The Braves have acquired outfielder Jarred Kelenic from the Mariners, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, left-hander Marco Gonzales and first baseman Evan White are also headed to Atlanta in the deal. In return, the Mariners will receive right-handers Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips. The Braves have since announced the deal, which includes cash considerations headed from Seattle to Atlanta.
Kelenic, the sixth-overall pick in the 2018 draft and a former consensus top-5 prospect in the sport, struggled to a .168/.251/.338 slash line in 558 trips to the plate across his first two seasons in the majors. Despite the brutal start to Kelenic’s big league career, he managed to put together a solid campaign in 2023 as Seattle’s regular left fielder. In 416 trips to the plate across 105 games, the youngster slashed a solid .253/.327/.419. Now Kelenic, who is not yet eligible for arbitration, heads to Atlanta with five seasons of team control remaining coming off a career-best season in the majors where he posted a wRC+ of 108.
Even that performance came with some red flags, however. While Kelenic walked at an above average 9.9% clip, his 31.7% strikeout rate ranked in just the seventh percentile among qualified hitters and his overall slash line surely benefited from a .359 BABIP. He also struggled considerably after a hot April, slashing just .235/.314/.356 the rest of the way. That said, it’s worth noting that Kelenic, who will play the 2024 season at just age-24, posted a .321 wOBA in 2023 that was actually 12 points lower than his expected number of .333. Additionally, his .359 BABIP in 2023 may not be as outlandish as his career .268 mark in the majors may suggest, as he’s never posted a BABIP lower than .323 at the Triple-A level in a season during his career. In addition, it’s possible his late-season numbers are skewed by the fact that the 24-year-old missed more than two months after he suffered a fractured foot from kicking a water cooler back in July.
Looking ahead to 2024, The Athletic’s David O’Brien relays that the Braves plan to have Kelenic and Vaughn Grissom compete for the everyday role in left field during the spring, with a platoon situation between the two possible as Grissom looks to split time between the left field and the infield dirt. That said, it certainly seems possible that Kelenic could earn an everyday role in Atlanta if he shows his step forward in 2023 wasn’t a fluke. Even if Kelenic simply repeats his 2023 campaign he would represent a notable upgrade over Eddie Rosario, who drew 122 starts in left field for the Braves last year while slashing just .255/.305/.450 (100 wRC+) in 516 trips to the plate.
To acquire Kelenic, the Braves take on the salaries of both Gonzales and White. Gonzales is owed $12.25MM in 2024, while White is owed $7MM in 2024, $8MM in 2025, and a $2MM buyout on a $10MM club option for 2026. While it’s not currently known how much cash Atlanta received in the deal, it’s fair to assume the Braves are taking on the majority of that nearly $30MM in guaranteed money, including $19.25MM in dollars owed this next season. Before accounting for the cash received from Seattle, the deal pushes Atlanta’s 2024 payroll to just over $224MM and just under $261MM for luxury tax purposes, per RosterResource. If that projection holds going forward, it would put the Braves just over the second luxury tax threshold, which sits at $257MM for the 2024 campaign.
Gonzales, 32 in February, struggled to a 5.22 ERA in 50 innings across ten starts this season before undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a nerve issue in his forearm. Gonzales is expected to be ready for Spring Training in 2024 and, if healthy, could provide the Braves with a serviceable back-end rotation option who could give competition to Reynaldo Lopez and Bryce Elder in Spring Training. Prior to his injury-marred 2023 season, Gonzales had been a reliable source of innings for the Mariners in recent years, averaging 174 innings of work across four 162-game seasons between 2018 and 2022. Gonzales’s contract includes a $15MM club option for the 2025 season that does not include a buyout, though Gonzales would likely have to take a significant step forward in 2024 for the Braves to consider exercising that option.
White, 27, does not figure to be a contributor to the Braves over the life of his contract. The former top prospect owns a career .165/.235/.308 slash line in the majors and has not appeared in the big leagues since May 2021. Over the past two seasons, White has appeared in just 30 professional games with a slash line of just .200/.310/.397 at the Triple-A level during that time. White spent almost the entire 2023 campaign on the 60-day IL, first due to a left adductor strain and then thanks to hip surgery, though he too is expected to be ready for Spring Training.
In addition to taking on the salaries of White and Gonzales, the Braves parted with a pair of interesting young arms in Kowar and Phillips. Kowar’s stay in the Braves organization was a short one, as the righty had just been acquired from the Royals last month as the return in the Kyle Wright trade. As a former top-100 prospect and Kansas City’s first-round pick in the 2018 draft, Kowar is an intriguing piece despite his struggles in the majors to this point in his career. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted at the time of his trade to Atlanta, Kowar averaged 97 mph on his fastball in 2023 after converting to full-time relief duties and thanks to his eligibility for a fourth option year in 2024 figures to provide the Mariners with a fireballing, optionable relief arm headed into next season. Phillips, meanwhile, was Atlanta’s second-round pick in the 2022 draft. The 20-year-old has not yet made his professional debut after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but ranked as the Braves’ #7 prospect per MLB Pipeline prior to the swap.
As for the Mariners, the club is clearly in the midst of retooling their lineup. The club has traded both Kelenic and third baseman Eugenio Suarez and non-tendered DH Mike Ford since the offseason began while watching Teoscar Hernandez depart via free agency, leaving four major holes in the club’s lineup. That being said, the departures of those four players figure to help Seattle in their quest to improve their lineup’s contact skills next season; each of the aforementioned hitters struck out more than 30% of the time in 2024. Parting ways with four of the league’s most punchout prone bats is an excellent start toward that goal, even as the club faces an uphill battle in replacing the quartet’s production.
While replacing four members of the club’s starting lineup is no easy task, Seattle at least figures to have plenty of payroll space with which to accomplish that goal. RosterResource projects the club for a payroll of just $115MM in 2024 pending the addition of cash considerations sent to Atlanta, while Adam Judge of The Seattle Times notes that president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto indicated today that the club’s payroll will “very likely” rise in 2024 relative to its 2023 total. The Mariners posted a payroll of $140MM in 2023, meaning the club should have more than $25MM worth of room to make additions to their lineup, though it’s unclear how much Seattle is willing to surpass that $140MM figure.
Even with that amount of money available for additions, it’s worth noting that the club would need to significantly increase payroll over its 2023 levels to be able to make even one impact addition on the level of, for example, Cody Bellinger or Juan Soto. Given the number of holes the Mariners will need to fill in their lineup, it seems more likely that the club will be limited to adding mid-level salaries to its payroll. The free agent market is unlikely to offer many solutions, with the best mid-level bats such as Hernandez and Matt Chapman being among the more strikeout-prone players available this winter.
That said, the club has reportedly discussed deals for both outfielder Randy Arozarena and third baseman Isaac Paredes with the Rays recently. Adding even one of those players would surely require significant capital in terms of prospects and young players, though it’s worth noting that the Rays appear to be on the hunt for controllable starting pitching, which the Mariners have an excess of. Speculatively speaking, swinging a deal for Paredes and/or Arozarena would allow Seattle to shore up its lineup without breaking the bank, allowing the club to pursue contact-oriented bats like Lourdes Gurriel Jr. or Whit Merrifield in free agency.
Jerry needs to go.
There needs to be a big splash this off-season… Or else mutiny.
To be fair, outside of April and half of May this year, Kelenic has never performed well in the majors. I think people are overvaluing him on here simply because he was a consensus top 5 prospect several years ago
We’ve already had big splashes . Getting rid of dead weight and getting younger.
Brash, and ace Castillo (geno suarez best friend) are next.
Ace Luis Castillo, Dylan Moore, Taylor trammell and cash to Baltimore for Basillo, Mayo, Santander
Brash, woo , clase , gabriel Gonzales to Tampa for Arozerena and the young 3B
Crawford available after a career year as well but not sure who needs a great defensive shortstop, who is signed for cheap, with 20 bombs and .380 obp
Rays won’t want Clase and Gonzales. Mix it up with Celesten and the Pick (and throw in Hancock for S&G).
Pulled trade off the table
To be fair, you don’t decide not to make trades at the deadline to get better because the cost is too high, only to trade valuable assets (Kelenic) to perform salary dumps. In a vacuum, I’m okay trading Kelenic, but as part of an ongoing organizational process, we just shipped Suarez, Kelenic, Gonzales, White, released Ford, and missed on offering a Q.O. to Teo, so we could get back a bunch of trash and one good prospect so far in Cole Phillips, albeit one coming off TJ surgery, who won’t make his pro debut until almost two years after he was drafted.
Kowar is a guy who hasn’t had a walk-rate below 3.79/9 since before the pandemic, Vargas is actually worst than Kowar in that he hasn’t had a walk-rate below 4.44/9 since before the pandemic. Where to begin with Seby Zavala, he’s garbage and he’s exactly the same as the guys they’ve been jettisoning this offseason, high strikeouts, bad contact, good defense, and lots of power (sounds like Kelenic, Geno, White, and Teoscar, though less good on defense for Teo).
We should be running a payroll of close to 225-230M/annually, instead we’ve just dumped $31M in 2024 salary by taking nothing good in return for Suarez, and trading Kelenic to facilitate the Braves trade. This is horrible process. The correct move should’ve been to trade bad contract for bad contract, like Gonzales and Suarez to Toronto for Jose Berrios, as an example. Same annual cost, but a more useful piece for the Mariners, and the Blue Jays cut short their payroll obligations by a couple years.
You may be critical of Kelenic, but he’s going to cost nothing ( less than $1M) in 2024, then probably $3M, $5M, $8M, $11M, over the final four years of his arbitrations years as a Super-2 player, which is $28M for 5 years. He literally had exactly the same year as Matt Chapman, who people are predicting to get $150M over 6 years. So let’s knock off a year to make it apples-to-apples and see why Kelenic has value.
That’s $125M over 5 years for a 31-35 year old 3B, who will get worse defensively (defense always erodes over time), worse offensively (leaving his prime years), and slower on the bases (speed goes away significantly at 31-32 years old. This means, he’s going to regress heavily and he just put up a 110 wRC+ in a much more hitter friendly home field and division. I know wRC+ accounts for most of that, but even then I am not sure if we have really nailed the algorithm completely, it’s better than nothing, but not perfect.
So, to summarize, not young player, getting older, getting worse, makes $125M over the same 5 years Kelenic will make $28M as an equally talented defensively corner outfielder. Kelenic’s defense now is equivalent to current Chapman defense, not Matt’s prior levels, but Kelenic does pass the eye test in the field. Now here is the difference, Kelenic’s strikeouts are going to go down from 31% over the next five seasons, he will be playing in his prime years, and he’s going to get better not worse.
So even if you give a little nod to Chapman on his defense, you are talking about a guy who is a 3 fWAR player going forward, who also due to free agency will make his signing team add a 6th year, that the Braves do not have to do for Kelenic. Remember Chapman and Kelenic had the same big April and horrible next 5 months, so there is literally no difference between the two other than one is peaking and one is due to crater. So would you rather pay Kelenic $28M for 15 fWAR over the next 5 years or $150M for 18fWAR to Chapman over the next 6 years?!
How much value does that look like to you?!
Go away, we’re not trading Brash anywhere, he has two more years of pre-arb salary. Castillo also isn’t going anywhere, so squash that. We signed Castillo to an extension prior to Suarez being acquired. One has nothing to do with the other!
LOL. You should recognize me from BTV. I use the same ID Name on both. It’s funny how you call me out for my stupid comments on BTV, when all I do is suggest why trades work or don’t work for the Rays. I guess you’re one of the people I’ve offended by not loving a bad trade proposal for the Rays. Sorry buddy.
@alt2tab The thing about Kelenic is that his strikeouts have gotten worse and worse. He had a 33.8% whiff rate last year compared to around 27% in his rookie year. He’s 24, and will turn 25 around mid-season, has had one good month in three MLB seasons, and has played more than 100 MLB games once thus far. I’m not saying that he’s a bust yet, but I’d be very worried with the way his swing and miss is trending.
Wait for mariners to carry two veteran pitchers 50 million between them sitting out for Tommy John. Ray and Castillo. That’s a payroll killer
Castillo needs to be on a team that’sa guarantee to be in the playoffs that runs a higher payroll. Not a team on the cusp.Too much risk especially at mid payroll.
pringles fingers(aka brash) is nasty. He’s a top relief pitcher . But mariners can find relief help. If you have to amazing value in Pringles now and someone like the cardinals or rays or orioles want to give up a top young position player you make that trade. Im talking Gorman, Arozerena, Holliday etc. Matt brash is awesome but his value is immense and could get a real game changer.
