Today’s post, “Braves and Mariners Hypothetical Trades”, is part 8 in our series focusing on teams that could be sellers or have some expiring contracts that could be attractive options for the Braves. If you’re just catching up, here are the first 7 pieces:
- Braves and Reds Hypothetical Trade
- Braves and Cubs Hypothetical Trades
- Braves and Rockies Hypothetical Trades
- Braves and Diamondbacks Hypothetical Trades
- Braves and Indians Hypothetical Trades
- Braves and Royals Hypothetical Trades
- Braves and Rangers Hypothetical Trades
The Mariners finished 27-33, 3rd in the division behind the Astros and Athletics. However, they do have what most consider the best farm system in the MLB. While I don’t think their window opens in 2021, they likely won’t be selling any long-term assets so I’ll be looking at a few guys whose contracts expire within 2 years.
Trade Value of Kyle Seager
Kyle Seager has been a Mariner for a decade now. That seems wild. Over those 10 years, Seager has collected 32.3 fWAR, topping out at 5.2 in both 2014 and 2016 and bottoming out at 1.5 in 2018. He’s rated well defensively nearly every year, but as a 33 year old those days might be coming to an end. Still, he’s a good player that could put up a 3ish WAR and help strengthen the 5th or 6th spot in the Braves batting order. With an $18.5MM salary, Seager’s trade value isn’t too sparkly, coming in at -$9.1MM. With $ being tight across MLB, I believe it. The biggest issue with Seager’s contract is that, with the Mariners, he has a club option for $18.5MM in 2022. However, if he gets traded, it becomes a player option. There’s rumor that he could waive that if dealt to the right club. Could the Braves be that team? For this exercise, I’m assuming a kid from North Carolina would oblige. However, if that’s the case, his trade value changes so I’m going to assume that his negative value is neutralized.
Trade Value of Mitch Haniger
Haniger had one of the most gruesome injuries a baseball player can have, and that’s all I’ll say about that. He suffered the injury in June of 2019 and unfortunately complications continued to the point that he had to sit out the rest of the 2019 season and all of 2020. However, good news dropped 3 weeks ago as Haniger resumed baseball activities and should be ready for the 2021 season. Even being 30 years old and having sit out the last 1.5 seasons, Haniger’s salary and control through 2022 still provides him a surplus value of $18.1MM.
Fake Trade Number 1
- Braves get Kyle Seager and $3MM
- Mariners get Sean Newcomb and Terone Harris
Breakdown: This is a straight salary dump for the Mariners but they get a few cheap lottery tickets coming back. Braves get Seager for $15.5MM for 1 year.
Fake Trade Number 2
- Braves get Mitch Haniger
- Mariners get Shea Langeliers and Patrick Weigel
Breakdown: The Mariners are stacked in the farm, but the one thing they’re lacking is a good catching prospect. Langeliers would likely be ready when the team is ready to compete again.
Fake Trade Number 3
- Braves get Kyle Seager and Mitch Haniger
- Mariners get Shea Langeliers and Sean Newcomb
Breakdown: Attaching Seager’s salary naturally brings down Haniger’s value. Langeliers stays and Newcomb is the sweetener to the deal. If Braves needed to add more, there are plenty more sweeteners with team control that the Mariners could find attractive.
Thanks for reading Braves and Mariners Hypothetical thread. Thoughts?
I’m sure Haniger comes back strong. He’d be an upgrade over our OF options. What is he going to make in 2020 having not played in a year and a half? If a healthy Haniger is himself in Spring Training, then I would think Langeliers and Weigel would be a steal.
Had a buddy that worked for the Nats in their sales department. Grew up in DC. Loves the Nats. Huge baseball fan. Probably a very good salesman. Lost his job because we can’t put fans in the stands. Really, really cheering for a safe way for fans to be in the stands this year.
I’m a Haniger fan and would like to see him in Atlanta. However, I’m not sure what he gives you that Duval wouldn’t have except he’s a few years younger and a little cheaper with major health concerns. Still, I would do trade number 3 any day.
Tommy Lasorda, R.I.P.
@16 from prior thread…. Alex, I had the same thought. Thanks for posting it….. LOL
Oh no — break up the Mets!
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/01/mets-sign-brandon-drury-to-minor-league-deal.html
Hmm… more please:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2021/01/08/the-worlds-most-valuable-sports-empires-2021/
GEORGE SPRINGER, PLEASE.
