A GRIP TO THE SPORT • Thanks to the miracle of satellite radio, yesterday I was able to listen to the Mets’ radio broadcast of their game with the Mariners. And yes, Jarred Kelenic’s name was mentioned once or twice.
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• Determination of a winner It’s as American as it gets. It doesn’t matter if there really is no competition. No. Tell us who won.
Baseball trades fit into that category. People quickly decide who won or lost a trade even before it is consummated. Or a week later. Next year. But such things often take a decade to determine which team got the best deal. If someone did.
That’s why the name Kelenic came up. during M’s 2-1 series opening win. Often.
If you’ve forgotten, in 2018, the Ms traded Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz and some cash to the Mets. In exchange, they received four players, the most prominent of whom was Kelenic, at the time one of the Mets’ top minor league prospects.
But the real reason the Mariners made the trade was to get out of less than $100 million they owed Cano, by then beginning to show his age a bit.
Regardless of what happened from that day on, if Seattle had spent the money to improve its roster, then the trade would have been a good thing. We’re not sure the M front office has done that to the extent that it should have, so we have to examine the trade primarily at first glance, and the performance of the included players.
As you may know, Cano was basically a flop with New York. He had a bad year in 2019, a decent one in 2020 (the pandemic-shortened season) and then was suspended for 2021 after violating baseball’s steroid policy for the second time. This season he was so bad that the Mets cut him. (He signed with San Diego this week.) Overall, he was a waste on his return to New York. An expensive waste.
Diaz has been better. He had his problems early on, but once again he’s the dominant guy late in the game which was with the M’s.
M’s loot? Jay Bruce and Gerson Bautista did little and are out of baseball. Anthony Swarzak was ineffective and was traded before the 2019 season ended. That he left, in addition to Kelenic, Justin Dunn.
The right-handed pitcher never achieved more than mediocre status with Seattle, but he played a role in their biggest offseason acquisitions. He was included in the Cincinnati deal that brought Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker to Seattle. By some accounts, he was the key part of that deal for the Reds.
If you mean the M’s got Kelenic, Winker and Suarez for Cano and Diaz, let’s not argue. Looking at it that way though, even that equation seems pretty even at this point, maybe even leaning towards New York. Suarez and Winker have yet to show much of what they delivered last season for the Reds. If they do, put the check mark in the Mariners column.
However, we all know how the trade is perceived to ultimately come down to what happens with Kelenic, right? So far that hasn’t been much more than decent-to-good defense in the outfield.
He just hasn’t hit at the major league level. Still.
We added that last word because he is still 22 years old. He has time, despite having been sent to Tacoma before the new york series it started.
He’s been in the bigs for less than a season of games. Less than 500 at-bats. He cuts the cake right here and the M piece is pretty thin. However, unlike Cano, and even Diaz, there is more than a decade of possibilities ahead of Kelenic. There’s still time to transform from a poor Major League hitter with negative WAR to someone who helps Seattle succeed.
We don’t know if it will happen. You neither. Neither did the Mets’ broadcast team, one of which — we’re not familiar with the voices, but we’re pretty sure it was Wayne Randazzo — pointed out the same thing when play-by-play guy Howie Rose started undermining Kelenic. and the millisecond.
However, we are sure of a couple of things. We are sure that Cano is finished in New York. And we’re sure the Mariners saved a lot of money that they had available for other uses. If you have to declare a winner, then do it. We’ll call it a wash.
Today.
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WSU: The hot streak of the baseball team he ran into a pitcher from UCLA who was able to stop him. And he did. The Bruins won 4-0. … Elsewhere in Pac-12 and college football, because the NCAA did not want to allow schools to become intimately involved with name, image, and likeness, the organization opened the door for hard-to-control boosters to take over. the control. … AN Colorado The offensive lineman is looking forward, not backward.
Gonzaga: Something amazing is happening with the Bulldogs baseball team. Amazing enough to propel them all the way to Omaha? Maybe. We’ve seen stranger things in our nearly 50 years of dealing with college baseball. Last night, in his first game since saying goodbye to Danny Evans, his assistant coach who died in April, the Zags trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth. And he won 3-2 with a walk-off single. Dave Nichols has the coverage. … The transfer of the Zags it fits well into your system and deserves a high rating.
preparations: Dave also has a summary of Friday’s games.
indians: hillsboro collected a 4-1 home win over Spokane.
Sailors: Marco Gonzales got off to a poor start yesterday, though defending the infield on a rainy New York night didn’t help. He allowed one run in the first inning and went just over a second scoreless. But he persevered. And the M’s ultimately won, mainly because Ty France took a hit and took a key hit. … Mike Ford knows how to live out of a suitcase.
Seahawks: Pete Carroll is changing a bit. He’s changing his defense to accommodate the NFL’s offensive changes. … The NFL Was Smart Enough To Use Player Trades In The Off-Season to inflate your schedule.
Storm: Sue Bird and Diane Taurasi can meet one last time in Seattle.
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• Last year Phil Mickelson was at the top of the golf world. He had won the PGA Championship at age 50, the oldest major winner in history. He won’t even defend his title now, an outcast made by his own mouth and what appears to be ever-increasing greed. That saddens us a bit. See you later …
Reference-www.spokesman.com