All that said, I really love the pitcher and could be talked out of it. Maybe a little mouth vomit on this one
Tired of these Seahawks and mariners being one foot in and one for out
@ we aren’t angels, hahahahahhahaha Suarez and Gonzalez for Berrios.
Huh, Nobody wants Chapman. He’s basically Geno Suarez at a stupid cost. Everyone’s on same page here.
How did you feel about Marco and Evan White?
What was gonna happen if Jarred kelenic started on another slump? Maybe it lasts a month .. maybe it last all year.. what’s the likelihood? Can’t send him down he’s out of options.
Would you run him out again after a bad 2024? Cut him, continue to play him because he’s cheap? Did we continue to play Ackley because he was cheap?
@Thank God
Take a deep breath. Its going to be all right.
Kelenic has been an average OF. Comparing his best year to an elite defensive 3B who just went thru a bad season is not a fair comparison. There is a shortage of FA infielders. Seattle has moved players they did not value for some they do.
Doesn’t Candelario make more sense?
Cheaper and doesn’t have draft pick compensation. He also doesn’t have K issues like Chappy. Seems to be a better fit w/ the M’s stated goals of getting players who make more contact.
It’s the O’s, bro. Definitely not going to get Mayo AND Basallo paired with Santander. No way they do that. Too much money for Castillo for them, too.
@LDilbert — The Orioles would want to trade for Luis Castillo, but have Zero need or want of Dylan Moore or Taylor Trammell. Baltimore is looking for arms, and have too many bats. Any bats going back to Baltimore is probably a non-starter.
As for the package of Orioles end of the package, Mayo maybe, Basillio not at all, and Santander yeah sure…but 1 year rental doesn’t seem that valuable to the Ms, idk
Luis Castillo doesn’t have the surplus value of Gilbert or Kirby. The package won’t be very heavy for him because the Orioles are assuming his contract. You’d get Santander and a good prospect.
Clearly, there’s no mystery you’re a Blue Jays homer. Did you see his 2022?! You want to bet on him for 5 more years at $100M, go ahead, genius!
You need someone who is Teflon in the 9th and that’s Brash, he’s the only untouchable guy down there. I’d probably consider moving Munoz for a bat, but that’s because he’s had TJ surgery, then had some arm stuff again this past spring, and well he’ll net the biggest return because of his cheap contract. The better play is to just trade all of our middle relievers for middle infielders and left-hand hitting outfielders, so we can corner the market and then create a false scarcity that we can exploit!
You do realize he’s entering his age 24 season and players peak at 26, right?! That means we’re literally giving away his 5 best seasons of his career to save $30M dollars…. Nope, that’s right we were stupid enough to give money in a salary dump!
Comparing a guy who had a 110 wRC+ vs a guy who had a 106 wRC+ and both who were the two best hitters in the AL after the first month, while one’s positional value matters nothing unless they are elite, and Chapman isn’t elite. Chapman was the 51st best qualifying 3rd baseman, Kelenic can play CF, Chapman can’t, so only one of the two is an up the middle player and it’s not the one you overvalue.
Kelenic doesn’t play CF because his teammate is the best overall CF in baseball currently. And don’t say Trout, because with all his injuries, he sounds like the Khia song “My neck, My back…” whenever he gets on the field. Jarred was the 71st best qualified hitting outfielder in baseball, and keep in mind that’s across all three positions.
As a LF, he was top 30, even actually producing a higher wRC+ (124) when playing there specifically, making him as high as the 12th best LF in baseball, if you adjust his wRC+ to only include his numbers while in that position. My apologies for going overboard and comparing Chapman to Kelenic, it was a bad comparison because after review, Jarred is more valuable in almost every way. His offense was actually more valuable when considering his position, despite the belief that LF outhit 3B.
Why would the Jays trade Berrios? He’s coming off a very solid 2023 and is still just 29 years old. I wouldn’t call it a bad contract.
Yeah im sure you’re right. I love the o’s too minor league talent like everyone else. I like the build they are all big 6’3 and up with leverage. Mariners seem to be full of mid sized prospects which I’m tired of watching flounder in T-Mobile.
Bigger athletic guys with more pop interest me similar to cal Raleigh, Julio, Nelson Cruz..
I’d have to think Castillo and maybe Hancock would come close to Basillo and Mayo.
-Gilbert could probably net them both by himself , not sure I could part with Gilbert or Kirby. Gilbert I’d consider next offseason … maybe ,he might get even better like a Randy Johnson. He’s just filling out adding muscle to his 6’6 frame.
– Kirby I’d like run his contract out atleast until it’s final year he’s young sherzer/ verlander.
I’ve watched the Mariners/ Seahawks hang onto the glory years of to many stars and then suffer through their aging years. We seem to get to attached yet they don’t run a payroll high enough to justify large contracts for aging expensive veterans
And give me the size that strike fear in guys. I’m tired of these small 5’ 10 dudes looking like little league clubs next to the Yankees and Rangers and Astros. Jordan has his banger in Oakley , Julio needs his banger
Who are you talking to Angel? I haven’t seen any blue jays comments.
Speaking of blue jays what happened to Geoff baker when he used to rag of the jays and mariners gm incompetence. AA really turned out as a great gm for the braves.
Maybe it’s just like having a house in a great housing market and falling into equity
The trade is Gilbert, Raleigh, Miller, and Locklear for Rutschman, Bradish, and Wells. Rutschman is one year older, same amount of control as Raleigh, but Cal (how fitting for him to be an Oriole) crushes TOR and BOS, while struggling against the AL West. Yet Raleigh has been worth 8.9 fWAR to Adley’s 10.5 fWAR, both since the beginning of 2022.
The Orioles get 4 years of Gilbert who is a year younger than Bradish, but who comes with 5 years of control. It helps the Mariners keep their payroll down until they can unload Robbie Ray next offseason. Miller for Wells gives the Orioles a solid #3 starter, while Wells gives the Mariners a long reliever who can fill in the #5 spot in their rotation until Ray is healthy after the All-Star break, and can be optioned to the minors still.
Locklear becomes a 1B option because Mayo will end up being a busted prospect most likely. Call it intuition, I’m not a fan of what I’ve seen. He’s tools over talent and they rarely workout. O’Hearn and/or Mountcastle might net a decent return for someone looking for a 1B, and Locklear becomes the long-term solution starting sometime in 2024 or 2025.
The Orioles still get an elite catcher, while getting two arms to fill out their rotation. The Mariners get a guy who doesn’t care about money, which is perfect for Stanton, he’s also a PNW guy who grew up a Mariners fan, making Rutschman a strong extension candidate.
Bradish career vs the Astros has only given up a .232 OPS career over 77 PAs, while he’s been “more hittable” for the Rangers who have combined for a .465 OPS vs Bradish. Those are OPS numbers, not batting averages! It actually helps the Orioles by him playing in the AL West, where he can take 2-3 games a year from the Texas teams each, making it more likely an AL East team gets an extra Wild Card spot instead of one of them.
My problem with Kelnic was that he reminded me a bit too much of Dustin Ackley (hype hype hype).. In fact, in his attempt to be more calm in the face of adversity, Kelnic was pretty damn close to Ackley this last season in that regard. I don’t remember Ackley ever throwing a tantrum though…
That’s because Ackley didn’t give a crap. Kelenic is the ultimate competitor, and the only reason he struggled is because his agent kept telling him he was ready, when he should’ve been listening to the organization. The reason Ackley failed is because he was never that good. Bad arm, no position, minimal power, yet everyone kept putting stupid Chase Utley comps on him! Ridiculous.
Baker covers hockey now, his real passion.
Are you talking about the 3.65 ERA supported with a 3.99 FIP in 2023 or the 5.23 ERA backed by a 455 FIP the year before in 2022? Because both of those performances were fairly pedestrian for a guy owed $104.6M over the next 5 seasons.
Marco Gonzales, the guy we just gave Kelenic away for, so we didn’t have to pay him, just had a 4.28 FIP over his 10 starts in 2023 by comparison. So you tell me if $21M x 5 years is too much for a guy who has approximately produced like Gonzales who was a salary dump at $12M x 1 year!
Ideally, we get Candelario, Bellinger, and Snell in free agency, if Ohtani becomes an option, then you trade Urias, France, and Gilbert to clear some salary, which would open up about $17M, while allowing us to bring in another piece at pre-arb salary cost, like a Kelenic! Too bad we didn’t already have one on the roster! If Ohtani is off the table, you probably give France a chance to prove himself.
If you trade Gilbert you’re looking for a Tatis level return. There’d obviously be multiple pieces being sent for Tatis, while Reynolds would be a 1-for-1 to acquire in exchance for Woo or Miller, while my preference would be to get Hayes as well to cover 3B by including Cole Young. If we can get Candelario. Essentially trading for Hayes or someone like him, along with a couple of Beliinger, Ohtani, or Jeimer, would make France expendable.
Well, there may be a big splash because of mutiny, and it;ll be the one made by the fat lady singing in regards to Jerry’s time in Seattle, if he doesn’t bring us an AL Pennant this coming season.
You really just lost all credibility w/ suggesting Rutschman. He is the leader of the team and handles the pitching staff. Maybe in fantasy baseball he’d be available. He’s going nowhere for the O’s.
Teams don’t swap young AS starting catchers in real life because there’s a lot more to it than their batting stats.
@ Thank_God. You’ve lost your marbles sir. Addley Rutchsman, Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Bradish, Jackson Holiday, and Grayson Rodriguez are not being traded. That’s the core being built around. Seriously missed on that idea. There are plenty of players the Orioles will trade…Addley is a never gonna be traded guy.
And Cal is the leader of the Mariners. but if you prevent yourself from getting better because of loyalty to a name on the back of the jersey, than you’ll always be undermining your efforts. You think the Mariners fans aren’t attached to Logan Gilbert?! But you do what makes the team better. Forget your bias and the stupid leader thing, which he’s not by the way.
You’re conflating talent and leadership. Mullins is the leader, Henderson is the leader, or maybe Mountcastle is the leader. If anything the downside to getting Rutschman for Raleigh is that Cal is a true leader and Adley isn’t. And when it comes to the pitching staff, they’ll have all spring to get on the same page and Raleigh is better at defense than Rutschman, whether you want to compare throwing, blocking, or framing.
Cal wasn’t the GG winner, but he should’ve been a finalist alongside Heim and could’ve rightfully won it, as he was worth almost twice as much as Rutschman in 2023 defensively. This also doesn’t even focus on the fact that the Orioles need more power, and the Mariners need more contact. So this helps both teams immeasurably.
Plus, Adley would rather be in the PNW, given the choice, so why would you fight so hard to keep someone there when you are getting an equally talented catcher with the same control, who is actually from the east coast and might actually want to sign an extension with the Orioles, rather than waiting two more years before Baltimore has to trade Adley for potentially far less.
I’m assuming this a joke, except you put too much effort into it..
I like ol’ Dillbert the pitcher and the dumper
Both entered mlb a little older , im fine with trading them deeper in their arbitration years. Or riding them out if we’re in contention as they’ll both be 31 right at free agency? I wouldn’t plan to resign either so whatever benefits the club.
I’d love to trade less. But if we’re gonna do it get rid of the elders getting paid to much or sell high obviously.
You really can only let T-Mobile beat a guy so much. I sure as heck hope kelenic flourishes with the braves
Baker.. that smug puke.lol I can’t imagine how many articles I’ve read from that old mariners beat writer. Haha poor guy Drew the short end of the stick following the M’s.
“We might have mind power, but the mariners have brain power. And the brain controls the mind
And I release You!”
@ Thank_God — Addley isn’t a leader? You really are far off the mark. I dunno about the Mariners…but I do know, that you know nothing about the Orioles…or, shockingly, about Addley.
How’s this — Colton Cowser for J-Rod and Logan Gilbert. Yeah…your proposal is that type of silly. Check your tinted glasses.
You’re joking right? There is absolutely zero chance they would ever trade Castillo
He’s just a troll. Proposing lopsided trades that make zero sense. And for the guy that mentioned Celestan…must be on some good drugs.
Lmao
That’s really just it. Enjoy Fantasy baseball in 2024
Really great trade for AA. We were looking for a left fielder, but honestly I think he made the trade because of the value you mention. If he sticks with the braves and he bats 8th or 9th in the lineup (most likely having Acuna or Harris batting behind him) with little to no pressure outside of playing as close to GG defense as possible his value will probably exceed expectations. If they decide to trade him, he has a tone of value given the cost and potential, particularly if you pair him with someone like Smith-Shawver or to offset a salary dump.
I said nothing about Soto, ma’am.
