WEDNESDAY, 8:16am: Zunino is not in the potential deal involving Lind, Heyman tweets.
7:19am: Catcher Mike Zunino’s name also has been a part of trade discussions, although it’s unknown whether he’s involved in the deal, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets. Zunino’s inclusion might have broader implications for the Brewers, who also could conceivably trade catcher Jonathan Lucroy at some point. The Brewers have reportedly been listening to trade offers for Lucroy.
6:14am: The Mariners are “close” to acquiring Lind, Rosenthal tweets. Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel, meanwhile, writes that there’s speculation that 3B/1B D.J. Peterson could be part of the Brewers’ return. Peterson, the 12th overall pick in the 2013 draft, hit well in the low minors but struggled last season at Double-A Jackson, batting .223/.290/.346 in 393 plate appearances there.
12:45am: The Brewers and Mariners have made “very substantial progress” on a deal, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweets.
MONDAY 5:29pm: Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto acknowledged that he’s talked to the Brewers and several other teams about possible first base acquisitions, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets.
2:22pm: The Mariners, who minutes ago reportedly agreed to acquire Wade Miley from the Red Sox, are also in pursuit of Brewers first baseman Adam Lind, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Seattle has a need at first base after trading both Mark Trumbo and Logan Morrison already this offseason.
Lind, 32, batted .277/.360/.460 for the Brewers in 2015 and would give the Mariners a potent bat to deploy against right-handed pitching. He’s a lifetime .293/.354/.509 hitter against righties and batted .291/.380/.503 against them in 2015. Lind is the quintessential platoon player, having logged just 112 PAs against lefties in 2015 and owning a career .213/.259/.327 batting line against southpaws. The Mariners have a potential in-house option to handle a platoon in the form of Jesus Montero, or the team could look to bring in a free-agent platoon partner such as Mike Napoli.
The Brewers exercised a one-year, $8MM club option on Lind this offseason on the heels of his solid 2015 season. He’ll be a free agent next winter.
captainredbeard
Who is Dipoto trying to give away now?
The Oregonian
The rest of the bullpen probably. Benoit and Furbush. lol
User 4245925809
That once pretty tight pen (other than hapless Rodney) has been spent now. What is DiPoto going to do now? Bargain bin shop to fix it? That’s what the marlins generally do and one can see from year to year there how that works out.
The poster below thinking DiPoto gives up Paxton for Lind needs a reality check..
bhambravesfan
The Braves do too, it is about your player evaluations.
daveinmp
Lind was an impact bat in 2015. He started 149 games so he was an everyday player 87 RBI playing a lot against the staffs of the Cubs, Cards and Pirates is nothing to sneeze at. A back end of the rotation guy like Paxton is a fair return. A failed prospect like D J Peterson is not.
marinersblue96
Who knows, my guess is Paxton. He was one of Jack Z’s favorites and Dipoto seems to hate anyone who the former GM prized.
bechs105
If it’s Lind, it has to be for an impact prospect. Cardinals gave up Kaminsky for Moss, who was a top 100 prospect. Lind is better than Moss.
marinersfan1977
No, really it doesn’t “have” to be an impact prospect. Deal for Moss, you’re really talking Apples and Oranges. That was a deadline deal when teams overpay for players they need. STL lost their 1B to injury, had a need. Moss also had more team control.
Lind might be decent, but he’s a platoon player, so $8 mil is no bargain.
doctorstrangeglove
Actually, $8 million isn’t what it used to be, especially with revenues exploding like they have.
I’ve seen it estimated that 1 Win Above Replacement is worth approximately $7.5 million.
For Adam Lind to be “worth” $8 million, he would need to achieve 1.1 WAR this season to justify his cost.
Using Baseball-reference, his last three season’s WARs were 1.9 in 2013, 2.0 in 2014, and 3.1 in 2015. If you prefer Fangraphs values, his WARs were 1.6, 1.5, and 2.2 in those same three seasons.
Steamer is projecting a WAR of 1.3 for 2016 according to Lind’s Fangraphs page.
His contract is just not unreasonable, or burdensome, even if you have to bench him against most lefties. Since most pitchers are right-handed anyways (and he hits them very well), Lind is worth the price tag.
