Major League Baseball’s traded deadline came and went at 1 p.m. Monday afternoon, and the Seattle Mariners decided they’d done enough.
Seattle, which came into the deadline with a .500 record at 53-53, made no more trades Monday, meaning the Mariners largely stood pat at the trade deadline. Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto did make two minor deals involving the pitching staff in the run-up to the trade deadline, acquiring reliever David Phelps from Miami in exchange for a sackful of minor leaguers, while also reacquiring swingman Erasmo Ramirez from Tampa Bay in exchange for reliever Steve Cishek. Neither move is expected to have a dramatic effect on Seattle’s fate.
However, the Mariners didn’t make the big move, either by acquiring a name starting pitcher to aid the rotation, or trading away some of their older assets in a bid to get younger. The ability to buy may have been complicated by Seattle’s shortage of desirable prospects to swap, and the ability to sell may have been hampered by the large contracts associated with the Mariners’ older veterans.
That means Seattle will try to end its 15-year playoff drought with the hand it was dealt. The Mariners have no chance of winning the American League West, as they sit 16 games behind division-leading Houston. But Seattle is still part of the wild-card race as the M’s are currently in fourth position for the two wild-card berths, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.
Was mostly standing pat the right move? Or should the Mariners have done something more dramatic, either by making a big acquisition to try and make a push to end the playoff drought, or by trading away veterans to try and build for the future? Have your say:
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