Good, he sucks. He’s slow, bad defensively, and greedy. He’s not even in his prime and he’s close to as slow as Ty France. But gosh, I wish we could give up a couple good pieces and pay $33M for a guy who swings the bat 4 times a game, can’t run the bases well, and who’ll cost you about 15 runs a year in the outfield.
I never liked Jerry. He absolutely obliterated the Angels farm system.
Agreed
M’s farm strong
MLB pipeline has the Mariners farm system ranked 19th. They’ve graduated or traded their top prospects and now their system is a couple years away from producing meaningful pieces.
“Obliterated the Angels farm system”…So what’s your excuse for the Angels continuing to have one of the 3 or 4 worst Farms in MLB, almost a decade after Dipoto is long gone?
They never really rebuilt it. Doesn’t change the fact that he destroyed it.
The Angels never have a chance to climb up prospect rankings with how they promote prospects. They dealt Quero at the deadline & If Neto & Schanuel were in the minors—it’s be closer to middle of the pack.
And killed us in the Latin market with horrible signings.
Baldoquin over vladdy jr, and supposedly he wanted to sign with angels.
I don’t buy this, as Vlad Jr. was born in Canada and it’s his alternate nationality aside from being Dominican. He has a deep connection with Canadians or Canadiens or Canucks, or whatever. He’s much less connected to a team than a country. Sniff test, failed.
That’s what Guerrero senior said but they didn’t have any international money to make a offer. Yes he lived Canada, also La as well. Dont care if you don’t believe it.
He isn’t the problem, but he is the problem.
Let me s’plain… No there is too much, let me sum up!
Dipoto wasn’t the problem in Los Angeles, it was Artie Moreno pushing his agenda and deciding who they were going to get, even if the end result was deadweight on the payroll and albatross contracts blocking the path of young players and acquisitions like icebergs in the path of the USS Titanic.
Now, it’s the reverse, Dipoto went from an owner who wanted one of everything and had no frugality to his spending to a guy who is Ebenezer Stanton and unwilling to keep his workers warm with an extra piece of coal.
Both are situations that have nothing to do with Dipoto. However, the fact that he’s a spineless boot licker, too weak to remind his current owner what suite he can go watch the game from, while Jerry does the job they pay him to do, makes it his fault that he continues to be weak.
Why? He dumped a strike out declining Geno on AZ. He somehow got a pro team to trade for White who hasn’t played in 3 years. JK who has had 3 good months as a pro. Marco who only throws BP now. Seems like he is shedding dead weight on the team.
Exactly, these people need to wait to see the full picture. What’s the point in judging and offseason on December 3rd?
Big picture? You mean like when they signed Wong, Pollack, la Stella, Moran, Ford, etc and expect to compete?
Well, Ford did his job and more. The Wong and Pollack moves didn’t really foretell such awful collapses from them: they were defensible moves at the time.La Stella was barrel-scraping, to be sure.
They’re going to run after someone: this is exactly like when Ohtani got posted.
I thought the Kolten Wong acquisition was the perfect fit for the Mariners. Unfortunately, no one could predict Wong’s complete collapse.
I’ve heard this a lot… “no one could’ve predicted…” LOTS of people did predict this exact thing. It was all over the message boards for M’s chatter and it was a big discussion within my group of friends. It was a band-aid move at best. It didn’t solve 2nd base long-term, and it was hopeful that a past-prime 2nd baseman could switch leagues and reproduce a career year that would’ve actually helped the club. Many said it was another Adam Frazier move, just a different name.
When he fell flat on his face, people started saying “no one could’ve predicted”. So not true.
It’s not what he lost, it’s how he lost it, and what he got in return.
It’s like I tell my kids; it’s okay to lose, it’s even a good thing because it keeps you hungry, humble, and honest with yourself, The Triple H, not the wrestler, just the acronym. However, in these moments what we are learning about Jerry is that he’s either empowering a simp who shouldn’t be GM (Hollander) or he’s personally undermining the point of developing talent, when he gives it away for nothing.. Especially when that was the reason they didn’t go for anyone at the deadline. He’s too scared to fail, so now he’s failing for fear of failing and it’s going to push the fanbase away, especially while the Seahawks, Sounders, and Kraken are still fighting for viewers!
Stanton calls the shots.
It’s overreaction season my guy.
M’s totally won this trade
Really? What if the Braves include Kelenic in a deal to San Diego as part of a package for Soto?
Braves can do whatever they want with kelenic! We don’t want one and done Soto and his bad defense and we don’t want kelenic(really hope he does well in Atlanta)
Kelenic is was painful to watch in Seattle in 3 years. Late jumps on defense, pulls hammys, over reacts on every strike, he’s a good vibes killer. We can only have one of those and that’s JERrY FN DipOTo.
They can have him!
If they do, he will be piece #5 at best. Definitely not the headliner. Replaceable should he fail the physical with no risk of the trade not being completed.
Nope
lol okay bud, kelenic under club control till 28 before a FA, and we get 5th starter and white for 20 million just this year and we dump gonz next year and white the next year after that. Then that salary dump is gone after just 2 years and we get 4 years of Kelenic at arb rates absolute fleece job and cherry on top we get cash back lmao.
my b we get 5 years of control not 4 haha
Yep
I doubt White or Marco play.
I am guessing it’s basically 30 mill for Kelenic minus whatever cash back they gave.
Which means as it stands you pay around 6 m/ a year for Kelenic. Which could be a steal or could be an overpay, as a Mariners fan who was really high on Kelenic and is disappointed he is gone, it really could go either way
But five years of control of what? Just like Seattle, he still has no options and can’t be sent down. He’s strikeout prone and not a great fielder. Will he be able to replace Rosario’s numbers? No one knows.
he played in 105 games with 108 WRC+ vs Eddie’s 122 and 100 WRC+ and according to Fangraphs he has an option left. Either way he’s a LH LF who’s cheap and is only expected to bat 7th or 8th in their lineup with 5 years of control.
For gods sake don’t spend it on bellinger
The owners need to go. John Stanton is a cheap puke.
Don’t you guys get it? Jerry’s dumping salary not so that he can sign a big bat. It’s to lock up current players on long-term contracts. Next move will be to extend Dumper, Gilbert, and Kirby past their arbitration years. Then all he’ll tell us is, “We DID spend money, see?”
I REALLLLY hope Divish can get comments from Dumper, JP, France and others on this trade
I’ll take that bet.
I wouldn’t anticipate any extensions for the players you mentioned.
This is almost certainly a precursor to another deal. Whether or not significant salary is involved remains to be seen.
Larry Bernandez 1324IM
Jerry needs to go.
==========================
I take it from your response that you think Seattle is better off with Kelenic, White & Gonzalez?
As much as I like rolling the dice, those three are guys I would NOT be betting on.
If the Mariners just acquired these same 3 players for 2 RPs, some M’s fans would be shouting the genius of Jerry!! Dipoto fanboys are certainly a thing.
I guess you didn’t realize that T-Mobile Park has become more like Castle Frankenstein as described by Mary Shelley, with all the locals carrying pitchforks, rather than Far Far Away Castle with Smash Mouth’s All-Star playing in the background. Though Dipoto is feeling more and more like Lord Farquaad with each passing day.
I don’t pay much attention to the Mariner fans, so maybe you’re right. But I find it hard to believe that any of them are really coveting the three players they just moved.
Marco was a fan favorite, Evan White won a GG before injuries undermined his career progress. They were all signs of improvement for the team. Marco represented the way Dipoto could build through creative trades, White was one of his initial first round picks to make it to the majors, and Kelenic was there to represent the impending beginning to a series of winning and successful campaigns across multiple seasons, both in terms of developing young players, and delivering pennants.
Now the guy who was supposedly the key part of the offseason that saw us tear down the whole team and sell off another fan favorite in Edwin Diaz, has been sold off for $25M in salary relief. Still we’re waiting for that championship Jerry said Kelenic was going to bring. Jarred was the embodiment of all our hopes as Mariner fans that we could finally build a sustainable winning team. His being traded feels a little like the first time you see your parents putting gifts from Santa under the tree as a child.
Jerry blows up the team, it seems he’s going to strengthen his trading position by adding on pitching. This method not surprising, this also being a salary dump helps in more then one. This interest in the Ray’s players lines up with this move and still keeps the payroll down if this can be achieved. If not other opportunities should come along.
I agree with you on that this move feels like it was done in order to make/finalize a deal with the Rays for Randy and Issac. As someone who lives in FL and watches a good amount of Ray’s games, RA and IP would be major upgrades to the M’s lineup. Arozarena is one of the most exciting player’s to watch play in the MLB. Adding him to a lineup/OF with Julio makes the M’s a must watch team. And they’d also be getting a guy in Paredes who I think had one of the most underrated/under appreciated season’s in MLB last year, he carried that Ray’s line up thru a majority of the 2nd half of last season. I think he’s going to be a 25+HR a year guy. Basically a younger, cheaper version of Suarez but much fewer K’s and higher Avg and OBP
Evan White and Marco Gonzalez looked like they were going to be star players in 2020. Good luck to the Braves.
The Ms are reducing strikeouts so moving Jarred Kelenic was expected. If he played full time, he would k 200+.
Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez will be the only strike out prone hitters remaining. Jerry Dipoto is not finished. The Ms will have a good team by spring.
Braves fleeced the Mariners on this one
They’re getting rid of Gonzales and White’s contract $.
Yayyyy, lower payroll!!! Wooo that’s what I cheer for woooooo!!!
You should cheer for lower payroll if it’s used to add more players?? No idea how your comment got so many likes, its basic business?
You don’t need to cheer for a lower payroll what you should be asking what is their payroll and form an opinion on the moves based on what the payroll is. Suggesting moves that require the team to spend more than any other team in the league isn’t realistic.
Because the payroll space hasn’t been used to sign anyone yet, what point are you trying to make?
Ok to trade those guys but why more unproven pitching. We need hitters. HITTERS…
The M’s have some history of shaving payroll and not reinvesting it into the team. Although I think that’s not going to be the case here, we have a pretty cheap owner who seems to love just proofit taking and not trying to win.
I believe this further supports the rumors about Ohtani going to the Mariners. They are clearing salary to make room for a big move.
Ask not what the M’s payroll can do, but what YOU can do for the M’s payroll!!!
You should cheer for lower payroll if it’s used to add more players??
========================
Anyone could be right or wrong on any given move, but I am shocked by how many Seattle fans like Kelenic, Gonzalez and White.
Dipoto liked them enough to give them extensions. Is he as bad at evaluating talent as we are?
I think it’s more of punting on Kelenic and watering down the return with the 2 bad deals.
If they have these dollars earmarked somewhere else—then sure. This could be fine. If it was just Kelenic + a straight cash dump—that really only helps the bottom line. They need to plug up multiple holes on offense.
Even if it’s fair its gotta be depressing as a Mariners fan.
I am glad to see Marco gone, but now the Mariners are needing two outfielders, they got worse. I wonder if something is up? I hope they are not going for Juan Soto.
I hope the Mariners are going for a Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson for Bryan Woo trade.
As a Cardinal fan that sounds good to me but the Cardinals already signed 3 starters.
I can assure you that both ONeill and Carlson are available. But I don’t know if a deal makes sense as of right now.
that would be funny. we acquired O’Neil from the Mariners, and then he goes back there a few years later.
@ProudVeteran Thank you for your service. I hope your team makes some good moves this week.
I still think trading carlson would be dumb
Carlson has talent but it’s a rather low ceiling and he’s been hurt lately. ONeill far more talent but he gets in his own way a bit and only a year of control left for him.
No, the Cards signed 2 SP, and Lynn to serve up BP.
Can getting ride of white didn’t do ANYTHING since got that multi year contract while still in AA …Kelenic im disappointed in trading him ( been trying for his autograph for 3 yrs while in Seattle) marco and white I can understand Gonzalez replaceable by one of the kids and White was a bust
Kelenics stock just went through the roof too
2 extensions signed by Jerry. So you’re saying we had to trade actual mlb talent to rid ourselves of Dipoto’s previous mistakes. Awesome, give that man more power!
You have to look at the corresponding move. There’s a process with mad Jerry.
That helps Stanton, not the Mariners.
love love love this deal A++
Why? You got three busts of players.
Kelenic in our 9/8 hole with a short porch in right where he will get tons of fastballs in our lineup, lol he is gonna rake
We are getting cash too, is AA the best Canadian ever born?
Bret Hitman Hart would disagree
bro GOATED reply, respect
Sadly, yes, yes he will.
Sorry. Terry Fox then John Candy. At best he’s third.
