Mariners trade for Brendan Donovan

[Ruminator]

Sure look forward to watching him in the Ms line-up this year:

Donovan’s bat, however, is just as much why the Mariners were interested in acquiring him. He has a career slash line of .282/.361/.411 (.772 OPS) with 40 home runs, 97 doubles, five triples and 202 RBIs -- good for 10.1 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, and 119 wRC+. (MLB average is 100.) He also sported a 13.5% strikeout rate that was MLB’s 15th-best among 306 qualified hitters in that span, making him an ideal contact specialist at T-Mobile Park, one of the sport’s least friendly hitter environments.

(From https://www.mlb.com/mariners/news/brendan-donovan-mariners-trade)

Projected line-up; if Canzone has a better year hitting this season, whoo yea!

 

[SoulfishHawk]

I'm still waiting for someone to start complaining about the trade. I'm feeling a little gypped.

Oh trust me, plenty of people are complaining. Just not on here.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

He is #13 in the ENTIRE LEAGUE in OBP since the beginning of 2022.

 

[Sperrydogg]

Cjinte was part of it? I’m glad they flipped him for something useful. He’s interesting but he’s not gonna be a switch pitcher….

 

[Sperrydogg]

Well they did trade the Switch pitching (can't pronounce his name) guy that I was kind of looking forward to seeing.

They switched the switch pitcher to right handed… he was too fatigued. His numbers were very lopsided too, like he pitched left like 10% of the time.

 

[bileever]

After spending several paragraphs complaining about Williamson in the Suarez thread, all I can say is "Oops." Maybe the Mariners are not going to give us much to complain about this year.

I like the three signings this off-season: Naylor, Refsnyder and Donovan. (And I think we got better defensively at backup catcher with Knizer.) I think that against left handed pitching we'll see Refsynder and Robles at DH and RF, and against right handed pitching, it will be Raley and Canzone.

The battles left in spring training? Colt Emerson vs. Cole Young for second base? Leo Rivas vs. Miles Mastrobuoni for utility IF?

 

[sutz]

Did a little checking on Ryan Bliss 2B. Not much out there beyond he's expected back in '26. Probably go back to Tacoma when he's cleared to play. I remember him as a great glove at 2B but not ready at the plate yet. Another infielder to keep an eye on.

 

[bileever]

Did a little checking on Ryan Bliss 2B. Not much out there beyond he's expected back in '26. Probably go back to Tacoma when he's cleared to play. I remember him as a great glove at 2B but not ready at the plate yet. Another infielder to keep an eye on.

Forgot all about him. I see he's listed on the current Mariners' roster. He had a great year in AAA Tacoma in 2024--.833 OPS, 50 stolen bases, even showed a little power with 25 doubles, 12 HRs.

He was the starting second baseman when he went down last year with a torn bicep. What I didn't know was that when he was rehabbing from that injury in Tacoma, he suffered a torn meniscus in his knee.

If he's recovered from those injuries, I guess he would compete against Emerson and Young for the second base job.

 

[AnimeAmore]

I generally prefer keeping prospects, but trading them for a player in the off-season is better than paying a ransom at the deadline. The mariners are also at the point where trading prospects actually starts to make sense. If the roster is good enough that minor leaguers would have a hard time finding regular playing time then you either need to keep them in the minors or trade them for a veteran who can help now. Luckily it seems as though the Ms didn't just have a bumper crop of prospects due to luck, and actually have a process that should result in good draft classes, so they can view their prospects as renewable.
As much as it sucks to see prospects getting shipped out, it would suck even more to fall an inch short because we wanted to protect some prospects. We need a world series.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

From six automatic playoff outs down to five. Great trade. That's how this team should be using its farm system, especially right now.

 

[bileever]

From six automatic playoff outs down to five. Great trade. That's how this team should be using its farm system, especially right now.

Wow, that's a brutal assessment, lol.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

From six automatic playoff outs down to five. Great trade. That's how this team should be using its farm system, especially right now.

 

[NoGain]

Over the years, I've gotten a lot less covetous about minor league prospects. The hype machine over prospects and their potential too often ends up being just that, hype. Of course you need a good minor league system full of prospects, and if there's one thing I commend Dipoto for it's turning around our mostly abysmal and disappointing farm system under our former general managements and scouting departments. But prospects are just as much about acquiring proven talent then they are developing your own. It's all just a situational thing, getting better adept at recognizing the keepers, knowing where you are on the competitive ladder, having a realistic vision about roster construction, etc...

Losing Williamson, Cinjtje, and a 60 some draft pick to gain a proven contact hitter at this point, when we still have a deep farm system loaded with prospects...piffle. I can't even muster up a sense of loss, so overshadowed as it is by the gain to me.

 

[bileever]

Losing Williamson, Cinjtje, and a 60 some draft pick to gain a proven contact hitter at this point, when we still have a deep farm system loaded with prospects...piffle. I can't even muster up a sense of loss, so overshadowed as it is by the gain to me.

It's been often said that prospects, like draft picks, are just lottery tickets. Except for a very few, unproven gambles. "Can't miss" prospects like Jarred Kelenic, Dustin Ackley, Brandon Morrow, Evan White, to name a few.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Yep, people lose their minds when prospects are traded. Only to see so many of them do little to nothing in the league.
Also, you can't trade a box of onions and expect an all-star in return.

 

[AnimeAmore]

Hate losing Willy, but if Donovan lives up to his former stats it should work.

A note about "hitting at T-Mobile." Most of the time when I hear that I hear "hard to hit homers at T-Mobile." Numerous guys have hit for average at T-Mobile. Singles and doubles don't care where the fences are for the most part. And what we have needed is guys that hit for average, can get on base and be there when the big boppers come up.

On paper, it looks like a good add.

The playoffs showed exactly why offense needs to be treated as a team activity. During the season we did much better playing as a team, while in the playoffs everyone was treating each at bat as if they needed a HR.

 

[getnasty]

Great trade and we're much better for it.
I would love to know their plan on getting Cole and Colt playing time. Maybe Cole Young plays 2B against righties and Donovan plays 3B? That would only have Colt Emerson playing 3B against lefties and Donovan moving to 2B, which doesn't seem like enough playing time for Emerson. We are obviously in win mode now but those 2 need to play more often then not in my opinion.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Honestly, I still would love to see one more bat. It's never too much. If it gets Canzone out of the lineup, I'm all for it.

 

[Ruminator]

Honestly, I still would love to see one more bat. It's never too much. If it gets Canzone out of the lineup, I'm all for it.

I agree, though some out there are supposing that Canzone might be poised to have a breakout year in 2026. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. So if Ms are exploring landing one more bat as insurance, who would the candidates be?

 

[Ozzy]

Canzone is a hard one for me. He was a .300 hitter during the regular season I think? But he just looked overmatched in the playoffs so I'm not sure what he is.