Mariners mailbag: Will Dee Gordon, Shed Long split time at second base? Is any Seattle player ‘untouchable’?
The Seattle Mariners weren’t especially active at the annual Winter Meetings this year — outside of picking up another pitcher and some minor-leaguers in the Rule 5 Draft — but there are still a lot of questions swirling as the club continues its rebuild in 2020.
We answer some of those for you in this edition of our Mariners mailbag, ready just in time to unwrap for the holidays.
Will Dee Gordon split playing time with Shed Long at second base? –Zach S., Puyallup
This is one of the odder puzzles heading into spring training. How the Mariners approach solving it depends a lot on whether or not Gordon is still on the roster when February rolls around.
Some background on this situation: Gordon is 31 years old, will be 32 in April and is entering the final year of a five-year contract. He’s owed $13.5 million in 2020 with a club option for 2021 that is guaranteed if he logs 600 plate appearances in the upcoming season.
Gordon was productive for the Mariners in a forgettable season for the club in 2019 — when he was healthy. He landed on the injured list in May after he was hit in his right wrist with a pitch and didn’t return for three weeks. He was placed on the IL again near the end of July — days ahead of the trade deadline — and again missed nearly three weeks.
He hit .275/.304/.359 with 12 doubles, six triples, three home runs, 34 RBI and 22 stolen bases in the 117 games he did appear in. He is still a reliable, veteran presence at second base who can offer speed and a high-quality bat — either as a starter or off the bench — to contending teams. The Mariners shopped him as such at last season’s trade deadline, but without success.
Meanwhile, Long, who is 23 and debuted for the Mariners when Gordon was injured the first time, is projected as Seattle’s long-term second baseman and is more than capable of taking on a full-time role at that position now.
During his 42-game tryout with Seattle last season — which would have been longer had he not broken a finger turning a double play with Triple-A Tacoma during the summer — Long slashed at .263/.333/.454 with 12 doubles, a triple, five homers, 15 RBI and three stolen bases. This after not playing above Double-A before the 2019 season.
Fitting with Seattle’s plans of letting their young prospects gain significant major-league experience as this rebuild continues, Long would be the clear choice for Seattle at second base on Opening Day — and every day after that — if Gordon was not still with the organization.
The Mariners will continue to try to move Gordon with windows of opportunity coming up at the end of spring training when other teams have sorted out their rosters, and if not before, at July’s trade deadline.
The best-case scenario from a baseball perspective would be moving Gordon to a team — probably one that thinks it is a contender now — with a need for a proven second baseman. That would clear the way for Long to get an extended look in the big leagues while the Mariners are still trying to piece other parts of the roster together for their expected push in 2021 and beyond.
If a trade doesn’t happen before the end of March? Yes, you’re probably looking at some sort of split in playing time. What exactly that distribution would look like is tricky.
On the one hand, Gordon needs enough playing time — whether he’s starting at second base or serving a utility role off the bench, or playing 50-plus games in center field like he did when Seattle had Robinson Cano in 2018 — to build a market. If the biggest roadblock in trading Gordon at the deadline last season was him being injury-prone, other teams need to see him remain healthy for an extended stretch before they’re willing to take on even part of his contract.
On the other hand, if Seattle wants to stay diligent with its rebuilding plan, players like Long, who are considered integral parts of the club’s future, need the opportunity to play almost every day, make mistakes and grow without having to look over their shoulders. If the Mariners want to contend for a playoff spot as early as 2021, the young players they’re counting on to get them there need time to mature at the big-league level. That progress will take longer if the club is still trying to offload veterans in-season.
Can we expect Jerry Dipoto to sign another veteran or bounce-back starter? –Reggie C., Graham
While the Mariners weren’t involved in any groundbreaking trades or signings last week in San Diego — surely a shocking development to anyone who regularly follows Seattle’s general manager’s dealings — Dipoto did offer this nugget to reporters before he left for the Winter Meetings.
“We don’t feel like it’s critical, but we would like to have a starter,” he said. “If we can find that one more guy to plug in and give us a little bit of certainty innings-wise, that would be ideal for us. ... We have Marco (Gonzales), we have Yusei Kikuchi. We very much plan on starting the season with Justus Sheffield in our rotation. We have Kendall Graveman, who will be in our rotation.
“And with the fifth spot, we want to provide some stability. We also want to provide the potential for Justin Dunn to walk out of spring training taking a start every fifth day.”
The Mariners aren’t expecting to contend again this season, so if they do sign another starting pitcher, it will probably be another bounce-back candidate — like former A’s starter Graveman, who is expected slot into the rotation after missing more than a year while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
The potential signee would compete with Dunn, Seattle’s No. 5 prospect who started four games last September, for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring. And Dipoto would want that person to have enough versatility to possibly move into other pitching roles.