Sure. Kelenic won’t rake. He’s an immature kid who doesn’t take advice very well. This trade is a big nothing for the Braves.
No, that would be LArry Walker.
Joey Votto in the discussion.
He had a shorter porch in right in Seattle genius. Good luck lmao
So what team will claim him, when the Braves have to waive him, since he has no options.
You have to make contact to be able to rake. I think your going off his previous minor league over ranking as opposed to seeing him actually flail in the majors in almost 1000 abs.
its actually 1 ft shorter in Atlanta haha
A trade full of negative wars.
2023: Kelenic: 2 bWAR (missing 57 games partially due to a self-inflicted injury: kicking water cooler). Already he’s an upgrade to last year’s Rosario.
Its the same type of trade Kelenic was in going to Seattle: he’s the bait to absorb Marco and Evan’s contract.
M’s trimming the payroll and cutting down on players with high K/O rates. I use to think a move like this signaled Dipoto will be going after 1-2 decent players but this Seattle owner is holding him back. Who knows now!?
Unless Cole Phillips has TOR potential, I really don’t understand this deal for Seattle. Phillips will not factor into Seatlle’s 2024 MLB roster at all; 2026 is probably the earliest he could see some action and that will take some dominant minor league pitching in 2024-2025 to do so. Kowar is a complete disaster on the mound and can’t be counted on in any role.
On the other hand, Kelenic looked like he finally put something together last year and he should improve just by being in the Atlanta offense. Gonzales struggled last year but he was hurt and only made 10 starts. He could easily be a serviceable #5 starter for Atlanta as he’ll get a ton of run support from their offense. He’s certainly much better than Kowar. Depending on how much cash Seattle is sending to Atlanta, the Braves just might cut Evan White and eat the remaining salary on his deal.
Does Evan White have an minor league options. There’s no AAA 1B depth, so if nothing else, he can camp out there and provide emergency support and just work on staying on the field.
This trade will make sense in a couple of days. The other shoe – a big big shoeh – is still to drop.
Marco Gonzales is not better than Kowar
Wait until you watch JK…then you’ll understand. So much talent but just can’t get out of his own way. Marco served no role for us and Evan White…. sorry about Evan White. JK is the best out of this deal by far and even that’s a stretch.
I hope he turns it around though in a new league and less attention.
Mariners won this one easily. They just dumped their trash. Very expensive trash. Whatever Atlanta does with this trash doesn’t matter. I can see a scenario where Gonzales earns his 12m and Kelenic is a above average everyday outfielder. And good. Nothing wrong with both teams winning.
Good take, thanks.
If the Mariners pocket the money saved the only one who wins is ownership. Definitely not the fans.
wat
Go braves go glad you took a future stud for Seattle.
If they had even the slightest reasonable chance of developing him into a stud they wouldn’t have traded him.
Is that what you said about Edwin Diaz too?
All about the dollars yeah?
This is interesting. Kelenic can haunt the Mets along with d’Arnaud.
Kelenic is now a lock for 30 homers and an .850+ OPS.
And a ten year contract with 7 million annually. The Anthopolous magic I guess
Exactly. Dude is 24; most guys his age are still in the minors. Entering his prime in Atlanta, he’s a Met-killer waiting to happen.
Absolute robbery by the Braves. That Mariner’s return is terrible
Because it was a salary dump. Pretty upsetting for M’s fans if there isn’t something that they were clearing out $$$ for on the horizon.
I agree
Seattle easily won this trade. Not that the Braves can’t also win.
The Braves return isn’t great either.
Has to be salary related, right?
100%. White and Marco made around an $18M combined AAV.
Yeah, and White is owed another 8m (I think) next year.
Definitely a salary dump and perhaps this means Canzone will get a corner or the DH gig.
I hope not, but probably lol
“Has to be salary related”….Personally, I don’t believe it’s strictly salary related since the M’s aren’t particularly cash strapped. I believe it’s more shedding dead weight and getting ready to take on one or 2 bigger contracts. Remember, the M’s aren’t the Tampa Rays/Cleveland Guardians and own a very lucrative “Root Sports” broadcast empire.
It’s true, but Stanton hasn’t shown a desire to push payroll too high and is clearly content with merely a competitive team to draw fans and ratings. If we trip into a World Series, he’ll obviously be happy, but it seems more so because he’s a businessman and profits come with that than because he’s a fan of the team he owns.
It’s 28 million off the books (well, minus whatever cash Seattle sends to Atlanta). That’s significant.
Maybe now they’ll scrap the 30+% ticket hike for 2024?
Kidding
#1 performance. #2 salary
Wow, that Mariners just got robbed.
No they won
this is a trade where both teams win
I think Kelnic Gonzales or White have to improve significantly for the Braves to win. Seattle already won.
Well, that’s a bummer.
Yikes. All the Braves had to do was take on whites contract to get it done. Terrific move for the bravos.
Gonzales and White, but yea its not even that much in the grand scheme of things.
And give up a 2nd round pick.
Whoa! This sure came out of left field.
Actually, Kelenic is going into left field
So I’ve heard! I was trying to be punny, haha
That’s the best the Mariners could get for that trip?
What ?!?!
Evan White huh? Hmm.
Come again?
Moving on from Kelenic isn’t surprising.
But the return…
“Moving on from Kelenic”..I was pretty frustrated, fed up and done with Kelenic when he injured himself hitting or kicking something. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dipoto and the Mariners felt the same.
Plus the Ks, plus the ____ in church remark..
I never liked him. I hated that cocky arrogance from day one.
I had hoped he would be traded, but I thought they might keep him simply because he’s pre-arb.
I’ll admit that I never warmed to Kelenic. He acted like he deserved respect instead of earning it. I chalked it up to his age and top prospect label and hope that he’ll get better.
That being said, I still think it’s a stupid baseball move to dump 5 years of him for a little bit of money.
Well, for a tightwad team, it’s 28 million they can…
Yeah.
@Stevil what was the “church” comment? I must have missed that.
Right on, Stevil. I was hoping they would trade him, but that there would be a better return. My theory is that the guy is not very coachable, has trouble controlling his temper, and can be a very good player if he can get outside his head and relax.. Maybe the Braves will have some luck with him.
Was found the weirdo
If he plays like he has been, it won’t be five years because he can’t be sent down without going thru waivers.
It didn’t offend me, JM88. It told me he has no class nor an idea how to act like a professional, and he hadn’t earned the right to talk trash. Still hasn’t.
Go ‘f’ yourself.
@Mekias0 A little bit? The money they have just dumped in the entire offseason is enough to get a star player.. In my eyes this is a win trade for both sides. Unless the mariners are being cheapskates again and will go ahead and sign garbage players using the freed up money space
So, on his way out he thanked the fans, his teammates, the Braves organization…
He snubbed Seattle.
I have my issues with the organization as well, but this kind of petty, childish behavior is just further proof that he doesn’t have the maturity or professionalism needed for MLB success and that Seattle was right to move on.
I hope he gets it together and does have success, but good riddance.
Return is fantastic
Fantastic is a reach.
Expensive trash for 2 young pitchers is fantastic.
Honestly JK wasn’t in the plan for us forward. Strikes out too much and isn’t clutch. He plays with all emotion which is great if you can focus. He can’t right now.
For those not familiar with my commenting, if you respond with trash talk and/or offer no substance, you get an instant mute and you’re dead to me.
For eveyone respectful, have a great day!
Jerry clearing salary for something big…just when there’s a $500M+ man on the market
I believe they would have cleared salary even if they didn’t do anything with it.
Alex Anthopoulos is a Jedi doing them mind tricks
Alex yes is a Jedi … he just helped keep Shohei away from the Mets…
Did the Mariners give away Kelenic just to get out of the Gonzales and White contract?
Good gosh Mariners. Pathetic.
Kelenic isn’t good dude
He was the starting left fielder on a team that missed the playoffs by 1 game in 2023. And missed winning the division by a game and getting a first round bye too IIRC.
I don’t know what the Mariners are doing.
Imagine if they had had a better left fielder.
And? Eddie Rosario was the starting LF for the Braves. Is he good too?
They’re clearing payroll for more impactful players? Pretty obvious
You would think that’s obvious… but this team hasn’t signed a single position player to a multi-year deal since Dipoto has been here. There’s no reason to believe they are about to start doing that now. No faith.
Knee-jerk reaction from the masses about to be flipped on their heads when Jerry unveils the big gun he’s signing tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest… All quiet on pacific western front.
Kelenic hasn’t done much for them. Dumping some salary is just a bonus.
It’s not about what he did for them. It’s about what he could potentially do for his new organization.
Seattle doesn’t care too much what he does for his new team. Probably not evil and rooting for him to fail. Maybe wishing he isn’t a all star every year.
Braves will flip White somewhere else ..
Doubtful. If he has any value the Mariners would have sold him off ages ago.
Since their backups rarely play anyway, they will probably let him sit on the big league bench. Olson plays every day, maybe White can be a once a month PH or something.
Nobody wants him
flip him to Gwinnett
AA can do it
Yeah… it’s time for the team to be sold. This penny pinching is getting a little out of hand.
Maybe wait for the offseason to be over?? Fans are so impatient
Mariners dumping salary to sign the ghost of Tommy LaStella and a 3rd string catcher. If this isn’t salary clearing for a purpose then Stanton needs to be ran out of town tomorrow morning.
What did I do?
Dude. Anger issues?
So yes, anger issues.
It’s not like Marco Gonsalez was really needed with the M’s stash of young, cheap, controllable pitching. I guess we’ll see soon if this was just roster pruning or “for a purpose” as you say. I’m pretty shocked by all
of this.
Mariners need 3 starter bats now
SS JP
CF Julio
1B France
C Raleigh
RF Canzone
3B Urias
2B Caballero/Rojas
LF Haggerty/Moore
Some other scrap heaper for DH…
Seems legit…
For a AAAA Team.
#refusetowin
C, 1B, SS, CF are obviously set. I think Caballero/Urias/Moore/Rojas is fine for one of 2B/3B and utility. Should get established starter at other. Canzone/Marlowe at LF is alright too if they can some DH bat who can play who can play LF. And definitely need RF.
I would argue they need four.
Urías shouldn’t be the third baseman and I think it was Passan who said he wasn’t likely ‘plan A’.
Braves have made a lot of interesting trades this offseason.
Cole Philip(s)? … the linked player doesn’t seem to be a professional and bbref has 0 Cole Philips and the Cole Philip pages don’t seem to make sense either… maybe the linked on is an UDFA that was never updated?
Cole Phillips was the Braves 2nd round pick out of HS in 2022. He’s a pitching prospect
That’s the guy going back. He’s never pitched due to TJ. He’s a very high upside lotto ticket.
He’s a real prospect and I take it Kowar is more interesting to teams than I had originally thought.
Jerry does a great job with relievers and Kowar’s stuff really ticked up out of the pen.
Hard to like the deal at all until you see the M’s fill some of these gaping holes on offense. They have a lot of work to do.
Interesting that it’s essentially a rehabbing Cole Phillips and Kyle Wright (traded 1-for-1 for Kowar) for a slew of salary dumps and Kelenic being the prize. An OF of Kelenic, Harris Acuna will be fun to watch, especially against NYM.
17 mil still owed to White–12 plus to Gonzales—has to be a salary dump–Seattle opening up dollars for a free agent???
It’s Shohei time ? Or it’s Snell? Or it’s Yamamoto…one of those guys.
Braves fill their outfield needs with a young outfielder with great potential. AA making up for the Bummer trade I see.
Kelenic’s pretty bad. Below league average.
He certainly wasn’t last year! Before he hurt himself (like an idiot) he was putting together a GREAT season behind the plate.
Great is WAY overstating it. He was on my fantasy team so I followed him closely and had a few fantastic weeks and then fell off a cliff. He’s not bad but he’s not that great either
He hit slightly above league average with mediocre power and a 31 percent strikeout rate. The two previous years he was atrocious. The only thing he has going for him is youth. The beauty of being a top prospect you get 2nd, third, fourth and 5th chances. If he is going to turn into anything this was probably a good spot for him.
Nerd Alert!!!
He started out well, but was slumping hard leading up to the injury. Kind of seems like the league figured him out. At the start of June his OPS was around .840, but by the time he got injured in mid July his OPS was down to .759. Once he came back it dropped down to .746 by the end of the year.
His potential has been shown to be vastly overstated.
There’s got to be more to the mariners return? This is pathetic.
Your dream GM says it’s a fantastic return!
$30 million for Jarred. Not bad at all
They just got a lot of dead weight off the roster and got a flyer prospect and bullpen arm back. Not a bad deal at all. Kelenic at the very least needed a change of scenery because he has not been good through his first 250 games in the mlb.
Pain.
Pain.
Ok Whites contract is actually quite nasty its 17 million guaranteed to a guy that might not make the team. But good lord how cheap can the Mariners be? The Suarez deal and now this yuck.
There is obviously more dominoes yet to fall. i.e. Stay tuned
Man, I think the M’s did pretty darn good shedding 15-20m of dead weight this year to be used on better pieces and all it took was parting with Kelenic. One more mediocre year and he is nothing more then a flyer.
Getting a couple arms that with potential is just gravy.
I’m surprised how fondly this deal is being viewed by Braves Fans. Maybe it’s not Isaac Paredes for Austin Meadows bad, but I think Meadows and Kelenic could end up being of the same ilk.
Seems like a strange use of money. Fortifying the rotation seemed like the Braves biggest priority and the money spent on on Marco Gonzalez and Evan White in 2024 would have been enough to pay for someone like Marcus Stroman or Seth Lugo and have money left over for an OF. I don’t think this is going to be AA’s annual steal of a deal from the AL West.
There is money going back to the Braves. Truly until we know how much it’s impossible to judge the deal.
It just feels like the Mariners are being cheap. That part I don’t like regardless of how fair the deal is.
@padrepapi nice post, well said
seattle poised to make a major move. pure salary dump
I think/hope you’re right
Who would they get? The best corner outfielder out there is the guy they used to have Hernandez. Maybe Bellinger? He’s a west coast guy. Soto?
Not looking good for Mariners fans.
Gurriel or Lee.
The M’s make a lot of trades too. I’m sure there’s another coming.
Looks like cost cutting nonsense to me. The Mariners already needed a corner outfielder now they need 2.
Kelenic was a change of scenery candidate. I’m not completely surprised by that. He had kicked the water cooler last year and got hurt in the middle of a playoff run..
The surprising part is that they attached 2 negative value contracts to him and brought the return down. But we’ll see. Have to judge the entire off-season—not 1 move in isolation.
We’ll see what he does to fill the hole he made.
seattle is poised to make a major move coming up. pure salary dump
What is it with AL West teams and gifting players to the Braves? Sean Murphy, Raisel Iglesias, Matt Olson, and now Kelenic. Maddening as a Mets fan, lmao.
Iglesias had a fat contract at the time
The Braves wouldn’t get much for Iglesias. It’d be another salary dump. They basically just assumed a market value contract for him. Which makes sense. It was only a few months after he signed it with LA
@rols1026: They’ve all been salary dumps in one way or another. Just seems like the Braves never have to give up much in the way of talent to get all of these guys. I’m jealous, by the way (Mets fan).
Well you’re really gonna hate Alex now, since he just helped Jerry steal Shohei out from under you … Serenity now!
Mets love prospects so much they will eat 100 million just to get a few. They ain’t about to trade them away.
The Mariners have to be going hard after Soto. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
Or they could just put the $ in their pockets and sign or trade for some more budget friendly players.
Didn’t I just read that the Mariners were checking in on Arozarena because they didn’t have someone to put in the OF with Julio and Kelenic?!?
I feel bad for Mariner fans.
Why? The offseason isn’t over? What if they get Soto?
Still need to replace nearly the entire offense. And hope that JP doesn’t regress.
And that France follows with the same driveline improvements.
The only thing they have done is cut payroll and 557 strikeouts out of the lineup.
Not sure why anyone would want to sign with this club, the good ones RARELY do already.
He won’t make it to FA.
Soto is a one yr rental and he would eat almost all the $s they gained with their cheap ass salary dumps Doubt if Soto can play both COFs simultaneously
Probably one of the top 15 teams to be a fan of even if it is close to 15 that ain’t bad.
AA is just preying upon west coast teams. Oakland last year, now Seattle. Oof.
This definitely solves a problem for the Braves, but it seems like it’s creating one in Seattle. What am I missing here?
Seattle is cheap and I am guessing most other teams are too if this is all you can get .
Seattle barely gave up any talent lol
Seattle can’t find a 5 era starter and a 700 something ops outfielder with high k rate?
I AM SO DONE BEING A MS FAN. IM DONE. WHO WANTS ME
Pittsburgh is accepting I here
They are at least trying
As pirate fan that’s low blow
M’s are a solid team to root for. Pirates much better though.
We know what Jerry Thinks of Kelenic. The goal here was obviously to dump Marco and Evan Whites salary. Mission accomplished, but at what cost? I am guessing the cooler kick sealed JK’s fate. The team played better without him.
That said, you obviously wish we could have sold a bit higher on this package. Marco and JK could both very well have successful seasons in Atlanta.
On the surface it does seem.
As need a fan.
Come to Boston. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, but nothing that your not used to. It never gets this low except when Mookie and Xander left.
come to the bravos we fun as hell to watch
Kelenic is about to go off with the braves lineup of all all stars
And then he won’t adjust to NL pitching and hit .195 the rest of the way. Come on.. You’re a prospect until you’re suspect.
Sure because he will magically make contact now.
Kevin Seitzer will fix him.
No he won’t. There is no magical elixir for being able to make someone make contact and have pitch recognition. You realize the Braves are loaded with stars and not reclamation projects that have been fixed.
Why can’t the Red Sox make trades like these
Stick him in the 9 hole. He’ll get all the best pitches and be an all star
They need a good gm like a Theo Hoyer Cherington DD.
1st Suarez. Salary dumps by Seattle
Huh Jerry?
This is a precursor.
Also, how do 62 people reply in the last 10 minutes?
Baseball people, jeez
its been aa slooooooooow off season
Wishing Jarred the best. I’m confused what the Mariners FO is doing so hope it’s SOMETHING because so far I don’t see it except for salary dump but time will tell. Hope Jarred finds the success he so desperately wants. He works hard, that’s for sure. At least he has a strong hope of making the playoffs. Hope the Mariners make it of course (hope springs eternal)
They are dumping expensive trash. What they do with the $ is tbd.
M’s making room for Snell?
Bigger fish for sure…
I know it’s a salary dump but I thought the Ms could have gotten more.
Way more
Nah they didn’t give up much
Evan White + Marco 2024 salary = $19 M
Thats a lot of money for a crafty lefty SP5 and a AAA player.
They ate some salary to get a real return. If they could have done better they likely would have.
The mariners are that much of a poverty franchise that a salary dump means dumping guys making like $5-$7m per year?
They won’t need Kelenic if they add a better lefty corner bat and the other two guys are bums
Mariners doing a little December tax loss harvesting.
This is surprising – any ATL fans who can enlighten me on the return going back ?
They just got Kowar 2 weeks ago for Kyle Wright..he’s a former top 100 prospect but hasn’t put it together in MLB.. Phillips had TJ surgery last yr so he’s yet to throw a pitch
A second round high school kid that’s never pitched b/c Tommy John & no clue on the second dude.
Kowar was a former Top prospect who so far has not been able to make it as a starter, but showed some promise in sss out of the bMajors.
Phillips is a HS pitcher who had TJ surgery and is yet to pitch in the minors. High upside but maybe 4 years away from maybe pitching in the majors.
Wow. One of the more lopsided trades in history. Kelenic is only 24 + Gonzales is still a very solid pitcher
Braves just picked up two high end pieces for not good prospects
One of the more lopsided trades in history???? Delusional take my man, there’s nothing wrong with the Seattle end of it. Kelenic easily replaceable and the other two guys stink. Relax.
Camden is full of delusional takes. He keeps ’em coming.
Gonzales isn’t a high end piece. We can kill that right now.
He’s a declining soft tosser who has always had a very small margin for error.
Mariners easily won. They traded 3 players they didn’t want or need for 2 pitchers I assume they like.
they traded 3 players they didn’t like for 2 pitchers who may possibly become solid bullpen pieces.
Maybe starters. Braves don’t draft guys round 2 to be relievers. Though they wouldn’t trade a top or even mid rotation starter for Kelenic unless they really really absolutely knew they could make him a stud.
The Braves are in win now mode. aA is putting all his chips on the table for 2024. I don’t think he’s done yet.
2nd round picks become relievers all the time. You’d be absolutely fine getting a high end reliever in the 2nd round of the draft.
Most pitchers get the opportunity to start initially and the org decides the role they’re best suited for after that. Given his high octane stuff and 2 missed seasons—I’d say reliever is more likely. Due to the org he was he just traded to and the rate at which he needs to develop w/ 2 lost seasons.
2 lost seasons still count toward when he needs to go on the 40 man.
Your literally the only guy on this thread that thinks the Mariners won this trade…..
Not surprising. I am almost always right. With the exception of a handful or two of the other members of this fine community everyone else is 50 percent at best with majority of them usually being wrong.
I’m sure you were praising the Marco and Evan White extensions at the time too. “Jerry does it again!”
Gonzales will be out of the league soon. High end piece my arse
As a Mariners fan, this is surprising. I know nothing about the Braves players but I’m surprised any pro team would take any of the Mariners players. White hasn’t played in like 3 years, JK had 3 good months in his pro career, and Marco throws nothing but BP. Sorry Braves fans but you got dumped on.
I’m more in agreement with your take. But only time will tell. The potential meter went the Braves way. But what’s real?
So funny how 90% of fans have no clue what’s going on. I think its pretty fair but everyone here thinks it’s a heist for Atlanta lol
I’m stunned by the negative reaction by M’s fans. This is a great trade by DiPoto!
For one thing, getting a top prep arm for either Marco or Kelenic is unexpected imo. Neither has much value, especially when attaching White. Redirecting those dollars to sign hometown boy Snell will be a great move. Icing on the cake would be to get a decent bullpen arm out of Kowar.
Kelenic was unlikely to ever pan out to the M’s fans expectations, and clearly not a long term piece after many chances in Seattle. I thought Kelenic’s early season GW pinch homer would catapult him, but the old bad habits and immaturity make improving that spot a nobrainer. Let ATL deal with him, a better environment and roster might straighten him out, but it wasn’t gonna happen in Seattle. Giving DeLoach a shot to replace or even improve upon Kelenic’s production a smart move. Addition by subtraction in LF.
A trade for Eloy Jimenez for a prospect would complement this move, and really improve the M’s.
Braves think they can out develop your team.
Ya looks like a win win to me
Mariners are obviously looking to move controllable young arms for a controllable young bat of merit like Arozarena
They just added to their war chest. Kelenic cant help them here, these two young pitchers from atl can.
Also, lourdes gurriels bat would play well in safeco. He makes a tonne of sense, especially at his price point.
If the m’s trade the equivalent of kelenic, a top prospect or 2 and 2 18 year old lottery tickets for arozarena; how could mariner fans be upset by this?
Havent watched him play a lot, how is kelenics defense?
It’s better than average for a corner OF. Average range, has a good arm and goes 100% for everything.
His defense is definitely average or above for LF only, not an everyday option in CF. He could be an affordable option in a platoon in left. It’s the bat that’s the problem.
Gotta figure the Mariners are acquiring Soto and/or Aroz, right? Maybe they’re still in on Ohtani (though I think the Dodgers are bidding against themselves on that one).
Somebody better than Kelenic yeah
Or they just sign some lower end free agents.
Stop getting worse and start getting better, Mariners.
What cheap ownership. Another salary dump and we had to give away 5 years of Kelenic to do it. Got nothing back. I don’t think Kelenic will ever be an allstar level but it’s stupid to just give him away like this.
5 years of 700 ops and lots of striking out. Let Braves try to get him to his ceiling.
Don’t sleep on Cole Phillips, who sat out the full year after TJ. A great lottery ticket to stash.
Kelenic’s production can be replaced by DeLoach with ease. Doubtful he’d have ever reached the lofty expectations.
As a Mariners fan this is shocking that any pro team would want any of those players. White hasn’t played in like 3 years because he keeps getting hurt. JK had had 4 good months as a pro player. Marco throws BP on the mound. Granted, I know nothing about the Braves players coming back but I feel bad for the Braves, you got dumped on big time.
The Braves got the only somewhat desirable piece in this deal, Kelenic. They win.
I wonder if Preller has a fish on the hook for Soto?? Could Dipoto is interested in a deal.
Ms don’t have the pieces that make sense for a Soto trade.
The Ms have a stable of cost controlled pitching. Exactly what the padres need.
Padres need PROVEN major league talent and not prospects. Need a rotation arm from the Mariners…
Felnin Celesten, Lazaro Montes, insert pitching prospects here
Bryce Miller. Emerson Hancock. Exactly what the Padres are looking for.
WHY IS EVERYONE FIGHTING OVER JACKSON KOWAR. -2.6 WAR
Everybody was Kowar fighting…
Those trades were fast as lightning!
