According to reports, the Mariners reject the Red SOX exchange offer for a strong First Baseman

Seattle did not do much other than staying inactive in this low season. You have taken over an old flame from the Rays, but that will not move the needle towards 2025. To make matters worse, the front office does not seem to be as active as many fans had hoped, which referred to their strong trust in the current.

Although they were not ready to have serious conversations, other teams have tried to acquire some of their most valuable assets, in particular parts of their starting trotation.

The youngest applicant were the Boston Red Sox, who reported that they exchanged Triston Casas for Bryce Miller or Bryan Woo. The value of Casas, which had to pause most of the 2024 season because of a broken rib, is largely based on his successful 2023 season, in which he achieved an OPS+ of 129 and took third place in the election for the Al Rookie of the Year. He has the profile of a typical First Baseman: a paralyzing lack of speed, poor field capabilities, average swinging decisions and demonstrable power. Its quality of the contact numbers for 2023 was outstanding and was with every key figure apart from the sweeping spot of the starting angle in the top quartile. It also has an elite career walk of 14.2 %and is therefore at eye level with other masters of the plate discipline such as Kyle Schwarber (14.1 %) and Jesse Winker (12.8 %). Nevertheless, his whiff and strike out rates were still below 30 %, which gave him better results on the plate than other Big Bopper in the league.

So if the Mariners need an effective first Baseman, why were they not open to this deal? Everything is based on dipotos mentioned above. When he was asked by Luke Raley about the future, he said that he was planning to divide his time between right field and first base. To his honor, one has to say that, according to Rwar (3.2), Raley was the fourth most valuable player in the team and, according to OPS+ (129), the best qualified batsman in the team. For Dipoto, it would be a more sensible decision to find a Platoon partner for Raley on the first base against left-handed pitching, since the right interpreters kept it at 82 plate appearances in 2024.

The takeover of Triston Casas would mean to sign it as a full-time option on the first base, especially in view of its defensive restrictions and the existence of a full-time DH in Mitch Garver. Even picking him up from the waiver could be a difficult decision in view of the blockade in the squad, so it seemed to be an even less clever decision to exchange one of the bright spots in the future of the team and bring it to Seattle.

Apart from Luis Castillo, it doesn’t even accept the front office offers to pick up one of her young starters. Therefore, the Mariners must continue to search for support in the field. If you don’t want to give up any of your top League talents, a package of prospect could give you the tools you need to return to the playoffs in 2025.