So yes, he would cost Seattle a relatively good prospect. With Seattle’s farm system relatively weak right now, it would likely be a highly rated (for the system) prospect. And if the report of 21 teams checking in on Lind is in fact true (it probably is “technically” accurate, although I doubt 21 teams have a real need for Lind), there’s competition for Lind, and that would drive up the price a little bit more.
bhambravesfan
So pretty close to no excess value. That doesn’t warrant a to 100 spec
Andyman516 2
everyone, and anyone he can, ridiculous!
brewman20
We could probably use a 3rd base prospect from SEA……
Paulo
If Dipoto trades u Peterson u should consider your team extremely lucky, that would have to be among the stupidest trades of all time unless he aquired all ur top prospects
bklyn66
The only players he’s “given away” that I’ll miss are Smith and Miller but neither of them are crushing. Also, without signing Kuma and dumping Trump’s salary they should have some money to fill some bullpen holes.
charles stevens
Hold on Dipoto let me get JD on the phone. Moreland and lower level prospect for Zunino.
AidanVega123
The Rangers will need to get another prospect alongside Zunino for that trade to actually seem fair.
charles stevens
Dipoto hung up the phone. Said something about Preller on the other line. I’d hate to know what those two were up to.
marinersfan1977
Throw in Odor & you “might” have the makings of a fair trade!
James7430
Lol. Odor AND Moreland for Zunino? Zunino alone wouldn’t and shouldn’t get either of them – let alone both.
Paulo
You know, I’d rather just do Moreland for Zunino straight up then at least we could have a first baseman
marinersfan1977
Craziness. Nobody takes a kid 3rd overall, rushes him to Majors, watches him hit 20+ homers with excellent D and then trades him for a one-year rental. Unless that GM wants to get fired, that is!
eric9690
Maybe sexson will come back and play first
xfloydsterx
I say we sweep in and trade Walker for Chapman.
LyricalAssassin
Can we just give away our last top prospects for Lind to finish off this debacle
wilymo
yes
dtwenty7
That would be fine by me.. The Mariners top prospects aren’t even in other clubs’ top 20..
yndzzle
This is the point. WE DONT HAVE ANY TOP PROSPECTS! Look at Jack Z’s draft picks man. They all suck. Jerry is blowing this pile of shit up as he should.
I’m a lifelong Mariners fan BTW not a hater.
dtwenty7
Well said!
MoneyballGoneWrong
Alex Jackson. The one gem in the disaster that is the Mariners farm system. Sure, he had a terrible start to last season, but he finished quite well and has an extreme amount of talent. Everyone else in the farm should be traded for major league talent, like Lind.
marinersfan1977
You’ve really lost your mind! It’s ONE YEAR of Adam Lind, He’s a platoon first baseman so its not like $8 mil is some huge bargain.
bechs105
If the Cardinals could nab Kaminsky (88th best prospect in baseball) for Moss from the Indians, the Brewers should easily be able to get a top 100 prospect for Lind. He’s better than Moss. I don’t really see them matching up. Not much Seattle can offer.
marinersfan1977
Good thing you’re not the Brewers GM. Lind is a platoon 1B w/ one year of team control left at a non-bargain price of $8 mil.
daveinmp
Lind had 6 fewer RBI than the top guy in Seattle’s lineup last year. This playing in the pitching rich NL Central.
bechs105
If the Indians could nab Kaminsky (88th best prospect in baseball) for Moss from the Cardinals, the Brewers should easily be able to get a top 100 prospect for Lind. He’s better than Moss. I don’t really see them matching up. Not much Seattle can offer.
seattle1982
Dipoto is doing a good job overall. It’s crazy how quickly people forget how secretive JZ was and how we over paid for every GOOD trade. Not to mention the horrible trades like FISTER for Casper…. Figgins….. and overpaid for Cano. Not to mention there would never be a rumor due to his perspective of keep things quiet and he was just an A-hole. The only deal we haven’t come obviously ahead is the Miley trade but it’s not as bad as people are thinking. People are looking at ERA and wins and loses but not computing pitching in Boston compared to Safeco! Keep up the good work and I retract this positive post if we trade Felix for Lind…..
Weighed
Dj Peterson for sure
Broncoblue
I hope so. Dude’s awful and a head case
kbarr888
Doesn’t anyone else think it was stupid to trade Trumbo and his $9 million tag, just to trade another player for (gulp) Adam Lind answer his $8 million tag???? I’d rather have Trumbo….
Twinsfan79
Dipoto must not like Trumbo since he’s traded him twice now.
The Oregonian
I think part of it had to with with Dipoto inexplicably wanting to acquire Clevenger. He only wants to make trades and never wants to fill holes with the FA market.
marinersfan1977
Nori Aoki says hello.
