The Seattle Mariners made two big moves at the MLB trade deadline, and now they're just trying to hang on.
The Mariners are clinging to the final AL wild card spot with most of September still to play. They're hoping that those new guys from the Arizona Diamondbacks, Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez, can help keep them in the playoffs.
After the season, those two sluggers will bring their own important roles to the table. Seattle has to decide whether to keep them.
Naylor and Suarez were available at the deadline because they are in the last year of their current contracts. So they'll be free agents when the season ends.
The Mariners won't be the only team that wants them, of course. ESPN's Jeff Passan broke down both situations in a new article on Thursday.
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Passan wrote this on Naylor:
"He continues to be who he has always been: a bat-to-ball savant with enough power to stick at first. His 23 stolen bases this season are exceptional for a player of Naylor's build, and although he is prone to slumps -- he has been in one of late -- by the end of the season his numbers always look around the same. And that's productive."
And on Suarez, Passan had this to say:
"Suárez is 34, and after a disaster of a first few weeks in Seattle, he has climbed back to around a league-average bat with the Mariners. He's a beloved clubhouse figure, and with the prices and desired length of contracts for (Alex) Bregman, the Japanese corner infielders and even (Bo) Bichette high, Suárez could be the sort who winds up with a strong deal from a lower-revenue team willing to overpay on a shorter term."
Can Seattle keep either? Of course they can.
It'll be a question of how well these next few weeks go, what the vibes are between player and ballclub, and who else the Mariners might want to pursue.
They knew all along they'd have these quick free agent decisions to make when they traded for Naylor and Suarez. And the time is drawing closer to when those choices will come to the forefront.
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