Seattle Mariners strongly trying to deal Kyle Seager
With a massive amount of money still left on his contract, Seattle Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager is apparently one of the next to potentially be on the trade block…
As Jerry Dipoto of the Seattle Mariners continues to baffle and excite the baseball community, it appears as though he has his eyes on another deal, though this one would be more utilitarian and compensatory than the others so far.
According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the Mariners are going to do “whatever it takes” to trade Kyle Seager, and, more importantly, his massive seven-year, $100 million contract, which still has $57 million guaranteed remaining.
Seager, 31, doesn’t appear to be a particularly attractive asset at this point, coming off a season in which he slashed a pedestrian .221/.273/.400 with 22 homers, 36 doubles and 78 RBI. Though he does boast a career .765 OPS, he hasn’t managed to hit over .270 since 2016, arguably his best season. He has been with the Mariners for the entirety of his eight-year major league career.
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Still, he is an intriguing bounce back candidate, although using that term to describe him might be a tad hopeful. Though he currently sits in the top 50 of active players with 175 career home runs and in the top 60 active players with 603 RBI, he appears to be trending downwards, and for a rebuilding Mariners team, having to bear the burden of his huge contract could be a big problem for them going forward.
As of now, there doesn’t, unsurprisingly, appear to be a strong amount of interest in his services. Though Olney’s report doesn’t offer any details as to the current status of the hunt to trade him, it’s predictably unlikely that many teams will be breaking down Dipoto’s door for the chance to acquire the aging Seager.
Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how Dipoto ends up resolving this situation, if he does at all. While it’s certainly possible that Seager be packaged along with some of the Mariners’ more attractive assets (Olney mentions Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger in particular, though Ben Gamel and Nick Vincent could certainly also be added to that list), Seager’s contract could potentially exceed the value added by those assets. Though the Mariners haven’t expressed their desire to trade arms, it appears as though nothing is off the table for this team at this point in the young winter.
Next. Evaluating the prospects in the Cano/Diaz trade. dark
The Mariners will be one of the teams to watch this offseason, as their wheeling and dealing, which has included the exchanging of the likes of James Paxton, Robinson Cano, Edwin Díaz, Mike Zunino, and Alex Colomé, doesn’t appear to be over. With this, Jerry Dipoto further cements himself as one of the more unpredictable and spontaneous general managers in the game.