He can’t hit the broadside of the old barn.
It’s not what a player has done, it’s what they hope a player will do.
For what it’s worth, Seattle has been incredibly good at fixing & developing pitchers.
The M’s are clearing payroll. Why? I’m not sure. But we’ve now cleared Suarez’s $12M, Gonzales’ $12M, and White’s $7M. That $31M better go to one star or many useful players.
It certainly must in some sense because I don’t see them attaching Kelenic to Marco and White only to clear their salaries.
@myaccounts – The problem is that Seattle now has 4 starting openings to fill. With all the salary they just dumped, their 2024 payroll sits at $115M (not including the cash sent to Atlanta in this deal). Seattle’s 2023 payroll was $140M and ownership says they might go over last year’s salary for 2024. That probably leaves them with $30M – $35M to spend on 4 starting positions. If they decide to splurge on a Bellinger, then they’ll have to fill 3 other spots with $10-$15M total. That doesn’t inspire much confidence.
Now it makes sense why Jerry is looking at Parades and Arozarena via trade. It will cost a ton in prospect capital, but this allow them to add at least 2 quality players to their starting roster, if not more and stay within their budget. There’s no way Seattle is going to spend $70M-$80M in free agency to fill their openings. They don’t run their team that way.
I can see Seattle trading for Arozarena/Paredes and inking them to long-term contracts that are cheaper than what they would get in Free Agency.
Ben – Aroz is represented by Boras. There’s little chance he’s signing an extension.
Bummer!
Braves get Kelenic basically when he’s 24 and finally ready. And for not much.
Icing on the cake is they get a guy who has been one of the better pitchers in the league
1000 abs of horrible major league play and he’s finally ready?
Yep
Also saying Gonzales has been one of the better pitchers in the league is both a huge stretch and an outdated opinion. Dude has been cheeks for the last two seasons.
Wait…what? What pitcher?
Marco is one of the worst starters in the majors. Not that he’ll be starting much longer.
Wow, the M’s now have no OF. Trading away Kelenic so we can dump salary. Maybe a run at Shohei? I hope this doesn’t mean 140 games of Canzone and a Moore/Haggerty platoon. We’ve lost Teoscar, Eugenio, Kelenic.
My guess is Kelenic flourishes on a team that isn’t offense-starved and doesn’t have to hit him in the middle of the order. And we don’t get Shohei or Bellinger. Another year of replacement level players 5-9. Crawford, Julio, Raleigh, are fine. Then France, Rojas, Urias. Ugh.
You can have Starling Marte if you want him. Deeply discounted. Mets will pay 80% of his salary.
Or trade young cost controlled arms for a kelenic level young hitter thats a better compliment.
Mariners getting Eloy Jimenez from Chicago?
Ooooh, I like it….
We won when kelenic was on the IR multiple times…Every time he was away from the team we won…he was a headcase
Kowar sure spent a long time in Atlanta.
Yep.
Kelenic is the next JD Drew for the braves!
Hopefully he sticks around longer than JD.
Has to be something bigger coming…with this trade and the Suarez trade the M’s have freed up about $33M+ in salary for 2024
42 million now total.
The top free agent of the 2024/2025 off-season will be Alex Anthopoulos.
He won’t make it to FA…
Nice deal for the Mariners. Gonzalez has been one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball since he was last good in 2020. White is completely unplayable. Braves will likely not keep White and I’m not sure what they’ll do with Marco (he’s like their #7 or something, but he’s got too much service time to go to AAA.) And they make $20m between them.
Kelenic is the name people here are overreacting too, but he’s not anything close to what people thought when he was in the Mets system. He’s at BEST a below league average corner OF who comes with bushels of K’s and can’t stay healthy. They essentially paid $20m in 2024 for him. Would have been better off signing Joc Pederson or someone else.
The two dudes going to the Mariners both have huge arms but haven’t put things together yet. Both very high picks. Phillips was a top ten prospect for Atlanta, even though he hasn’t pitched yet. Throws 100.
Bunch of casuals in here lol finally a smart comment
Kelenic is the most valuable asset in this trade by far. He’s not a sure thing by any means, but has way more potential than these lottery ticket arms they gave up.
Thats not what potential means.
You see the young kids were trading FOR kelenic because of their potential
Think it through
Lmao
Man if you’re shopping Kelenic and Gonzalez around you can get way more than that
Everyone hands the Braves free stuff just because the Mets are in their division
People hand the Braves free stuff because that organization knows how to capitalize on transaction opportunities…both in free agent extensions and trades.
As for the Mets, it isn’t the Braves or anyone else’s fault that the Mets are more concerned with moves that will grab headlines instead of moves that actually work out or even make sense in the first place.
The Mets will only get better when they realize that the Yankees are not in the NL East. Those two teams have been competing for the back pages of the NY Post & the Daily News (if that paper still exists) for decades!
Huh? Gonzalez has been awful for years. One of worst pitchers in baseball lately and makes $12.5m.
Atlanta got absolutely fleeced in this deal. 6 years of team control for the best player in this deal + they got rid of bad contracts. I have seen Cole pitch multiple times in person and know him. Ace written all over him
You know Cole so he’s going to be an ace? Lol
Jerry is great for the off-season. Nobody saw this coming.
Give it time. Preller will do something soon. It’ll be stupid, but it will be another headliner.
They sent $ to Atlanta too per Bob Nightengale
Mariners sent $$ to Braves too per Nightengale.. def a win for Atlanta
This really feels like Jerry is about to either sign a big contract or two decent players with this obvious salary dump. I hope Mariners fans are rewarded with something good.
Appreciate the well wishes…
Looks like a big salary dump and in order to take the Cash Money the Braves wanted Kelenic. Really good outfielder, was out best hitter the first two months of the season and obviously gets in his own head. I rooted for him hard, loved his upside, and I am bummed that he was traded.
Obviously this team is much, much worse than it was during the regular season. Clearing money to make moves and it better be good. Get Arozarena and then sign him to a lengthy contract? (he only makes $4.5) Sign Blake Snell and two bats? Or one bat and trade for another?
TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD!
Looks like they dumped some expensive trash. Easily replace these guys.
Wait the Mariners are signing Ohtani and Yamamoto?
They didn’t clear that much money!
Well, this sucks for the NL East.
And is it just me, but does the addition of Kelenic seems like the Braves are going to let him develop well in their franchise, then have that turn out as a double-stick in the rearend to the Mets?
Kelenic is what he is. OK corner outfield, maybe about league average maybe a little worse. TTO guy. Can’t stay healthy. There are dozens of guys like him around.
Yeah, no doubt that’s what Kelenic has been, but you get the feel that a guy like him will flourish in Atlanta.
Maybe. He’s not a kid anymore. Even his slightly above average year last year was heavily caveated. Had a super lucky BABiP year. Braves might see something, it’s true. But man, that’s a lot of money to take on to try and fix him. Not to mention the two huge arms they gave up on. I’d have gone for a Joc Pederson or a Jorge Soler or someone of that ilk.
There’s more chance that the Braves fix Kelenic than the Mariners fix Kowar’s 6.2 BB/9.
@seamaholic 2
Kelenic is not a kid anymore? He’ll be entering his age-24 season. I see fans from certain fan bases talking about upside for guys that are 27 or older.
This will be impressive because Seattle doesn’t seem bad at player development.
Digging a hole to fill a hole. Even if you go out and get someone legit… you’ve got lots of dead holes you’ve dug yourself.
Guessing Kelenic is being flipped to the White Sox in a Cease deal
No way. If they are getting a pitcher it is to clear up cash money to get Blake Snell.
That would truly be dreadful news for SOX fans.
Calling it now. Kelenic will figure it out and turn into a stud. Marco is a serviceable back end guy who will give you innings and with that offense could win 12-15 games. White won’t play again with Olson, but he could be flipped in another deal. Maybe the White Sox wanted some of these guys in a Cease trade and they will never play for the Braves. Not sure what the Mariners saw in this one.
Trash in trash out
Dipoto’s one of the best at keeping things quiet and not leaked to MSM. Absolutely nobody saw this coming.
Atlanta even more so maybe.
All this just to save like $15M? It’s getting harder and harder to defend this Mariners ownership
This makes no sense for ATL. They must really like Kelenic to take on $20M this season in dead money. It also takes them out of actually spending money to improve the rotation. Nothing to like about this one.
Agreed. Real head scratcher from Atlanta.
Yeah the rotation part is a bit confusing. I thought the Braves were going to sign a good starter and now it appears they might not. Who knows offseason is far from over but I really don’t like this deal for either team.
Must. And Gonzales is capable of pitching to a 4 something era.
Seattle sent cash to Atlanta also so Atlanta isn’t taking on $20M in this deal.
I… but… what… why?!?
Of course, the Mariners are including cash in the deal; don’t know how much, but with Gonzales and White combining for $19.25 million next season, I would have to think at least $7 MM to cover White’s salary.
That being said, the only justification for this horror show from the M’s side is to gain 40-man roster space and salary room to make multiple acquisitions via trade or (god forbid) free agency. Otherwise, they got a former top end KC draft pick who has failed miserably in three tries at the MLB level and a highly touted prospect who hasn’t thrown a professional pitch yet due to TJ recovery, and in return gave up their controllable starting LF and their #5-6 starter (who’s also a fan favorite.) White is a non-factor because 1) the Braves have some guy named Olson and 2) I think he’s out of options, so Atlanta will almost certainly pass him through waivers to get him off the 40-man roster since no one will touch the $15 million remaining on his deal.
The M’s HAVE to do something with this new-found flexibility. Trade for Soto or India or Arozarena, sign Bellinger or Martinez or Turner, or some combination thereof. Otherwise, it’s one of three things:
1) Ownership is simply too cheap to try to contend with the Rangers and Astros and are retrenching yet again.
2) Dipoto has a super-secret strategy that no one else is privy to that we probably wouldn’t understand anyway.
3) Dipoto is just really BAD at his job.
If any or all of the above 3 reasons are in play, Julio Rodriguez will probably lead the AL in intentional walks in 2024 and M’s fans will probably start flocking to Sounders, Kraken, and Huskies games far more often.
Kelenic isn’t anything special. If they thought he would improve they would have kept him. Just because Atlanta improves him doesn’t mean Seattle could have.
What in the world is going on? We now need 2 outfielders, 3rd baseman and a DH. We missed the playoffs by 1 game last season and I blame it on getting rid of Sewald. He was lights out for us and our set up guys knew their roles. Once he was traded it was mayhem of who would pitch and actually do good. Our bullpen cost us games at the end of last year when our offense was on point. Now it looks like we are blowing up our team for what?? Ohtani? Yamamoto? Both? Still have Bellinger put there? I wouldn’t trade for Soto as he’ll just be a rental. SMH
Fortunately 700 ops guys who strike out 200 times are plentiful and not that expensive.
I would want Kelenic, the other two not at all.
Gonzales isn’t a bad 5th 6th starter if Seattle is going to pay for some of him.
I read his down side history and yeah, a bust.
Mariners prepping for a sale. Salary dumps all off-season. Nobody left to support Soto, even BEFORE a deal is made. Ohtani wants a contender. This is no longer a contender. Great pitching. Less than zero offense. No wonder my kid refuses to root for the hometown 9. He’s WAY smarter than I am.
Ohtani wants dollars. Being a contender isn’t the most important thing.
Mariners stashing arms to make a move for Soto? Still need a Gilbert or another major leaguer.
Not Gilbert. Likely Miller or Woo and a lesser arm or prospect.
Unless the Mariners sign Ohtani this makes no sense. Actually, it just doesnt make sense at all.
Makes dollars. Millions of them.
So there’s gotta be a follow up for the Mariners on this right?
Gotta put someone on the field.
Does Evan white live in a van down by the river?
Guy can afford to buy most of us here a nice condo; terrible luck but his bank account will be fine…
Probably a nice rv with his $
FWIW Baseball Trade Values gives Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales and Evan White a collective NEGATIVE trade value of $3 million so the cash considerations could be substantial.
Brutal for ATL. Mediocre OF and 2 horrible contracts. Take on over $20M of salary for this??? Why not just sign a good SP? AA lost me on this one.
Thinks his team has better coaches.
Braves get a cheaper alternative to Rosario in LF and a middle of the rotation arm and it cost them basically nothing
Middle of the rotation? Lmao. He’s a AAA player at this point.
Gonzalez is competing with elder for back of the rotation spot, and I hope they sign another starter so one of them has to be in AAA. Gonzalez could bounce back but I’m not relying on him as anything more than an expensive inning eater/depth guy until he proves something. As of right now I’d expect them to decline his option next year unless something drastic happens for him this year.
