‘Trader Jerry’ Dipoto in full force before MLB trade deadline. But did he make Mariners better?
By TJ Cotterill
SEATTLE
The clock ticked past 1 p.m., MLB’s nonwaiver trade season officially ended and the Seattle Mariners had added more players to their active roster than any other club in the American League West.
What else would you expect from the wheeling-and-dealing Jerry Dipoto?
Question is, did all that deadline shopping improve the Mariners roster enough to carry them through the final 56 games and into the postseason promised land?
Take this back to May and from the start of the season the Mariners have added four arms to their bullpen – right-handers Alex Colome, Sam Tuivailala and Adam Warren as well as left-hander Zach Duke in deals with the Rays, Cardinals, Yankees and Twins. And they’ve added two outfielders, Denard Span from the Rays and Cameron Maybin from the Marlins.
Dipoto wasn’t looking at any previous playoff team for inspiration, he just wanted to give this current club a little more definition.
“This is how our team has been built all year, these are just the newest layers,” he said. “We are now maybe more situationally capable in our bullpen. I think that the bullpen is a real strength of our and much deeper than it was.”
The Miami Marlins’ Cameron Maybin grounds out to third in the second inning against the Washington Nationals at Marlins Park in Miami on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS) AL DIAZ TNS
And with the lineup additions, Dipoto said this was about the same song he’s been singing for the past three years since he took over – athleticism in the outfield and aggressiveness on the bases.
Maybin—Tuesday’s acquisition—offers what Dipoto says is a similar defensively player to Guillermo Heredia in center field, but the 12-year veteran has a .358 on-base percentage since June 1, compared to Heredia’s .231.
And keep in mind the Mariners will add another piece on Aug. 14, when Robinson Cano returns from his 80-game drug suspension.
Compare this to the rest of the American League West – the Astros acquired a pair of right-handed relievers and catcher Martin Maldonado from the Angels, who acted more as sellers by trading off Maldonado and then second baseman Ian Kinsler to the Red Sox.
The Athletics acquired right-handed setup reliever Jeurys Familia but nothing else before the deadline, while the Rangers sold off their top reliever as well as lefty starter Cole Hamels.
Meanwhile the Mariners have acquired four bullpen arms, which could play into how they manage thresholds with most of their starters approaching career highs in innings pitched.
“Every manager wants more pieces in the bullpen, especially as you get going in August and September and the workloads start to mount,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You want guys who have experience and have stuff and combinations and I think we’ve done some nice things.”
But why not a starting pitcher? Especially with the Red Sox getting right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, or the Yankees acquiring lefty J.A. Happ and righty Lance Lynn? Or like the Pirates who made the surprise splash to get right-hander Chris Archer from the Rays?
Dipoto said starting pitching certainly wasn’t a low priority.
“I think as you probably saw, the starting pitchers who did go either went for a price that maybe we couldn’t afford in player capital or we just didn’t think that maybe they made as big a difference for us as lengthening that bullpen would,” Dipoto said. “Realistically, we were looking at ways we could get better with what was available with the market and we thought there were ways for us to get better in the bullpen and deeper.”
And he added the caveat later that the Mariners are far from done.
Teams can still acquire players in waiver trades, it’s just slightly more difficult to pull those off. Dipoto said he’ll have 6-8 people monitoring the waiver wires on a daily basis and that the Mariners might be the most active team on the August waiver wires.
Especially in the case of Felix Hernandez’s latest struggles, that gives the Mariners some August options if he doesn’t turn it around. Dipoto said they will take it “day-by-day” with the 32-year-old who has a career-high 5.58 ERA this season. Dipoto said Hernandez has earned the opportunity to take the ball, still.
Dipoto and Servais confirmed that Hernandez will make his next scheduled start Thursday against the Blue Jays.
“Obviously on Thursday hopefully we get beyond where he’s been,” Dipoto said. “Particularly his last start (2 2/3 innings, seven runs allowed). We need him to do those things. The Mariners have relied on Felix for a lot of years to take the ball and we’re going to rely on him again on Thursday.
“But now with the depth we have in the bullpen hopefully we can piece it together and if Felix gives us a good one we’re going to be a better team, if he doesn’t we’re going to have to recover and then find another way to answer those innings. Every time through the rotation we’re going to reassess where we are.”
“At the end of the day we are here to win games. I think that is obvious by the fact that we are making these moves. We believe that we are, actually we know that we are in this. We’re doing our best to maintain our position and we’re going to be conscious of the wins.”
Dipoto added that their acquisitions were as much about fit in the clubhouse as fit on the roster.
“We were excited about the way this team has come together and we were concerned more with the roles,” Dipoto said. “We were also conscious of what we were adding to the clubhouse.
“On Adam Warren I heard anything from, ‘Best guy I’ve ever met,’ which a strong statement to, ‘On a scale of 20-80, a 90 human being.’ And to Cam Maybin, when I got off the phone I felt like going to play because he energized me he was so excited.
“I think we’re adding the right people to the clubhouse. We really didn’t want to throw a big rock in the water, we wanted to help this team move to the next stage.”
Now we’ll see if that next stage is a place in the postseason.
TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677; Twitter: @TJCotterill
Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto talks to reporters in Seattle, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017, during the Mariners’ annual pre-season briefing before the start of Spring Training, (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Ted S. Warren AP
DEADLINE DEALS
Here’s a look at what some of the teams around the American League West added compared with the Seattle Mariners before the July 31 MLB trade deadline:
