Dipoto discusses Mariners' 'fairly uneventful' Deadline

SEATTLE -- The Trade Deadline came and went on Tuesday, and for Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, it “was fairly uneventful by our standards.”

Seattle’s lone deal Tuesday before the clock struck at 3 p.m. PT was acquiring reliever Eduard Bazardo from Baltimore in exchange for Minor League right-hander Logan Rinehart.

In a market that saw fewer blockbuster transactions than typical, Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander pointed to the lack of available bats for why no late deal manifested. Most of the headlining trades centered on pitching, particularly in the American League West, where they sit in fourth place.

“I think around the league, it was much slower in general,” Hollander said. “There just weren't a lot of sellers this year. I think the extra Wild Card, just the nature of the way that standings shape up and the teams that were truly out of it and what they had to offer, there weren't a lot of late-afternoon deal conversations that went on.”

Arguably the best bat dealt was Jeimer Candelario (16 homers, .823 OPS) from the Nationals to the Cubs, and Candelario was a straight rental as an impending free agent. C.J. Cron (.780 OPS) and Randal Grichuk (.861 OPS) going from the Rockies to the Angels could also be in that group, and they’re also rentals. Josh Bell, too, though he’s having a down year (96 OPS+).

Old friend Carlos Santana, another rental, last Thursday went from the Pirates to Brewers, who also acquired Mark Canha from the Mets on Monday. Canha for years seemed like a strong match for Seattle, though he’s now in his age-34 season.

The Mariners weren’t against shopping in the rental market, but they weren’t going to pay premium prospect capital for those players. Instead, they leveraged closer Paul Sewald in exchange for two bats that are more upside pieces (infielder Josh Rojas and outfielder Dominic Canzone) and a promising prospect (infielder Ryan Bliss).

“We could have gone out there with a bag of money and a ton of prospects and we still couldn't have really done a whole lot outside of what we did,” Dipoto said. “We knew we were going to be threading a needle in terms of trying to make our club better now while also building a bridge forward without tapping into our prospect system in any meaningful way.”

Moreover, they held on to those blueprint-type players by not dealing Teoscar Hernández, Tom Murphy or Ty France, who drew marginal interest in the past week or so.

Dipoto said that Hernández drew “a ton of interest,” adding that most of the teams that checked in on Hernández -- among them, the Twins, Yankees and Blue Jays, the very team that dealt him to Seattle last offseason -- are those that the Mariners are chasing in the standings.

“We simply didn't feel like we got a fair offer in what we think he's worth,” Dipoto said. “And we don't feel like we've seen the best of what Teo has to give. Maybe now, with the stress of the Deadline passed, he gets some traction. ... So, we rolled with it, and we’ll see what he does.”

Behind the scenes, the Mariners are bullish on Canzone, who hit .354/.431/.634 (1.065 OPS) with Triple-A Reno before making his MLB debut on July 8. He’s hit at every stop since being drafted out of Ohio State in 2019, with a career slash line in the Minors of .310/.377/.556 (.933 OPS).

Rojas, whom the club has tried to acquire each of the past two offseasons, has a .588 OPS and been worth 61 wRC+ this season (league average is 100). He mostly represents a lefty-hitting, middle-infield upgrade over Kolten Wong, who was designated for assignment on Thursday to end a challenging tenure in Seattle.

Before looking ahead, a grander inquiry of how the Mariners’ roster was constructed last offseason is a legitimate question, particularly after most of the key additions are now gone. Wong was DFA’d, AJ Pollock was dealt to the Giants for cash considerations or a player to be named later on Monday, Tommy La Stella was released on May 4 and Cooper Hummel has been at Triple-A Tacoma since April 22.

"It didn't work here,” Dipoto said. “I don't want to kick anybody on the way out. We made the decisions to bring them here.”

The Mariners were probably always going to proceed with the nucleus that’s been here rather than realistically expect a massive external upgrade.

"We still have very good pitching,” manager Scott Servais said. “We have some young guys that are continuing to get better. We have position players that I don't think have gotten really hot at any point together as a group. I do think we have a run in us, but it's not going to be easy."