ARLINGTON -- The Mariners are staring down a Trade Deadline that could reshape the rest of their season, and the front office is making one thing plain: something is coming.
That much was clear this weekend at Globe Life Field, where president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said the club can’t keep waiting for the current group to sort itself out.
“I said it coming out of the All-Star break, we all need to be better,” Jerry Dipoto said this weekend at Globe Life Field. “For all of us, it just has to pick up, because if we continue to play the way we're playing, we're not going anywhere.
“We can continue to be confident about the talent on this roster. But at some time, we have to stir the talent up and try to get it moving in the right direction.”
Seattle’s priorities haven’t changed much over the past few months. The Mariners still need a right-handed bat and at least one right-handed reliever, ideally someone established who can miss bats.
To get there, the club has been more willing than ever to consider moving pitching, according to sources across the league. And while George Kirby has been the name drawing the most buzz, the Mariners do not intend to trade him, multiple sources with knowledge of the club’s discussions said. The same is true for Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo and Logan Gilbert, whose free agency is getting closer after next season.
That leaves Luis Castillo and Emerson Hancock as the two rotation arms the Mariners are actively listening on, industry sources said. There’s a real chance one of them could be dealt before next Monday’s Deadline.
Castillo would be the more complicated move. He is owed about $32.5 million through next year, and his contract includes a $25 million vesting option for 2028 if he reaches 180 innings in 2027. On top of that, many of the teams that could use him are big-market clubs already near or over the competitive balance tax threshold, which makes his deal even tougher to fit.
Even if Seattle were willing to absorb some of the money -- and sources indicated it would do that for the right return -- the contract may still be too heavy for some teams to take on. Castillo will also turn 34 in December.
Hancock is a much cleaner fit for a wide range of clubs. He’s 27, making just under $800,000, under team control through 2030 and in the middle of a breakout season. In a market that looks like it could heavily favor sellers, his value may be as high as it will ever get.
Moving either pitcher would mark a notable change for a team that has long resisted dealing from the core of its rotation. But the Mariners also have Kade Anderson lined up for a permanent arrival next year and likely a temporary one over the final two months of this season, while Ryan Sloan remains further away but still figures prominently in the long-term picture. Anderson and Sloan are MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 and No. 8 overall prospects, respectively.
The willingness to consider bigger moves doesn’t stop with the roster, either. The Mariners’ decision to part with assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes suggested a more aggressive push to rescue this season.
“We've spent two years adding legitimate personnel to our roster, and still we find ourselves in this position,” Dipoto said. “We've not played to the ability or the top end of what this roster is capable of.
And we don't need our players to have career years to get where we want to go. But we do need them to contribute.
And that's not been the case.”
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