Broncoblue
Did you watch Trumbo last year. Lind’s consistency is much greater compared to Trumbo. I would take Lind or Morneau any day.
marinersfan1977
Watch much baseball do you?
Paulo
Ok I was on board with Dipoto til he traded Smith and Elias today, now I’m a little worried that we are gonna be in a very bad spot. Hopefully he realizes that JOHNNY CUETO IS OUT THERE AND WOULD BE A GREAT PICK UP
charles stevens
Hopefully you realize he doesn’t have a stack of blank checks sitting in his office…
greatd
Dipoto took on payroll and gave away our young arms to acquire Miley dude.
He must have a lot of budget to work with lol.
Paulo
The Mariners do have cap room to work with after the Trumbo trade and seeing as how they haven’t done Jack **** in past free agency to lose any money other than Cano, so presumably Howard Lincoln can find a way to cut his pocket lining to sign a decent player who won’t decline soon
samueljames
Just hurry up and empty the farm dipoto and even the bullpen
dtwenty7
Loving the Dipoto regime so far.. Lind would be a huge get! Great slash versus righties.. Miley will be great at Safeco.. Aro has similar stuff to Smith, and Elias has always been expendable.. The bullpen is going to be much better than ’15 already.. Nice to see a Mariners GM execute a plan rather than a dream.. Finally someone who understands the benefits of playing at the Safe, and actually builds around it.. The last time the M’s had this kind of depth, they won 93 games..
riskman
Dipoto knows what he is doing. First job is clean up the mess. He will put together a competitive team. D’Backs fan here. We should have kept him as GM a few years ago instead of that idiot Towers. Oh, well that is the past. In his short time here he made some good deals. In the long run you will be happy with Dipoto. Give him time to see what he is doing.
sfleezy13
So far I have liked what Dipoto is doing. We still need bullpen help, including a closer. But he gave up a 30 homer a year player in Trumbo and a LHP for the bullpen to get a backup catcher and free up money by not having to pay $9M to Trumbo who would have been the teams everyday first baseman. Lind is a platoon player with an $8M price plus losing whoever we trade to get him. Does not make sense to me.
stymeedone
Benoit? Solid closer.
MoneyballGoneWrong
How does a trade of Adam Lind and Jeremy Jeffress for D.J. Peterson, Chris Taylor, and Tony Zych sound? In this scenario, the M’s fix their two major holes while not giving up too much, while the Brewers get a prospect who was a top 50 prospect as long as a year ago, a slick-fielding middle infielder who can still develop a bat, and a decent relieve prospect.
chitownbrewer
The Brewers have countless players that have the same skill set as Chris Taylor – he doesn’t really offer any value whatsoever to the Brewers.
I’m guessing that the return would start with one of D.J. Peterson, Luiz Gohara, or Edwin Diaz. After one of those players is included they will likely add an arm of 45 caliber.
marinersfan1977
its one-year of a platoon 1B and a relief arm. No thank you!
daveinmp
Lind made 30 starts vs. LHP last year. He was an impactful bat in 2015 with 20 HR and 87 RBI playing in the pitching rich NL Central. How many guys in Seattle’s lineup did that last year?
stoi
Why are so many Mariners fans against Dipoto’s moves so far? Dude has done a very nice job. He got your #6 prospect and a very good young starter in Karns. He also dumped Morrison! That in itself is a major victory. He dumped Trumbo! Miley is going to be very good pitching in Seattle. Losing Smith and Miller may come back to bite them, but I am still not seeing these major prospects that they have moved. In my mind, Dipoto has done another great job at acquiring good starting pitching for some so-so pieces.
A'sfaninUK
Dumping mistakes shouldn’t be viewed as a positive.
mikeyst13
Why not? He’s not the one who made those mistakes and its better than sticking with guys you know don’t fit well in their lineup.
JT19
The #6 prospect in our farm I’m pretty sure was outside the top ten prospects for the Rays, which speaks moreso to the sorry state that the farm is in.
Paulo
Well nothing disastrous has happened so far but the rotation really could use Cueto after Iwakumas departure. I still think it’s foolish to not even make a run at 2 26 year olds (Cueto and Heyward) on the Free agent market, that being said, I do like the remodeling Dipoto is doing even if it doesn’t work cause I was sick of Jack Z sitting around doing nothing
Paulo
I’d prefer those other first base options like maybe Mauer? Or Rosario?
doctorstrangeglove
Personally, If my choices are Mauer, Rosario, or Lind, I’d just as soon have Lind. Mauer just doesn’t offer the power you typically see of a first baseman (damn those concussions moving him out from behind the plate), is owed quite a bit of money left ($69 million over 3 years remaining if I recall), and has no-trade clauses in his deal. Rosario is meh, and the Rockies non-tendered him. If his bat wasn’t enough to keep him in Denver, I can’t imagine it would do so in Seattle.
