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Seattle Mariners Must Be Sellers At Trade Deadline

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Fernando Rodney

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

It’s no secret that the Seattle Mariners have been an all-around disappointment after coming into the season with World Series aspirations. At the time of this writing, they are dead last in the AL West, looking up at the Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels and the surprising division-leading Houston Astros.

As painful or embarrassing as it may be to punt the remainder of the season, that’s exactly what the Mariners should do. Keep Felix Hernandez, Nelson Cruz, Taijuan Walker, Kyle Seager and Robinson Cano (unless they find a sucker — I mean, trade partner willing to take on the bulk of his salary) and sell off anything else that isn’t nailed down. I’m not saying they need to go full-on Miami Marlins in terms of a fire sale, but they should strip the roster and get what prospects and payroll relief they can. Fernando Rodney is too unreliable to keep his job in Seattle, and he’s been the worst thing about a miserable bullpen. Hisashi Iwakuma will be a free agent after the season and should return from shoulder soreness soon. Dustin Ackley continues to be abysmal, but he could be a perfect change-of-scenery guy.

More teams see themselves as contenders since the advent of the second Wild Card. Fringe teams are more apt to buy at the trading deadline than ever before. Knowing this, why wouldn’t the Mariners take advantage of the market, especially by jumping out in front of it so quickly? This may seem like an overreaction to a poor start, but we’re almost halfway through the season; the sample size is no longer that small. While turnarounds from Ackley and Rodney, as well as a healthy Iwakuma, could do wonders for the team, would that be enough to leapfrog at least three of the four teams ahead of them and snag a Wild Card spot? At nine games back, it’s starting to seem doubtful.

Of course, it’s more likely that the front office will add complementary pieces than ship off significant players. I’d guess that the team still sees themselves as underdogs, and we know full well that anything can happen in baseball. The smart choice, though, involves shedding as much dead weight as possible for prospects you can at least dream about. Would you take the certain-to-be-average production of Brad Miller for the rest of the year, or a mid-level minor leaguer who could deliver in a big way come 2016 or 2017? It’s a tremendous gamble, to be sure, but it’s a risk worth taking.

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