@3 Screw Tommy Lasorda. He was admitted to the HOF in the same year as Niekro and spoke before him. And in his speech he went out of his way to be patronizing and dismissive of Niekro. It was vile.
@8: 23 years is a pretty long time to hold a grudge. I’m impressed, but I just watched Lasorda’s speech and all Lasorda said was that he was proud to manage Niekro for two weeks in Japan. Have they doctored the video? https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/lasorda-tommy (the very brief Niekro comments are at 11:20-11:40) Now if I were Sandy Amoros, on the other hand, I’d sue.
No, that video isn’t doctored. It brings back memories. I drove up there that day. What it doesn’t include are his off-the-cuff remarks before he started his acceptance speech. And being the bullshitter that he was, he went on for a bit. And he said some things about Niekro that put him down. It wasn’t done in jest.
I loved his annual deployment of Vic Davalillo and Manny Mota in the late ’70s. Looking now, Mota was usually rostered all season, but then Davalillo would get there and suddenly they were the Wonder Twins of aging pinch-hitters. They truly seemed ageless to me, as their days as regular players were long past, predating not just my fandom but my very existence by several years. Alongside the ever-increasing time gap between balls in play, the vanishing of professional bench players has been my least favorite development in the modern game.
So there, a nice thing about Tommy Lasorda, the most tribal-brained baseball man there ever was.
I loved those Manny Mota callups, too. Still makes me wonder whether or not Julio Franco could hit in September even now. Matt Diaz, maybe. Ted Williams, possibly, if he still had his head in the game.
Incidentally, right now I’m reading Crazy ’08 by Cait Murphy, about the 1908 baseball season, and it’s hilarious and absolutely wonderful. Anyone who loves reading books about baseball history — looking at you, Ububba, if you’re lurking somewhere! — should consider going out of your way to pick it up.
roadrunner48 is not grieving, indeed. It is entertaining when there are widespread condolences, and you have that one straight up person that says, “No, that guy is a villian.” I like it.
So, it is now the second week in January. Very deep into the offseason. Pitchers and catchers are right around the corner. A lot of teams have finished up their offseason shopping. And just as we all predicted, Kevin freaking Gausman is tied for the highest AAV of any deal signed by a FA this offseason. Because 2020 was a hell of a year, man.
I like the 2nd fake trade, but substitute Contreras for Langaliers.
JonathanF is evil.
@ 12
good one…I see decline has yet to settle in on your shoulders…when it does, just ask.
And Lindor is a Met.
@13, if you like that book, you might also enjoy The Unforgettable Season by G.H. Fleming. It’s almost entirely clippings from the newspaper beat writers that followed the top NL teams, back when cities had many more papers than they do now. I assume you’ve already read The Glory of Their Times, which also has a lot about the 1908 NL race.
@11, Davalillo was fun to root for. He was good but not great in the majors (B-Ref says his most similar player at age 25 was Ender, and at ages 38-40 it was Manny Mota), but he was pretty impressive in Venezuela’s winter league. In the 1961-62 season, he hit .408 playing in what seems to have been most of his team’s games and was 10-4, 2.46 as a pitcher. Twenty years later, he hit .413. He didn’t do much other than hit singles, but if you hit that many singles, nobody has any business complaining. I can’t tell how old he was in those years – a 1985 Venezuelan baseball register lists his year of birth as 1941 in the batting section and 1936 in the pitching section, and B-Ref says it was 1939 – but if he played 30 years in the league, he either started very young or ended up very old or both.
I have to make a confession: I’ve never read The Glory of Their Times. It’s on my shelf, and I always figure I’ll get to it, but still inexcusable.
The professional bench hitter was a fun class of player. But he was utterly vamoosed on account of the billion-man bullpen.
Read it. Several years ago, after my son became a baseball fan but before he cared much about any time before what he remembered, I read sections of it to him before bed at night. Did it more for the U.S. history than the baseball history – to give him an idea of how different life was in a time that’s recent enough that (old) people I knew growing up had been alive then.
@16: coop, you don’t know the half of it. I spend half my day apologizing for the things I say and the other half choking on things I want to say but don’t because I’m tired of apologizing.
New thread.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/01/10/braves-and-red-sox-hypothetical-trades/