House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves could benefit from Seattle Mariners rebuild

By Benjamin Chase

SEATTLE, WA - SEPTEMBER 30: GM Jerry Dipoto of the Seattle Mariners looks on from the dugout prior to the game against the Houston Astros at Safeco Field on September 30, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
SEATTLE, WA - SEPTEMBER 30: GM Jerry Dipoto of the Seattle Mariners looks on from the dugout prior to the game against the Houston Astros at Safeco Field on September 30, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
BALTIMORE, MD – MAY 18: Kyle Seager #15 of the Seattle Mariners commits a fielding error off of a hit by Adam Jones #10 of the Baltimore Orioles during the seventh inning on May 18, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /

Say no and walk away

There is a reason why the Seattle Mariners are having to pursue this tear-down. There are some terrible contracts here, and unlike the San Francisco Giants, who have bad contracts on players that would at least fit with the Braves, the Mariners contracts are on players who really wouldn’t have a position in Atlanta.

The first guy to avoid will be one that at least has some reasonable connection position-wise. Kyle Seager may have one of the worst contracts for performance in the game right now. An average defender at the hot corner, his offense has fallen off hard, with his third straight season of declining OPS+ in 2018, each season dropping by at least 23 OPS+ points, which is a huge drop-off. Now heading into his age-31 season, Seager is signed through 2021 and his 2022 team option becomes a player option if he’s traded, so the Braves would be on the hook until 2022 for a total of $71 million for a guy who was a negative-value defender at third base, per DRS, in 2018 and also posted a sub-100 OPS+. No thanks!

While his production is certainly not an issue, the pay that is due Mike Leake makes a deal for him not worth the trade. Leake is signed for $36 million guaranteed over the next two seasons, with an option for 2021. While that’s not a ridiculous amount of money for a guy who’s offered 30 starts every season since 2012 for roughly league-average value, but the Atlanta Braves need more than simply league-average. Leake would be a guy the team could absorb in a deal in order to make another player more feasible, but otherwise, the Braves should stay away.

Though his speed could be very fun to have on the team, in no way should the Atlanta Braves pursue Dee Gordon. Gordon spent his first season with the Seattle Mariners in 2018, and his speed and ability to handle second base and center field is impressive, but he very notably seemed a step slower in 2018, hitting .268/.288/.349 with 30 steals in 588 plate appearances, but on top of seemingly losing a step, he also had an atrocious 9/80 BB/K ratio. He’s owed ~$28 million guaranteed over the next two seasons, with an option for 2021 that would make it ~$42 million.

While he had a very solid 2018 season and is signed for a very solid salary, with less than $2 million combined dedicated to him over the next two seasons and still multiple years of arbitration left after those seasons, Marco Gonzales would not be a guy that the Atlanta Braves should target. Not that Gonzales doesn’t have value in a rotation for someone, but his talent level is not higher than multiple options that the Atlanta Braves already have in-house.

Finally, there really isn’t a spot to put Robinson Cano with the Atlanta Braves, so I won’t even go deep into arguing why. He needs to play 1B at least 50% of the time now, and the Braves have a guy there that they don’t intend to platoon.

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