He’d have to have a miraculous late career resurgence to make the Braves rotation. He’s really awful. Throws mid 80’s some nights.
Gonzales was torture to watch for the last couple of seasons. His ERA and WHIP have gone up the last couple of years. He’s a soft-tosser who relies on control, and his walk rate has increased. I hope he finds success, as he is a stand-up guy and fierce competitor. OTOH, I dreaded watching his starts.
In other news, Jarred Kelenic has just signed an 8 year $60m extension.
I’ve been hoping that the Braves would find a good young leftfielder, as they are set at the other 7 positions. I never imagined they would find one for a prospect and taking on some salary.. Kelenic is just 24 and clearly improving. He may be one of those prospects who takes a little extra time to develop.
White is owed $17 M, Gonzalez 12.25 M, so the question remains, how much is Seattle kicking in?
Even if the Braves are paying most of that $29.25 M, this feels like a steal for the Braves.
I wonder what else Anthopoulos has up his sleeve?
They could have gotten a considerably better one than Kelenic without giving up two good arms and paying $20m for the privilege. They must see a key to fixing Kelenic, cause right now this looks like a loser for the Braves.
Tomorrow Atlanta signs each of them to 9 year extensions.
They could swing back and get Ohtani
Also, they could sign Brantley and trade for India??
Now that the Mariners are in need of an OF can the Mets trade them Marte plus $10-$20 mil, A. Ramirez and Megill for either Logan Gilbert or George Kirby
Or they could just sign someone younger cheaper better and keep their pitching.
No, keep smoking that ganja though.
Salary dump is the only reason I see for this
Braves took on over $20 million in worthless contracts and gave up their 7th ranked prospect and comments overwhelmingly claim they pulled off a heist. With a strikeout rate still in excess of 30% Kelenic is no sure thing.
No one’s a sure-thing, but Kelenic was a 2-WAR player in two-thirds of a season after making a young and brash move of getting a self-inflicted injury. He’s not a free agent until 2029 (!) You’ve got a guy that was just as good as his replacement (Rosario) in less time for less money with a much higher upside. Sure, the K-rate was high, but his MiLB career K-rate was closer to 23%, between a change of scenery and being lower in a historic batting order, he could quickly change that, not unlike Harris II, whom won ’22 RoY from the 9th spot in that order.
For emphasis, he’s not a free agent until 2029.
The Braves know which prospects to trade away. He’s a high school pick who still hasn’t even pitched in the minors yet.
I’m surprised how many mariners fans can’t see this as a salary dump.
First Geno, now Marcos and White. White wasn’t making the team, Marcos would be fighting with Ray for innings as we have Castillo, Gilbert, Kirby, Woo, Miller. If Marcos was making half of what he is then there probably is an argument to keep him.
I’m guessing they’re clearing payroll for another move.
M’a acquiring Soto and Grisham from Padres?
No better trade partner for the Padres.
Not Grisham. They have zero use for a CF. But Cronenworth, hell yeah.
BTV says this is even if the cash considerations part comes out to $6.2m
A+ on Kelenic extension.
Being a Mets fan I’m am confident that Kelenic would have been the next Lastings Milledge had he stayed in New York. With that said being a Mets fan I am sure he will destroy us for at least the next 5 years now that he is a Brave.
12 or 13 years. You know he is signing a team friendly contract.
He’ll last longer than Milledge.
This trade has a ton of upside for the braves. If the change of scenery helps Gonzalez and the lineup helps kelenic find more success, this trades going to look amazing for the braves this time next year. If not, it’s gonna look like a salary dump from Seattle and an expensive gamble on a couple of players with potential upside, plus Evan white for the braves. I like it from both sides. Hope seattles about to get a big bat with this money and Atlanta keeps pursuing starting pitching, platoon option for kelenic, and bench depth after this.
Marco’s 31 and barely throws high 80’s anymore. There is no upside there. He more than likely won’t make the Braves rotation but cannot be sent down due to service time. So maybe a seldom used long man? Or flipped. Basically they got Kelenic for $20m this year (more in future years for White) and a couple interesting arms.
I think Bravos put Gonzo in bullpen. His fastball will clock up to 92 range. They need a lefty in the pen. Hard to believe we gave up the best RP in baseball at time (diaz) for basically 2 good months of baseball in kelenic. That trade was a dud. However…the M’s have hit tremendously on their past 6 1st round picks. I have faith in their scouting dept scott hunter. Cole young & Harry Ford should be making the team out of spring training in 2025. But all this shedding of money doesn’t do diddly crap if we don’t get 2 big bats NOW. The fan base is done w/ the penny pinching.
The Braves have 4 lefties in the pen ready to go in 2024. Minter, Bummer, Lee, and Matzek. Wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Braves eat most of Gonzales and White’s salaries while flipping them for lottery ticket prospects and ifa money.
I wish Jarred well and wouldn’t be surprised if the scenery change ignites his potential. That said, I get the impression he’s an odd dude and possibly a clubhouse problem. He reportedly didn’t hang much with his teammates. He whined that the M’s didn’t bring him up sooner than they did and hinted they were holding back his free agent and arbitration clocks. When they did bring him up at age 21 he wasn’t ready. I would bet he’ll blossom it Atlanta. And Marco has been durable until recently. When on, he throws strikes and keeps you in the game. He was our ace not that many seasons ago. And White is a fantastic defender. He’s young with upside. We’ll see. And remember that trades take a season or two or three to really assess.
@BPax – He “whines” yet you had the M’s president (Kevin Mather) on video stating they manipulated service time (which he resigned from his post a day after the video was made public) in reference to J-Rod, in which, he also criticized his lack of English comprehension. If Jarred simply doesn’t kick the water cooler, he’ll be better. Thing is — he’s not a FA until 2029…he’s still pre-arb, so there’s so much time for him to get better. A lot better. This trade could be quite lopsided if ATL gets much of anything from Marco — and they’ve fixed a lot worse.
Someone put Jerry in rehab for eating paint chips and then fire him
Kelenic was great the first month last year and pretty bad the remainder of the year. Just looking at the slash line isn’t going to tell the whole story. Seems like a really bad deal for the Braves but they must think they can fix him.
all he costs is money yo
And their 2nd round pick from 2022.
Im guessing the Mariners cleared $31M in ’24 salaries by trading Suarez, Gonzalez and White to make room for acquisitions later this off-season. The Mariners have also eliminated two high SO hitters in Suarez and Kelenic, as Dipoto said he would do, to make room for contact hitters that control the zone a bit better. More to come from Dipoto in the coming weeks.
Also, Teoscar Hernandez is gone… he and Suarez were the #2 and #3 strikeout guys in MLB. Bring on the contact hitters! But let’s also see about replacing some of the lost RBI from those two.
Adam Frazier is a nice contact hitter.
All this talk of JK’s strikeouts doesn’t bother me.
If Sietzer can get Acuna to cut down on his K’s I have faith he could do something with Jared.
I could either see Marco being moved or him being a 5th starter until he inevitably gets hurt & then Lopez moves into the spot or better yet they both pitch 3 innings every turn in the rotation.
White is expensive AAA depth. Hoping he turns it around and they could move him.
I don’t know yet how much I like the trade yet. But something tells me this is a part of something bigger. Only time will tell.
Jung Hoo Lee to the M’s?
Hope So!
This is like when Jerry was freeing up money for Ohtani, which makes me think he’s freeing up money to run after Yamamoto. Or, this pays for Snell. That’s the optimist in me:, of course.
A+ for Seattle. Love the salary dump and the upside arm. These guys were doing absolutely nothing to very little for them. They can’t lose this trade.
Braves seen ways to improve these players. I dunno about white. But Gonzales could very well give them 12m worth of production. Have to have strong belief they can improve Kelenic. Took taking on $ and a nice prospect to find out so hope they are right. They took 3 low cost outfielders at deadline and won world series so they know what they are doing.
“They [SEA] can’t lose this trade.” — Stated less than an hour after the trade was announced. LOL! Trades take years to fully realize. Even if SEA manages to wisely reinvest that saved money into more productive players, we still don’t know how much money SEA sent to ATL in the deal — and Cole Phillips hasn’t even seen a pro mound, rehabbing from surgery. To think we already have a declared winner in this trade makes me excited about the return, even if White never sees the field and Marco can’t find the plate.
Seattle adding MORE pitching ?!?!
This is a precursor to a Soto trade.
Any other Royals fans irritated by this???
M’s easily won and I would imagine are really happy.
I’m sure the front office is happy. I’m sure the clubhouse is not and 90+% of the fans are not, but that can easily be changed with either a star addition or multiple solid additions
Luckily Clay Bennett is looking for another investment opportunity
In what world did the Mariners easily win? Kelenic is the one piece of the trade that has the most upside and the Mariners are sending cash, too. I’d say it’s a win for Atlanta.
The pitching prospect has the most upside. If they thought they could further develop Kelenic significantly they wouldn’t have traded him.
K may have upside, but he’s only shown us his floor, and its been a basement.
Cole Phillips – whom never saw the field recovering from TJS – has more upside than the former top-5 overall prospect that has actually done something in the majors? Remember, he’ll be slotted into LF next to the 2 former RoY (Harris, Acuna), in which Harris won in the 9-hole of an incredible lineup that will also aid in Kelenic’s counting stats/development. I don’t doubt we’ll hear of Phillips again, but at this point, to say he has more upside post-TJS than anyone in that deal is peeing on a parade.
I like the move, but it pends on how much $ they sent back to Atlanta. Dumping White and Gonzo is similar to trading Diaz to dump Cano. JK only had two good months in his time in Seattle. After the cooler kicking, he pretty much stunk it up. I was surprised that Atlanta took on those contracts, it’s not like Atlanta does that. We now don’t have to worry about Woo or Miller being sent down for Marco.
We also (maybe?) get Robbie Ray back next season? I feel another big bat move is already in place for Seattle.
ATL took on all of Raisel Iglesias contract. AA likes to take on some money if it means less prospect capital, which I don’t doubt he learned in LAD, since that’s a common tactic of their’s. Without knowing how much SEA included, I’m sure some of this is offset by some of the salary dumping he did through recent trades to compensate for taking on some and getting projects.
M’s fan will be fuming over this for decades to come. This is going to be like when the Braves got Smoltz. Kelenic is just getting started and Seattle gave him away for a relief pitcher and cash.
All day I heard this described as a pure salary dump.
I’m guessing AA is going to trade White. I can’t imagine a guy making that much money sitting in Triple-A.
If it’s possible. Someone would have to believe they know just what to do to make him a useful mlb player.
This might be one of those rare deals where both teams did well, considering how many people here are claiming each side fleeced the other.
Many people have no idea what they are talking about. Seattle already won. Atlanta can win as well if they can out develop Seattle.
It’s honestly a weird deal for ATL. Kelenic is a cheap gamble, but the rest of the deal is pretty much dead money.
Maybe but not because of this trade.
Kelenic reminds me of Acuna Jr a few years back. RAJ used to drive the fans crazy with some of his antics but Snitker reeled him in by benching him from time to time. I can see Snitker helping Kelenic grow up as well.
It’s between the ears with Kelenic. He’s very very hard on himself. In a game where you fail 70% of the time, it’s not the best mentality to have.
Snitker will be good for JK. Servais is a freaking ‘buddy boss’
So is Snitker.
Snit has a better boss…who, at least publicly, gives him autonomy. That could be a cover and we could have a Billy Beane/Bob Melvin relationship behind closed doors, but I highly doubt that.
Kelenic looks like a douchebag and reminds me a lot of Harper (when Harper was young_. Arrogant and brash.
Anywho, now trade Kelenic and co to the Sox for Cease already.
I predict that Seattle will trade Gilbert and Woo or Miller, plus additional prospects to Tampa for Arozerena, Peredes and Glashow.
Then they will sign Ohtani who will DH on 2024 and pitch in 2025.
Glasnow will pitch in 2024 for the M’s. Ray will be our 6th man in the rotation when he comes back. And Hancock will be insurance for the rotation all season.
Ohtani will slide into the rotation to replace Glasnow in 2025. Seattle will only be obligated to take on Glasnow’s salary for 2024. Then he will hit the FA market in 2025. If the M’s appear like they can not compete by the trade deadline, they will trade him.
Yes it will cost a lot for the M’s to make this move but this will give them the upper hand in the division that includes Texas and Houston. That lineup!?!? And the pitching rotation will be better than 2023 in 2024 and 2025 with Galsnow and the Ohtani.
Do it Jerry!!!!
