Mariners fans can keep daydreaming about the trade deadline, but Monday night in Philadelphia made one thing pretty clear: Willson Contreras may not be the guy to pin those hopes on.
Contreras put on a show in the Home Run Derby, and even in a losing effort against former Chicago Cubs teammate Kyle Schwarber in the semifinals, he was the kind of presence that makes a fan base start imagining possibilities. He was laughing with a hostile crowd at Citizens Bank Park and, more importantly, launching ball after ball into the seats. For Seattle fans looking for a right-handed bat, it was easy to squint and see a future fit.
Then came the part that cooled everything off.
Earlier in the day, during media availability, Contreras was asked about his time with the Boston Red Sox, and he didn’t exactly leave much room for interpretation. Via the Section 10 Podcast, he said, “Just leave me here. I want to stay here.”
That’s about as direct as it gets, and it matters for a few reasons. The Red Sox took on the final two years of Contreras’ five-year, $85.5 million contract when they acquired him from the St.
Louis Cardinals, and he has a full no-trade clause for the rest of this year. Even if Seattle wanted to make a run at him, he’d have the power to shut it down.
And that’s before you even get to the bigger issue: whether Boston would have any interest in moving him at all.
Right now, the Red Sox don’t look like a club preparing to sell. On June 24, they were 14 games under .500 and 15.5 games out of first place in the AL East.
Since then, they’ve ripped off 14 wins in 16 games and carried a nine-game winning streak into the All-Star break. They’re sitting just 0.5 games behind the Mariners for the American League’s third wild card spot.
That kind of surge doesn’t scream deadline seller, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic made that point even more bluntly, saying there’s “no chance” Boston goes that route.
Of course, things can still shift before the August 3 trade deadline. But the Red Sox have every reason to believe their best baseball may still be ahead of them, especially with Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony, Trevor Story and more stars potentially coming back for the stretch run.
For the Mariners, it’s a frustrating reality. They badly need a right-handed hitter, and Contreras fits the profile as well as almost anyone. But after Monday’s comments and Boston’s current run, Seattle probably ought to cross him off the top of the board for now.
In Other News...
Randy Arozarena Keeps Forcing Mariners Fans Into The Same Debate
Randy Arozarena has spent much of this season doing what the Mariners hoped when they brought him in: supplying impact offense and giving the lineup a jolt when it needs one. He has been Seattles lone All-Star representative and one of the clubs most important bats, the kind of player who can change a game with a swing and make the middle of the order look deeper than it otherwise would.
But every time Arozarena puts together another big night, the same old conversation seems to follow. A near-miss on a catchable foul ball against the Rays, then the next pitch turning into a home run, only sharpened the scrutiny around his effort on the margins, and that is before even getting to the questions about whether a nagging hamstring issue should push him toward more designated-hitter work. For a Mariners team that leans on his production, the debate is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]
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What has kept Seattle afloat is the rotation, which has been one of the better groups in the league by almost any measure. The starters have given the Mariners a chance most nights, and several arms have turned in strong individual first halves to keep the staff from being dragged down by the lineups struggles. The question now is whether that pitching can hold up long enough for the offense to find something closer to the level this team needs in the second half. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Suddenly Have A High-Stakes Prospect Debate On Their Hands
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For Seattle, the question is no longer whether either pitcher belongs on the radar. It is how aggressively the club wants to push two prospects who are already making noise against top competition, and whether the timing is right to expose them to a major league bullpen race when the margins get tight later in the season. Anderson looks close on performance, Sloan looks tempting on pure stuff, and the organization now has to decide how much it wants to gamble on upside versus patience. [Read more 🡒]