Stacy: Do Mariners have case to be aggressive at trade deadline?

Late last month, ESPN’s Jeff Passan joined Brock and Salk and questioned whether the Seattle Mariners have given president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto enough of a reason to be aggressive at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

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Make no mistake: Passan has remained fairly optimistic about the Mariners and wasn’t cautioning them against making a move. Rather, he was highlighting that navigating the risk-reward of a deal isn’t always easy for a front office, especially a front office still trying to decide whether its team can legitimately contend after a disappointing first half.

Take a look at the offensive production (or lack thereof) and you’d understand the hesitation. The Mariners remain in first place in the AL West, which is good news, but haven’t strung together consistent production from their bats. That regression has most notably come from Cal Raleigh, a slugger who isn’t doing much slugging, but there’s plenty of blame to go around for an offense that ranks 27th in average (.231) and 23rd in runs.

But does the strongest case for a deadline move need to come from those bats? Because despite injuries to the bullpen and the frustration and confusion surrounding the piggyback approach for starters, Seattle’s pitching has been pretty stellar.

The Mariners’ 3.55 ERA ranks fourth behind the Brewers (cruising with the unhittable Jacob Misiorowski), Yankees (bolstered by Cam Schlittler’s 2.01 ERA) and Dodgers. They’ve allowed the fewest home runs of any team (thanks to some help from a pitcher friendly T-Mobile there) and their starters are leading the league in innings pitched.

The group isn’t without its warts. Bryan Woo is still ironing out issues on the road (his 2.10 ERA at home stands in stark contrast to his 6.38 ERA away from T-Mobile Park) and Luis Castillo feels like a trade candidate after a step back this season. But Seattle’s pitching — currently limiting opponents to the third-fewest runs per game — is mounting a strong case for Dipoto to make a move, even if it is being overshadowed by offensive woes.

If there is good news about the offense, it’s progression from Raleigh, who was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles in a loss to the Marlins Tuesday. But a slow turn from its star shouldn’t be what keeps M’s brass hesitant to make a move — certainly not with a pitching staff that deserves more middle relief help.

Could that come from the farm system?

Fans are eager to see two of Seattle’s top pitching prospects, but with a banged-up bullpen, does Seattle really need to wait for an opening in the starting rotation to debut Kade Anderson or, later, Ryan Sloan?

The Athletic’s Keith Law is open to it, but under one condition: that a top pitching prospect be used as a long reliever in low-pressure situations.

“It’s a great question and you won’t get the same answer when you ask multiple people around the game,” Law said when asked about Anderson making his major league debut in relief. “Being my age and remembering when Earl Weaver was manager of the Orioles, he was a huge advocate of taking young starters and breaking them in as long relievers. We don’t see a lot of long relievers anymore, and I think the idea behind a fan wanting to see Kade Anderson in the pen as an eighth-inning guy or your closer’s not available and you want someone else, that idea, I think, is terrible. You’re putting guys at huge risk by taking guys from a starter role, where they pitch every six days, and suddenly you’re in the pen and you’re telling them to air it out for 20 pitches and you might have to pitch on back-to-back days or every other day when they have no experience doing that.

“If they wanted to call Anderson up and say, ‘you’re our three to four inning mop-up guy, we’re in a blowout in either direction and you can come in and handle the last few innings.’ That is great. I think developmentally it helps and takes some pressure off the rest of the pen. But calling him up for a short relief role in high-leverage innings I think puts him at risk needlessly for a very marginal benefit.”

Alright, so no. Anderson doesn’t immediately solve the Mariners’ bullpen concerns. But there is an avenue for him to debut this year. And more importantly, there’s a good reason — at least from the pitching side — for the Mariners to find a solution elsewhere.

Seattle Mariners news and more

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• Seattle Mariners prospects sweep Double-A Texas League monthly awards

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