Braves just fleeced the mariners! Bet Kelenic goes off in that braves lineup. Drafting him in fantasy next season
M’s won this trade. That’s all.
Pretty depressing to see JK attached to yet another salary dump. AA said this all came together and got done the same day. Dipoto said they were going to be ‘industrious’ putting the payroll saved back to use in the market. I guess we’ll see what comes next but I’m pretty cynical they can do enough.
Ineppler strikes again! Man, Eppler’s trade of Kellenic was so bad it might have even been worse than the time he traded Scott Kazmir for a couple pints of Ben and Jerry’s.
I mean, hard to judge this deal to harshly for the Braves. To me, it’s a lot of moving parts for a very meh trade for a player that I don’t think is that good or will continue to be that good. His underlying #s suggested last year was more of a fluke than a “he figured it out” type thing. As for MG, this better not be the pitching move we were all hoping for. Coming back from nerve damage is a scary thing and he wasn’t great recently but once was a solid pitcher. I liked Phillips,,stinks to see him go. And I don’t like that we are taking on so much cash cause that suggest we aren’t gonna make any slash in free agency for starting pitching, although I hope I’m wrong and definitely could be wrong
Interesting trade. The names are going to Atlanta, the talent is fairly equal. Be looking to see how Jerry fills his holes.
I’m curious to see what the Mariners plan is. They traded Suarez in a salary dump to Arizona. Now they dump the salary of White and Marco by attaching Kelenic. (While also eating a chunk of the salary.) I know Kelenic and Suarez aren’t MVP caliber players but I wonder if Jerry will use the money he saved on these deals to improve the team. Hopefully it isn’t just dumping as much payroll as possible.
I’m with you on wondering about the overall plan. The Teo decision and trades of Suárez and Kelenic seem both money and strikeout focused. But the moves remove over 1,700 plate appearances of slightly above-average offense. I know Kelenic gave many the impression that he was immature/frustrated too easily but Teo and Suárez seemed to be good clubhouse presence that is now also gone.
Coming into the offseason, the offense needed to improve and so far the moves made only seem to make that goal more challenging.
Essentially that is a salary dump for seattle. They get back nothing but dump the contracts of gonzalez and white and give away kelenic who could be a bust prospect but still has some intrigue.
So Atlanta is essentially buying a high risk “prospect” who has struggled and hope he can right the ship.
Most likely outcome of course is that neither player in the deal will become much but for Atlanta it is an interesting gamble.
Any details out yet on amount of cash going to Atlanta for this year or next?
I suppose this closes the book on the Mets trade of Kelenic.
It seems that they’ve “won” that one.
Who says Kelenic or Gonzales remain as Braves, there is no guarantee, they may, they may not.. This is why I love AA, no one knows what he’s up to, he’s one of the best.
You’re right, but their stock is low. I’d imagine a scenario where Kelenic might make Grissom available in the right deal, rather than platoon him with Kelenic (hurting both their value/development) or making Grissom a bench bat, which seems a waste and not in line with franchise MO. Marco/White both have incredibly low bats and missed a lot of time due to health issues — it’ll be amazing to see what a change of scenery and playing time at any level will do for them, boosting their trade value to something, anything.
Will Evan White ever play in MLB again?
Evan White sucks. Marco Gonzalez had a FIP over 5 in 2021 and 2022 and a negative WAR in 2023. Kelenic is a simple 2 WAR guy that will probably be a depth piece. Barves arguably would’ve been better off spending in the open market.
Won’t know who won this trade until we see how the M’s use the money.
I am shocked at how many Seattle fans like Gonzalez, Kelenic & White.
Gonzalez & White most definitely had negative value, and probably would’ve been cut to save a roster spot. Kelenic has some talent, but he’s been on Seattle parts of three years, and is probably worse now than when he started.
The $20M they are saving can buy a lot more talent, imo.
@joebrady – Worse now than when he started? By what stat? Sure, stats only paint a picture, but what are you painting with that ain’t poo-poo?
bWAR:
2021: -1.8 (93 games of 162) at 21 y/o
2022: -0.2 (54 games of 162) at 22 y/o
2023: 2.0 (105 games of 162 at 23 y/o
I get his K-rate was high, but it was actually lower than in ’22, but still not anywhere near his MiLB K-rate of 23%, which makes me think he was really pressing (as evidence by the self-inflicted wound). Guy needs a refresher in ATL where he can be motivated playing against the Mets. He’s already an upgrade defensively than his replacement, a lot cheaper with a lot more upside. I won’t doubt that he’ll have his best year hitting in the 7-9 hole, even with the same K-rate.
You heard it here first, tatis jr to mariners!!
Smokey, I myself thought this is a possibility. If the Pads want to retain Soto they will need to get rid of Tatis or Boegarts contract by trading one. Tatis is the more attractive contract of the two. I can see Jerry trading some young pitching to offset some of Tatis salary so that it would be bring the price down on Tatis contract. Pads win by getting the young controlled pitching they need and M’s win by having a slugger super star to pair with Juio.
Tatis had issues 2 years back with manny. They gotta cut payroll and he’s the one to go.
All right!
Not a “yawner’ this time.
This major upheaval is our cue that the Mariners are getting ready to go for that BIG BAT that we have been waiting for.
In fact, something is probably in the works right now.
Should hear something soon.
Go Mariners!
Hey Fred, if we know Jerry, BIG bats sounds optimistic. but you get a pass.
O’nell is still available. Low cost DH.? forth outfielder?
557 K’s last season. Teo. Geno. Kelnic. Combined avg 247. 19 homers each on average. And 185 ks each average both teo and Geno led the way by a big margin! Upgrading the offense would be bringing in 2-3 guys that can upgrade these awful numbers! What they do from Here is what matters!
This looks to be in the Braves favor to me. I personally don’t think salary dumps are all bad, even if the team is adding value to get it done, but you want to get value for value, and a pattern of these trades from a team supposedly trying to contend seems questionable, especially trading players they can actually use away. Marco Gonzales + Evan White is something like 15m under water. Marco still has a little value in a trade if the pay a couple million down. Apparently to the M’s brass Kelenic was worth around 15m, plus another live arm reliever, and a lottery ticket pitching prospect in trade. The Mariners need bats, Kelenic has an OK one, and wasn’t expensive, and Marco could have been good insurance in case something goes wrong with the rotation. Just the fact that they had to drop some 25m in guarantees to add is concerning on its own. I think in a few weeks, we will know more if it was for some grand plan, or if it was more just being cheap.
I don’t think it’s as bad as some might though. Kelenic’s trade value may very well be in the range of 15m +, a live arm reliever and a lottery ticket. It likely is, that’s what they got for him! On paper it looks like more, to me at least, but he projects as a below-average player overall for the next few years. That limits his value, even if he’s still young.
The M’s are the K-Mart shoppers look blue light special is now on.
I am not holding my breath, but if they are doing this because they plan on freeing up payroll for better quality upgrades, it would not be for nothing. They may have soured on Kelenic (and possibly Saurez) too. If the likes of Marlowe or Haggerty get significant playing time and their “big” add is someone like J.D. Martinez, they likely stay home next October. it’s interesting that Dipoto is not acting like his job is in any danger, he’s not making those kinds of moves, so likely ownership is fully aware and onboard with whatever he is doing. The .540 comment has legs. That may be the actual plan. The problem is planning for .540 means there’s .500 seasons in the mix. Basically ,trying to get wildcard spot every 2-3 years.
Don’t get why people are saying the Braves won this. Kelenic has literally only hit in the majors for 6 weeks. He’s been awful outside of that. Evan White is a back-up 1B making $17M in a few years, as well. Gross.
Watch Kelenic become a star now that he’s in our division. And the Braves no less
Kelenic will torch the Mets; that’s a given!
Don’t understand the hate for Dipoto making this move. Marco coming off surgery will probably be throwing even softer than before, he ain’t no Tom Glavine. Evan White has worse hips than my 85 year old Grandmother, and Kelenic is a AAAA player. Mariners made their best run of the season in August when Kelenic was on the DL not striking out multiple times a game. I expect more moves by Dipoto to add to the team, such as signing Blake Snell, after clearing some salary and roster spots. I wish Marco Gonzales well, as he put in some good years in Seattle, on and off the field.
Also expect Kowar to perform in the bullpen for Seattle. Many underperforming relief pitchers have gone to Seattle and exceeded expectations.
I don’t hate any of it, but it’s created another roster issue. So far all of the trades have hinted at budget limitations. The Mariners project somewhere around 83-85 wins as they sit. It’s definitely a team that look likes like a solid wildcard contender if they can get a couple-few bats, so they do that by trading away bats? Now they need two outfielders. I do think you’re right, likely from the M’s perspective the two pitchers are more interesting than it may appear. Maybe the trade corresponding with the Jung Hoo Lee’s is not a coincidence.
Wow, someone not lighting their hair on fire over this… amazing.
These were not Supermen, and we got a possible Superman coming back (and the M’s are one of the best of turning relievers into Supermen.)
Something else is coming.
Until this front office proves otherwise, every deal is going to be perceived as a pure salary dump for cost savings rather than to add to the core. Between the Mather comments, Stanton’s behavior in the aftermath of that, to committing to spend coming out of a rebuild then not doing it, to Kirby/Cal/JP outbursts at the end of the season, to 54%, to the halfhearted apology for the 54%, to the doublespeak today between what Servais said and what Dipoto said.. at this point many fans are not feeling great about the vibe. I think this is a fine trade the Mariners may very well win. I’m just not sold they’ll reinvest the savings to improve the team this offseason. I hope I’m wrong, and I’m not going to totally lose faith until after pitchers and catchers report, if there’s no investment in the team. Jerry is a smart guy. I’m not worried about Jerry. I am just very concerned about ownership’s willingness to compete.
Cole Phillips is a high school pitcher who underwent TJ surgery, so has never pitched professionally.
Also the Braves’ #7 prospect. You can always make things look worse by describing the risk while leaving out the potential.
Did any locals hear the Seattle Mariners Beat Writer, Ryan Divish, on Seattle 710 ESPN Radio Tonight? He is a good dude and it was eye opening. Divish said Manager Scott Service was honest with him and said that the owner, John Stanton, did not raise the payroll like he and Jerry thought he would and that they were doing the best they could with “the cards that they were dealt.” he was disappointed and did not think after the season was over that they would have to do some of these trades that they have recently done to clear payroll.
This team is so close. You can make the case that they have one of the Top 3 rotations in MLB and their owner will not give them just a bit more money to get get what they need to make a run at it. Sell the team John Stanton, you have made enough money, this is shameful, Put it back into the team or get out, if not for the fans, than for the players, who know they are close as well. The Mariners were the #1 profiting team in MLB in 2022. and 2023 was kind to the pocket books as well.
This is not Jerry Dipoto’s fault. He is competitive. He knows how close they are. Service mentioned that he knows the player’s are upset and this is not where he wishes things were at.
Shame on John Stanton.
Helps me better understand the moves. They need 3-4 bats now. Going to be tough. Do what you can with what you have been given but sell the team John Stanton, you don’t need to go NY Yankee, LA Dodger, Texas Rangers crazy, just give Jerry the money, the raise he thought he may have to work with this year because things felt short last year in the standings but they did not fall short at the Bank.
Yeah I saw Servais’ comments. I also saw Jerry’s comments about reinvesting the financial flexibility back into the team with a slightly higher payroll than 2023. Jerry also said a pitcher trade is ‘less likely now than 24 hours ago’ which makes no sense to me given the state of this lineup and the lack of impact bats in the market. I’m about as frustrated as can be but I guess I’ll just feel good about not renewing my season tickets and wait to see what happens. I don’t feel bad about these trades themselves but they need to make serious upgrades and this team is barely better than the Angels right now.
I mean I’ll take Castillo back on the Reds roster tonight! He should have been signed and never traded anyway
In a vacuum, it’s an ok (albeit gross) trade. Unfortunately, Jerry doesn’t live in a vacuum and made the deals that made this deal a necessity…. Overpaying Marco and overpaying an untested and injury prone White. Outside of a vacuum I hate to give MLB starters away (JK) in order to offload salary. I do think the pitchers are kind of interesting.
“Meanwhile” can’t be inserted mid-sentence, separated by commas. It needs to START the sentence.
As someone who has been that guy, don’t be that guy.
Let’s get this straight. You traded Kelenic who’s ready to flourish with 5 yrs of control plus a decent starting pitcher with a 1st baseman for only one mid top 30 prospect and a guy who has a career 9.00+ ERA. That’s it? I would have sent him to the Brewers as a 1st baseman with Matt Bush and one more guy for Christian Yelich