The Mariners Tried To Trade Dustin Ackley
That’s the headline I would use, were I a worthless sensationalist. Odds are, you’ve seen this by now, but not too long ago the Astros had their internal data system hacked, and where a few years ago that would’ve meant we’d get our eyes on hand-drawn sketches of a flying giraffe in a baseball cap, these Astros actually keep track of relevant baseball conversations, so we get to consider nuggets from what were supposed to be private exchanges. We get to see, for example, how Jeff Luhnow tried to market the exhaustingly mediocre Bud Norris. We don’t get to learn all that much, to be honest, and this is the sort of thing that could happen to almost any organization, but there is a little bit where the Mariners play a role, so, we’re going to do this. We’re going to turn this into a story that’s Mariners-relevant.
A blockquote of a note from last November:
[Luhnow] spoke with [Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik]. Jazk Z said he’s getting a lot of calls from Clubs asking him if he can get Castro from us. Jack Z asked if we would do Ackley for Castro. JL said no, we wouldn’t do that. Jack Z asked if there was someone he could add to Ackley. JL said he would take a look.
That’s basically it. If Luhnow took a look, there’s nothing else on the matter in the data dump, and obviously the Mariners never added Jason Castro. Based on the wording, and based on Mike Zunino, it’s not that the Mariners were really trying to acquire Castro so much as they were trying to facilitate a three- or four-way trade that would bring Castro to Seattle and then move him somewhere else. The Mariners were involved with teams interested in Jason Castro, and from those teams the Mariners would’ve wanted help, but we can’t identify the desired help, so this doesn’t really go any further.
Why would teams ask the Mariners to get Castro, instead of get him themselves? Maybe, based on the conversations with the Astros, the Mariners seemed like a better trade fit. Or maybe teams just felt better trying to take advantage of Jack Zduriencik than Jeff Luhnow.
GM: Luhnow’s driving a hard bargain.
GM: He’s probably not going to let up.
GM: Let’s try to get our guy from Jack.
GM: Let’s go ahead and try to involve Jack in this.
The meat: the initial offer. If this is all true, Jack Zduriencik tried to get Jason Castro for Dustin Ackley. It’s not a bad attempt, in that Jason Castro is a lot more valuable than Dustin Ackley is. Luhnow, naturally, turned the offer down, and it doesn’t seem things went much further. A year ago, by WAR, Castro was four wins better than Ackley, and while Ackley had a successful second half, and while Ackley is under team control a year longer, Castro’s a catcher with skills both at the plate and behind it. It’s evident that Zduriencik valued Ackley quite a bit lower than Castro, given that this was offer No. 1. It’s evident that Zduriencik isn’t totally committed to Ackley in the present or the future, which is wise given that Ackley looks more and more like a total bust with every passing day. Maybe what he needs is a different organization, or maybe what he needs is just more time, but the best thing about Dustin Ackley is what he’s done in Triple-A, and he’s approaching 2,000 trips in the bigs. Over this season’s last month, he’s slugged .227.
There are a couple more things we can take away from this that are at least somewhat relevant to the Mariners:
(1) The Mariners aren’t totally opposed to a move of significance within the division. I guess we already knew that, based on the John Jaso/Michael Morse three-team trade, so this isn’t major news, but while a lot of people like to think that dealing within a division is a non-starter, that doesn’t hold up to reason and it doesn’t seem to bother the Mariners all that much. Unless, of course, Zduriencik doesn’t value Ackley at all, and he was just trying to rip the Astros off. But if that were true, Ackley wouldn’t be starting for the Mariners right now. Zduriencik might value Ackley too much. The point — the Mariners were willing to send Ackley and more to the Astros, and the Astros play in the same division as the Mariners.
(2) The Mariners aren’t the only front office that makes laughably lopsided trade proposals. Something I’ve heard multiple times before is that Zduriencik has a habit of making offers that are borderline insulting. And that, of course, can be off-putting, but it can also be a way to kick off a negotiation, given that you have to start somewhere and you might as well factor in some ground to give. Luhnow was acting kind of crazy about the Bud Norris sweepstakes, in that he figured there was even such thing as a Bud Norris sweepstakes, but Norris still ultimately got moved, and not for very much. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do to make lopsided offers, but the Mariners aren’t alone on that island. Truth be told, it’s probably pretty common. It might just be a way to start a dialogue. Maybe it even lightens the mood! I don’t have a good gauge of general manager senses of humor.
Something we learned about the Mariners today: early last offseason, they expressed interest in trading a not very good player for a considerably better player. Those trade talks didn’t go anywhere, and so Dustin Ackley is still here and still disappointing. There’s something to be said about the fact that, this quickly after being drafted, Ackley wasn’t good enough to land Jason Castro on his own, but whatever would be said wouldn’t be new and it wouldn’t be surprising. Dustin Ackley’s kind of been crap. Especially lately, but even several months ago, he was a man with a fading memory of excellence.
A big big part of me is glad this didn’t happen to the Mariners’ front office. An equally-sized part of me is sad.
Game 83, Mariners at Astros
Unlike assorted other scrubs (I am glaring at Josh Tomlin), Collin McHugh has also been good against other baseball teams, though not quite as good as he was against us on April 22nd. There have been fewer Ks and more walks at times, but he’s gone 6+ in five of his twelve outings so far. One exception is the last time we faced him in Houston, May 4th, when the Mariners touched him up for more runs than in any of his other starts and knocked him out before the fourth inning, his shortest start of the year. So either the Mariners will be dominated by him, or they’ll kick ass, or somewhere in between.
You aren’t here to read about Collin McHugh, you’re here to read about Taijuan Walker. As grudgingly as I would go to something that presents itself as “Fantasy” content, the Baseball America “What To Expect” Profile does a lot of good to talk about his repertoire, strengths/weaknesses, and his most recent outing. That last one was his first complete game shutout ever as a pro! Wow! (He’s only ever had one other complete game)
The story from his time rehabbing, of course, is larger than that. He was all right in High Desert and Jackson back in the first couple of weeks of April before his shoulder started balking again and he needed to go back. Unlike the more depressing scenarios that played out with Hultzen, he was able to pitch again for Tacoma. Out of the six starts he made there, he’s hit the five inning mark or more in his last four starts, walked one or fewer four times (and three or more twice), and has struck out seven or more twice, with all the other outings being in the threes or fours. This isn’t super meaningful since we’re talking three innings or fewer with at least two of those outings. What I’m trying to drive at by saying all this is just to indicate that his command can be good or bad. The Astros don’t have much position player value because their defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs, has been the worst in the league, but they’re roughly in the middle of the pack for offense. Many things could happen.
DH Endy Chavez
CF James Jones
2B Robinson Cano
3B Kyle Seager
1B Logan Morrison
C Mike Zunino
RF Michael Saunders
LF Dustin Ackley
SS Rad Miller
Other stuff? Mac says that neither Smoak nor Hart will be back this week. Kyle Seager was AL Player of the Week, Taijuan Walker was PCL Pitcher of the Week, Daniel Missaki was APL Pitcher of the Week. Paxton threw a 35-pitch bullpen that went all right. Joel Pineiro, in triple-A, tested positive for a banned stimulant and was released by the Angels.
Go ‘Ners!
Podcast: A Fortnight Done Well
Monday morning podcast(s) continues/begins.
Apologies for last week’s absence, but I was not in a place able to record. And unfortunately this week’s podcast was shorter than our usual. And next week, with the 4th, may be delayed and/or short as well. We’ll see, but will try to deliver you as much awesome as we’re capable of. Thank you for you listenership.
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