What the Mariners should be looking to deal at trade deadline

With injuries ravaging the starting rotation early, Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock have played prominent roles in helping the Seattle Mariners climb to the top of the AL West.

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The young right-handers have combined to make 14 starts – roughly one-third of the team’s games – and the M’s are 10-4 in those games. Wins and losses aren’t the perfect stat to grade pitchers, but that record shows the hurlers have given their club a chance to win frequently.

But the rotation is starting to get healthier. George Kirby is back. Bryce Miller is returning this homestand. And Logan Gilbert will start a rehab stint with Triple-A Tacoma this week, as soon as Thursday.

With a number of impact arms coming back, the roster crunch could mean Evans and Hancock spending much of the rest of the season in the minors. In fact, Evans was optioned back down to Tacoma after a career-best start of eight innings and one run allowed Tuesday night against the Nationals.

As the M’s receive reinforcements via their returning workhorses, should they start considering dealing either Evans or Hancock at the trade deadline to bolster other areas? Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Shusterman was posed that question during his weekly appearance with Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Wednesday.

Shusterman believes those arms are not who the Mariners will be looking move when trade season gets underway.

“I have to imagine that the front office is going to be more focused on deciding which prospects they are willing to part with,” Shusterman said. “This is still, as we know, one of the best farm systems in baseball, and as much as we all love to hug our prospects, I have to imagine that the route that the organization is going to prefer to take, especially when you are in a playoff race, is to trade not from the major league roster.”

‘The responsible thing to do’

The Mariners have a league-high nine prospects ranked in MLB Pipeline’s top 100. The group largely consists of position players at the lower level of the minors, commonly billed as “the next wave” set to compliment the array of arms the organization has already developed.

It may be hard to part with some of the intriguing prospects in that group, but Shusterman feels it would be the right thing for a team in the Mariners’ position to do.

“Listen, it’s not fun to part with the guys you think are the next wave, the next future. But when you’re in a competitive window like this, that is the responsible thing to do,” he said. “I would say that is the aggressive and sensible thing to do. … I’m sure teams are calling and they’d love to have Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock. It’s way more likely that they trade from the farm.”

Regardless of how the Mariners decide to go upon bolstering their roster ahead of the trade deadline, Shusterman believes they’ll be among the most aggressive teams in doing so.

“We have seen this group be aggressive at the deadline with Luis Castillo. We saw it with Randy Arozarena last year, and I expect them to do it again,” Shusterman said. “And that’s back to what I was saying earlier, they have the prospects to trade. We are still just not close enough to understanding which teams are selling, and so it’s just a lot harder to be like, that’s the guy.

“So I expect them to be in the mix, and because they have good prospects they should be able to make the best offer on a lot of these candidates.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

More on the Seattle Mariners

• Three things John Smoltz said about AL West-leading Mariners
• ESPN Insider: M’s can expect ‘seller’s market’ ahead of MLB trade deadline
• Stacy Rost: Ranking Seattle sports stars by how untouchable they are
• One Seattle Mariners outfielder nears return, another still a ways out
• Seattle Mariners GM shares latest updates on Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller

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