“Finding the right guy who can step into what might be a little bit more of a nebulous role, and be built that way is kind of what we’re eye-balling,” he said. “As you might expect, that’s not something that is likely to happen early December. It’s probably more likely to happen sometime in January, or even as we head toward spring training.”
If the Mariners are going to slow roll the younger stud prospects, can we expect to see Mitch Haniger traded? –Pat G., Tacoma
Probably not yet. Even after missing more than half of last season, Haniger remains one of Seattle’s most desirable players to opposing clubs — Dipoto told reporters in San Diego last week the Mariners “get hit on Mitch constantly” — but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to trade him.
Haniger’s former team, the Diamondbacks, are the most recent to have publicly reported interest in him, but the return in any trade would have to be substantial. Haniger turns 29 next week, has three years of club control remaining and has fully recovered from the gruesome injury that cost him nearly 100 games in 2019. Seattle still believes he can produce at the level he did in his first year with the club in 2017, and as an All-Star in 2018, and could even exceed those numbers. He fits perfectly fine into the club’s plans right now.
As for the prospects, I think they’ll come in waves, meaning there’s no need to move Haniger this season anyway. Kyle Lewis is already here and projected to start in left field after an impressive September audition with the Mariners, but others are still working through the minors. Top prospect Jarred Kelenic, who is 20, is rising quickly, but probably won’t be with the big-league club until late in the season at the earliest, and 19-year-old Julio Rodriguez, the club’s No. 2 prospect, is likely a year behind him. Prospects Jake Fraley and Braden Bishop are still on the 40-man roster but wouldn’t unseat a healthy Haniger.
Will Mallex Smith be the Opening Day center fielder? –Jim S., Puyallup
As much of a roller-coaster season as Smith had with the Mariners in 2019 — he missed significant time in spring training with an elbow strain, was optioned to Tacoma in April to iron out some inconsistencies at the plate and in the outfield, did some glove work with Mike Cameron, returned to the big leagues in May, and still had miscues during the summer months, but ended up leading the majors in stolen bases (46) anyway and finished hitting .227/.300/.335 with 19 doubles, nine triples, six homers and 37 RBI — there isn’t any reason to think he won’t be Seattle’s starting center fielder on Opening Day.
He doesn’t exactly figure into the club’s long-term plans with prized outfield prospects like Jarred Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez on the way. However, Seattle still needs outfielders now, and Smith is a proven leadoff hitter with speed and capability in center — even if the Mariners saw more mistakes than they would have liked from him in his first season with the club.
The Opening Day outfield likely consists of Lewis in left, Smith in center and Haniger returning to right after an injury-plagued 2019.
What is the biggest position (or positions) of news coming into the new year, and how do the Mariners go about addressing it? –Bryan R., University Place
My answer to this varies from moment to moment based on trade rumors and official moves the Mariners do make. Every position except shortstop has some interest given the changes, but here are a few that look exciting right now:
▪ First base: Seattle signed prospect Evan White to an unprecedented six-year deal in November, almost certainly assuring he will be the Opening Day first baseman.
That the Mariners traded catcher Omar Narvaez to the Brewers less than two weeks later clears the way for White even more because it basically ends the competition for the starting role at first base this spring.
White was expected to battle utility player Austin Nola for the spot, but Nola, who has ample catching experience in the minors, and backstop skills the Mariners rave about, could now become the backup for starting catcher Tom Murphy.
Should everything play out that way, seeing how White adjusts to an everyday role in the big leagues after playing the entirety of the 2019 season in Double-A will be one of the more intriguing storylines of the season.
▪ Second base: See above for my thoughts on this very perplexing situation involving Gordon and Long, and how the Mariners might handle it.
▪ Third base: OK, so this is only as interesting as the rumors you choose to believe or not believe. Kyle Seager is still the Mariners’ starting third baseman if he’s on the roster … but will he be on the roster? Once deemed untradeable because of a clause in his contract, Seattle is now fielding plenty of calls about its longtime third baseman. Do the Mariners trade Seager? Probably not, but it seems more possible than it did even a few weeks ago.
Is anyone in the organization untouchable? –Andrew N., Tacoma
I don’t think anyone is “untouchable” when Dipoto is involved. He will always answer calls, and he will always listen to what other clubs have to say. Does that always result in a trade? No. But, he has made trades involving 200 players since he arrived in Seattle in 2015.
Do I think the Mariners will trade J.P. Crawford, projected to be Seattle’s shortstop for years to come, or Lewis, or prized prospects like Kelenic, Rodriguez and Logan Gilbert? Of course not. Those guys, and others coming up through the ranks, are key pieces of the future Seattle is trying to build.
But, that doesn’t mean if the right offer comes along — for anyone on the roster — the Mariners won’t bite.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 6:01 AM with the headline "Mariners mailbag: Will Dee Gordon, Shed Long split time at second base? Is any Seattle player ‘untouchable’?."
