Seattle Mariners acquire Teoscar Hernández, get ‘dangerous offensively’
|
By Corey Brock
Nov 16, 2022
When we last saw new Mariners outfielder Teoscar Hernández, he was doing the one thing his new team hopes he’ll do a lot more of in 2023.
You haven’t forgotten Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series in Toronto, have you? You know, the game where Seattle trailed 8-1 after five innings, before rallying for a 10-9 victory in the clincher over the Blue Jays.
Toronto’s early lead that day was partly built on two home runs by Hernández, who on Wednesday was acquired from Toronto for relief pitcher Erik Swanson and minor-league pitcher Adam Macko.
That kind of production — Hernández had averaged 24 home runs the last five seasons — is exactly what the Mariners coveted the most as they cast aside the SOLO cups of Champagne from their dreamy 2022 season and moved forward with building a better roster for 2023.
“We needed to get more dangerous offensively,” Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said in a post-trade news conference over Zoom.
This may very well go down as the most important offseason in club history (for a lot of reasons), and the Mariners kicked it off in splendid fashion by adding Hernández, who turned 30 last month and will be a free agent following this season.
Seattle did so by moving a player from the deepest part of its core — the bullpen — and a prospect in Macko, who probably would have fit in somewhere at the back end of their top-10 prospect rankings. The Mariners also made this deal without moving pitcher Chris Flexen, one of their top trade chips.
Yes, the fact that Hernández will be a free agent following the season mitigated the return the Jays got in the deal. Hernández, arbitration-eligible for the final time, will make around $14 million. There is always a chance the Mariners can extend him.
If that happens, it will follow a recent (rare) habit of spending by Seattle. In the past calendar year, the Mariners have given pitcher Robbie Ray $115 million, have guaranteed center fielder Julio Rodríguez $209 million (and possibly more over time) and also have given pitcher Luis Castillo $108 million.
Yes, it appears the days of fringe trades with the hopes of catching lightning in a bottle may be gone for the Mariners.
The Mariners, coming off a season where they drew 2.28 million fans to T-Mobile Park, have (seemingly) recaptured the love and excitement from their forlorn fan base. The club will host the All-Star Game next July. This is a franchise that is clearly trending upward.
Hernández, who figures to play right field, isn’t a great defender (minus-3 defensive runs saved), but the Mariners didn’t acquire him for his glove. They needed another productive bat for a lineup that scored one run or less 29 times — yet still won 90 games.
Steamer projections for 2023 have Hernández hitting 30 home runs with a 121 wRC+ and a 2.3 WAR. He’ll help. And he should certainly help a lot. If you’re wondering how Hernández’s power will play in a ballpark that has suppressed offense consider this: If he had played all his games in Seattle a year ago, those 27 home runs would have equated to 31 home runs.
Really, Hernández’s power would probably play well at Yellowstone National Park.
And now Hernández joins a team that he said reminds him of those Blue Jays teams he played on in the past — young, hungry and talented. Hernández, who said he wasn’t surprised to be traded, said he was looking forward to playing in Seattle.
“What I can see this team is capable of, it’s pretty awesome,” Hernández said on a call Wednesday. “Being a part of that is exciting for me. I couldn’t be any happier to be a part of this.”
This deal, of course, didn’t come without a cost. Swanson was a critical cog to the Mariners’ bullpen a year ago, posting a 1.68 ERA in 57 games with a whopping 34 percent strikeout rate. He will need to be replaced, but the club certainly has a history of identifying and helping relievers to become the best versions of themselves.
“There was a pretty decent market for Teo as you would expect,” said Toronto general manager Ross Atkins. “In the end, it worked out that Seattle put the best offer in front of us.”
Macko, a left-hander from Alberta, Canada, will turn 22 next month. He’s been limited to 85 innings over the past two seasons because of injuries. Seattle liked his makeup and his pitch mix, but with the chance to strike big now, the club was willing to move him in the right deal.
This, to be sure, was the right deal.
“We had a chance to add an impact bat,” Hollander said. “This one was too good an opportunity for us to pass up on.”
There have certainly been times during the Mariners’ rebuild, which began in earnest after the 2018 season, when moves like the one the club made Wednesday felt improbable or, at the very least, a million miles away.
But the Mariners’ competitive window is now wide open and coming off a historic season of meaningful baseball, the club saw this move as a win-now deal that can help them achieve their goal of building a sustainable winner.
“Our roster is built to win today,” Hollander said.
Locking up Ray, Rodríguez and Castillo long-term was a start. And now dealing for Hernández helps in moving that needle, with the prospect that more help for the roster is on the way.
The offseason has long represented something of a winter of discontent for Mariners’ fans. And while it’s too early to say that has changed entirely, moves like the one the Mariners made Wednesday seem to suggest a brave new world is upon us.
|
Replies are disabled on threads older than 7 days.
|
|