The Mariners are using a six-game win streak that has pulled them right into a tie with Houston for the highest spot within the AL West. Josh Naylor has eight hits, together with a trio of dwelling runs, over that stretch. He’s batting .260/.306/.460 with eight dwelling runs in 41 video games since being acquired from Arizona on the deadline. He’s additionally extremely 16-16 in stolen base makes an attempt, rating third in MLB behind Juan Soto and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in steals since he was traded. Unsurprisingly, the Mariners want to preserve the upcoming free agent within the Pacific Northwest.
“Yeah I believe we might (wish to retain him),” M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto instructed MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald on this week’s version of the podcast. “That is still to be seen how Josh feels in regards to the matter. It’s by no means straightforward if you’re in a playoff race to open discussions like that. I do know that there’s curiosity on our finish, and I imagine that there’s curiosity on Josh’s finish.”
Naylor hasn’t suffered from Seattle’s dwelling park, which grades as MLB’s most troublesome for hitters. He’s batting .338 with 5 dwelling runs in 19 video games at T-Cell Park for the reason that commerce. That’s a particularly small pattern, however Naylor additionally had success towards Seattle pitching as a visiting participant. He’s a profession .283/.319/.535 hitter over 140 plate appearances at T-Cell Park.
“He’s truly pretty much as good as anyone that’s performed within the final handful of years at hitting on this ballpark. It doesn’t appear to trouble him a lot. We’ll see if there’s an curiosity in sticking round as a Mariner,” Dipoto famous. Naylor echoed these sentiments when talking with the M’s beat earlier this week (hyperlink by way of Ryan Divish of The Seattle Occasions).
“Each time I used to be an opponent, that is like the primary place I couldn’t wait to return to,” the lefty hitter stated. “I really feel comfy all over the place, to be trustworthy, however I simply actually loved enjoying right here coming right here as an opponent. I believed it was a brilliant cool stadium. The followers have been all the time electrical. I believe you see the ball effectively right here, personally. I just like the open roof. When the roof is closed, it’s cool. However I really like the sensation of the roof open.”
The Mariners are going to look past 36 video games of park-specific information when deciding how significantly to pursue a long-term cope with Naylor. His success there gives some consolation on either side, although. The Mariners haven’t been huge spenders on free agent hitters all through Dipoto’s decade-long tenure atop baseball operations. As proven on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Mitch Garver is the one free agent place participant to signal for a number of assured seasons in that point. Past Garver’s $24MM assure, final offseason’s one-year, $7.75MM settlement to deliver again Jorge Polanco is their second largest deal for a free agent hitter.
Naylor is headed into his age-29 season. He received’t be hooked up to draft choose compensation as a result of the midseason commerce rendered him ineligible to obtain a qualifying supply. He ought to simply surpass the Garver contract and has an opportunity to safe a four-year deal regardless of groups’ basic reluctance to signal first basemen to long-term contracts. Naylor carries a .271/.333/.462 slash in additional than 2000 plate appearances over the previous 4 seasons. His plus contact expertise give him a strong offensive ground and he’s an inexpensive wager for 20+ dwelling runs yearly. His glove charges round league common, and whereas he’s one of many sport’s slowest gamers, this 12 months’s stolen base proficiency demonstrates higher baserunning instincts than one would count on based mostly on his physique.
Dipoto spoke typically (not relating to Naylor individually) in regards to the group’s lack of free agent exercise on the offensive aspect. “I don’t essentially suppose it’s a private plan and positively not one thing we focus on right here internally. … We simply haven’t been in a position to appeal to the correct participant that we really feel nice about investing greater than 2/24 in. We’ve tried and we’ve come up quick on plenty of events in attempting to recruit these free brokers,” he instructed MLBTR. “We’re additionally coming into a stage in our growth the place we’re fairly assured in our system and the power to start out churning place gamers in a means that we have been churning out beginning pitchers a handful of years in the past.”
Seattle’s farm system certainly has a forthcoming inflow of younger expertise. The M’s already graduated rookie second baseman Cole Younger, who confirmed flashes early earlier than hitting a second half stoop. They’ve 5 extra place gamers on Baseball America’s most up-to-date Prime 100 prospects. None of these gamers are first basemen, although, and the M’s dealt Tyler Locklear to the Diamondbacks within the separate deadline commerce for Eugenio Suárez. Turning the place again over to Luke Raley, who has battled accidents amid a down 12 months, isn’t excellent.
The M’s pushed their payroll to roughly $166MM with this summer season’s additions, as calculated by RosterResource. They’ve round $77MM dedicated to subsequent season. An arbitration class that includes Randy Arozarena, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller will value roughly $35-40MM. Seattle additionally has a $6MM choice on Andrés Muñoz which they’ll actually train. Polanco will be capable to return on a contract choice that might attain $8MM, although he’s more likely to decline that after among the finest offensive showings of his profession.
Seattle isn’t more likely to be big gamers in free company, however there seems to be room for an offseason constructed round re-signing Naylor and making just a few supplementary additions. It’s additionally doable they store Luis Castillo, who’ll make $22.75MM yearly for 2 extra seasons. Castillo, who was the topic of some commerce chatter final winter, has typically been a dependable mid-rotation presence however has struggled within the second half.
Naylor’s impending free company was considered one of myriad subjects that MLBTR and Dipoto mentioned this week. Seattle’s baseball ops president additionally spoke with Darragh in regards to the quantity of trades for which he’s gained the “Dealer Jerry” nickname, reuniting with Suárez after buying and selling him away two seasons in the past, re-signing Polanco regardless of his injury-plagued first season with the membership, and the rising problem of buying and selling prospects for main league expertise with fewer groups embarking on five-plus 12 months rebuilds than there have been just a few seasons in the past.
