For all the trades Mariners make, there are 3 teams they haven’t dealt with

Perhaps the most identifiable aspect of the current Seattle Mariners front office is that they like to trade, and they trade a lot.

Potential Seattle Mariners trade targets: Reds | Giants

Not only that, but in the 205 trades the M’s have made since current president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto joined the franchise as general manager in late 2015 (as tracked by Cespedes Family BBQ), they’ve traded with seemingly everybody. That bodes well with the Mariners again in position to buy at the MLB trade deadline, which is looming on Monday, Aug. 3.

But “seemingly” is not “actually,” as even though the Mariners under Dipoto and current GM Justin Hollander have made 10 deals with the Toronto Blue Jays, 14 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and a whopping 20 with the Tampa Bay Rays, there are a few teams that this regime has never made a trade with. Three, to be exact, with no real explanation for why – and it could be as simple as there is no real explanation.

A road block on the other end of I-5

That being said, there are a couple of possible reasons the first of these teams – the Los Angeles Angels – haven’t dealt with the M’s. The Angels are an AL West rival, and they’re also the team Dipoto was the general manager of before he joined the M’s (and who Hollander spent nine years with before following Dipoto to Seattle). Dipoto’s split with the Angels seemed to be less than harmonious, as he made the rare choice to leave his GM post in Anaheim during the 2015 season, then hooked on with the M’s a few months later.

There’s no telling if there is any lingering resentment on either side, but the Angels do still have the same owner in Arte Moreno, who has a pretty notorious reputation in the game for how he runs his dysfunctional franchise. Considering the Angels haven’t finished over .500 since the season Dipoto left and don’t seem a threat to end the longest current playoff drought in MLB (11 seasons) any time soon, the fact that the M’s haven’t made a deal with them in over a decade doesn’t seem like much of a loss.

No ascending the Rocky Mountains

The second team on the list is a bit interesting: the Colorado Rockies.

As a major league pitcher, Dipoto appeared in 222 games for the Rockies from 1997-2000, making Colorado the team he played the most for in his eight-year MLB career. Not only that, but Dipoto’s front office career started with the Rockies – he became a special assistant to then-Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd following his retirement as a player in 2001. A lot can change in 25 years, though, so it’s not like the current Rockies front office has anything to do with the franchise Dipoto was a part of at the start of the century.

Similar to the Angels, not making any moves with the Rockies hasn’t been a big loss. Colorado looks on its way to an eighth straight season of both finishing under .500 and missing the playoffs, and it is primed to finish last in the NL West for the fifth straight season. To be frank, the Rockies are the only other MLB team to give the Angels a run for their money in haplessness over the past decade.

Motown moratorium

Finally, the third team this Mariners regime has never made a trade with is a bit surprising. It’s the Detroit Tigers, who had a nine-year postseason drought from 2015-23, meaning there were several years in there where they were a selling team at the trade deadline while the Mariners have a number of turns as a buyer. The Tigers could be back in that position this year, particularly with two-time defending AL Cy Young Award winner and Seattle U product Tarik Skubal a pending free agent who is unlikely to stick with Detroit in the offseason.

Maybe this is the year the Mariners line up with these teams on a deal, such as with the Angels for slugging outfielder Jo Adell, the Rockies for switch-hitting utility man Willi Castro, or the Tigers for righty bat Gleyber Torres. But based on recent history, the smarter bet is they M’s will fill their needs through trades with any of the 26 other teams in baseball.

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