Worst case scenario with Lind? You get ok production, he loses time to the DL because of his back, his defensive ability deteriorates, you give up an ok (but not great prospect) for him, and he’s gone in one year, and only cost you $8 million.
Maybe there would be better options available for the Mariners than Adam Lind, but Lind ain’t bad.
whereslou
I think some of you are missing losing Kivlehan, he was almost as bad as losing Smith. I hope we don’t trade DJv in the trade for Lind because we would be in the same boat next year needing someone at first again. DJ hopefully will be ready by then. I also think Maeda would be better and cheaper than Cueto. Nintendo needs to spend some of the $190 mill tv money so do it on him.
marinersfan1977
Losing Kivlehan was almost as bad as losing Carson Smith? LOL. Because of all those homers he hit @ the Major League level. He’s 25 and a 4-A player.
baumer16
Seattle reporter today said 21 teams have called the Brewers on Lind. That would tell me there’s a pretty good amount of interest so you would have to think Seattle would give something of significance up
gopads
Lind, such a underrated lefthanded bat
greatd
Considering Cano / Felix / Cruz’s age.
Dipoto is under a lot of pressure to win now in a division with many strong teams.
Don’t know where they’ll find the pitching to compete with the
Astros or the Rangers getting Darvish back but
my god are the mariners in a tough spot.
If I had the choice I’d go for a complete rebuild.
marinersfan1977
darn glad you’re not running the team. “Oh woe is me, we have no chance. Let’s just rebuild.” Ridiculous.
dshires4
I love Lind as a player and wanted the Mariners to target him a few years ago, but he’s now in his final season of team control before free agency. It doesn’t make sense to trade either Peterson or Zunino for him. Don’t give me the “Peterson” sucks junk either. He’s not too far removed from minor league success, and a high draft pick pedigree, that his value has fallen all the way to, “dealt for platoon bat on an expiring contract.”
mikeyst13
Peterson may be an ok trade if they believe they can extend Lind a couple years. There are concerns his contact rate and pull percentage and with a bidding war on Lind if they want him they may have to go that high. I agree that Zunino would be way too valuable. As a Brewer fan I was actually looking for them to target a package with Marlette included since we desperately need a catching prospect with Lucroy likely gone within the next year or so, but if they can get Zunino that would be ridiculous.
andrey
Would Zunino, Peterson for Lucroy, Lind be fair?
hibbisco
Not even remotely close.
doctorstrangeglove
Definitely not.
If Milwaukee really did try to trade Lucroy, just about any other team could pretty easily beat that proposal.
hibbisco
I’m not sure that Peterson/Zunino is enough to get just Lucroy
mikeyst13
Lots of teams interested in him that would give way more than that to pry Lucroy away. Seattle would have to include one of their young arms in order for the Brewers to listen.
marinersfan1977
They “could” but they wouldn’t Lucroy, coming off injury and down year, and only has 2 more years of team control. IF Brewers trading him, they waited a year or two too long to do so.
Crewfan620
Given what the Braves just acquired for Shelby Miller, the Brewers should be a pretty nice haul for Lucroy. I would think that the Mariners likely dont have the prospects to land Lucroy unless they involve a 3rd team.
marinersfan1977
There’s no bidding war on Adam F Lind. There was original talk that 10 teams were interested. If there were a bidding war there’s still be 3-4 teams in the hunt for lind. But there apparently is only one team serious as it seems only a matter of time before Seattle acquires Lind.
livingpaint
We only have him for a year. Is it worth it? If Lind does well, do we try to keep him or let him go like Kendrys Morales (who has not really slowed much since he came and left the Mariners)?
continentalop
Of course Kendrys hasn’t slowed down. I don’t think it’s possible to get any slower than he already is.
JT
Please don’t go the Giants Alex Gordon
firstbleed
Looks like the Mariners were far too aggressive with moving Zunino and DJ through their system. It’s like they promoted them to higher MiLB levels even when they struggled at the current level. Both still have a lot of potential. Looks like Seattle just mismanaged them. Could have been a product of Jack Z?!
marinersfan1977
“Could have been”?