The trade deadline has come and past, and the Seattle Mariners made it clear they are eyeing a return to the postseason.
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The Mariners added a pair of All-Stars to their lineup in Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor, as well as quality left-hander to the bullpen in Caleb Ferguson. The additions come as Seattle is locked in races for the American League West crown and wild card berths.
Mariners general manager Justin Hollander joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Friday for a wide-ranging conversation on the trade deadline and it’s impact on the team. Here are three things we learned from Hollander’s conversation with Wyman and Bob.
The key figure behind Geno’s surprise flight
As Seattle Sports Mariners insider Shannon Drayer shared with Brock and Salk on Thursday, the Mariners received a pleasant surprise after a tough road trip when Suárez arrived as a surprise passenger on the team’s flight home from Sacramento on Wednesday night.
News that the Mariners had agreed to a deal, pending physicals, with the Diamondbacks to reunite with Suárez had broke just a couple hours before the team flew back home. As luck would have it, Arizona was beginning a series in Sacramento the next day and Suárez was already in route to the same city the M’s were about to depart from.
There was some doubt that Suárez, who was flying from Detroit with his family and not with the Diamondbacks, wouldn’t make it to Sacramento in time to fly back with the Mariners to Seattle. But vice president of major league operations Jack Mosimann made sure what ended up being a special moment for the team all came together.
“When I called Jack to let him know we were in medicals, he reached out to the Diamondbacks’ people,” Hollander said. “Once we actually got through medicals, they called Geno and Geno’s like, ‘I’ll just fly tomorrow morning.’ And Jack’s like, ‘We’re at the airport. We’ll pick you up.’ … Geno’s bag was already at the hotel because the Diamondbacks landed earlier. So, Jack arranged a car to go grab Geno’s bag off their truck, which is at the hotel in Sacramento, have the bag meet us at the airport, and then held the plane and didn’t tell anybody that’s why he was holding the plane.
“So, it was a cool moment to have the door open and (have Geno) pop on. My understanding is Geno literally hugged every single person on the plane when he walked all the way back, which is (a) very Geno way to to make an entrance. Those are great moments.”
What’s next for Ben Williamson
The addition of Suárez back to the lineup has been well received by the club and the fanbase. It did, however, force the Mariners to make the tough decision of sending rookie third baseman Ben Williamson to Triple-A Tacoma.
After being called up in mid-April despite only 565 minor league at-bats and 57 above the Double-A level, Williamson held down the hot corner while playing spectacular defense. His eight defensive runs saved lead American League third basemen, and he was perhaps the leading candidate at his position for a Gold Glove.
“Those are always the tough parts of moves like these is there has to be a corresponding move,” Hollander said. “Ben did an awesome job. He’s a couple of years removed from William & Mary and (had) the shortest pit stop you could imagine in Triple-A, and then he’s in the big leagues trying to fight for his life and make it work. He’s an awesome defender, he makes a ton of contact, he grinds at-bats. He did a great job. He had some really clutch hits.”
But Williamson’s offensive game still needs refinement, particularly unlocking more power. And the Mariners believe limiting him to a bench role in the majors could slow his development at the plate.
“That’s probably not the right thing for Ben Williamson at this stage of development. There’s things that he wants to work on and get better at,” Hollander said. “It’s really hard to do that when you’re playing once a week or a couple of innings of defense and then not playing again for a few days. So, (it’s) for Ben’s benefit and for our benefit. Ben hasn’t played a lot of other spots. He hasn’t had a ton of that at-bats at the upper levels. Going down and getting more at-bats and more reps to help him become the best version of himself, I think is very valuable for him and for us.”
Hollander said he sees Williamson wearing a Mariners uniform “for a long time” and has confidence there will be progression with power at the plate.
“For those who have been around Ben, Ben’s really strong. He puts in the work in the weight room, he hits the ball really hard,” Hollander said. “I think it’s the (launch) angles right now are more into the ground than in the air, and I think that’s something he’ll just learn to do overtime. Is he ever going to be a guy that hits 30 or 35 homers, or goes the Geno route and hits 50 homers in a season? Probably not. But is he going to learn to hit the ball in the air and take his shots and turn on the breaking ball that’s on the inner-third that maybe is a hanger? Yeah, I think he will learn that.”
In it until the end
With their three additions, the Mariners were among the winners of this year’s trade deadline. But they were still looking to add more up until finish line.
“We definitely tried,” Hollander said. “We were working all day on Saturday, before the Geno deal came together, on a different deal, which has kind of been reported out there. I don’t think that’s a big secret that we were trying to acquire relievers, in particular the Twins’ relievers, and we weren’t able to get that across the line. Yesterday was both relievers and players who maybe had good role-player skill sets to help to get the team just more versatile. … It just didn’t happen yesterday.”
But the Mariners are still happy with the haul they collected for their postseason push.
“We did add a lot at this deadline,” Hollander said. “It is a credit to our partners, John Stanton and Chris Larson, all the partners in the Mariners who really made it clear that they viewed this as an opportunity. If we could go out and add Josh Naylor and Geno Suárez and Caleb Ferguson, go do it. We did add a significant amount of payroll over the last week or so, and there wasn’t a moment of hesitation to go do it and try and win this year.”
Watch the full conversation in the video at the top of this story. Listen to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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