to finish offseason?

Here we sit about a month away from spring training and the Seattle Mariners’ roster has not changed a whole lot. We haven’t seen some of the additions that we’ve talked about, and to be honest, they’re kind of running out of options, right? Ketel Marte is no longer on the market. Brandon Lowe got traded. I don’t think Geno Suárez is the fit that he was here last year.

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I love Geno the home run hitter, and if you know anything about me, I’m willing to live with Geno Suárez strikeouts, but you’ve got to have the walks. And that walk rate, he used to have 70-75 walks a year, but the last couple of years that number has been in the 40s, and that to me is a much bigger concern. It’s why his on-base percentage dropped under .300 while he was here last year, so I don’t know if I’m wild about going down the Geno Suárez road again.

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm came up at times last year as a third base option. I don’t think that’s a good fit for the ballpark, nor do I think he’s the right guy for this team. The body language and all of that, just kind of a big ‘no thank you.’

So what are the realistic options? Nico Hoerner I think is No. 1 on my list. I don’t know whether the Cubs are going to deal him. Jon Morosi has said that they are at least entertaining offers. The Giants are supposedly interested there as well. The Cubs did spend a whole lot of money on Alex Bregman, who may eventually move to second base, so maybe that allows Nico Hoerner to get dealt.

If the Mariners can get Nico Hoerner, that’s the direction they should go. He is a good player, a six-plus win player last year, plays great defense, affects the game with his legs and his running game, could lead off, gets on base, makes contact, .300 hitter roughly. He’s the kind of guy that I think would fit very well into this lineup and onto this team.

Other than that, I’m really struggling to find the next player that I think is a good fit. I like Cleveland’s Steven Kwan, I like Jarren Duran from the Red Sox. There are some options if you want to go outfield, but it doesn’t feel like that’s the fit or that that’s the direction they want to go. So what do you do?

I know this isn’t going to be a popular idea, but if the right fit isn’t available – and I’m not convinced that Brendan Donovan is the right fit or offers enough impact – then you wait. You allow the young players to get their reps in early, and if it works out, great. And if not, you’ve retained a lot of options and opportunities to go out and make the trades that you want to make in order to bring players in during the season or at the trade deadline.

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The only thing I don’t want the Mariners to do is to significantly overpay for the wrong player now, which would prevent them from giving up that same asset, that same younger prospect down the line for a player who could be the right move during the season.

Regardless of whether you add another bat, you want to create space for some of these young players to make an impact this year. That’s Cole Young, that’s Colt Emerson, that may be Ben Williamson, it might eventually be someone like Michael Arroyo – we’ll see.

Look, I don’t know that they’re going to come in and instantly be great players who are going to carry you to the playoffs once again, but if you don’t give them the opportunity, you never get to find out. And then you don’t get what Toronto had last year with players like Addison Barger, who played such an enormous role down the stretch and in the postseason for them.

The Mariners can give those guys runway without having to rely on them for the entirety of the season. You’ve got to find ways to give them their at-bats, to give them their playing time, but I don’t know if you want to be counting on any of the young guys as being the only option you have at their position.

This post is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity.

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