Five Lessons From The Trade Deadline

By Patrick

Eric Thames, the Mariners' most notable acquisition

Alas, the July 31st MLB non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone. While the Mariners didn't make any moves right before 1:00 PM PST, they made three significant trades in the week before the deadline. The first was the highly publicized Ichiro deal, which sent the former Mariner superstar to the New York Yankees for AAA RHP DJ Mitchell and AAA RHP Danny Farquhar. The other two trades went down last night after the Blue Jays game. The M's sent Steve Delabar to Toronto in exchange for OF Eric Thames in yet another clubhouse-switching deal (The Jays are in town now, so Thames just had to switch jerseys). The final trade of the week sent Brandon League to the Dodgers in exchange for AA RHR Logan Bawcom and High-A center fielder Leon Landry.

So in summary, not a whole lot of guarantees, but the M's did clear out a lot of players that weren't helping this season and weren't going to be a part of the future of the organization. My initial thoughts on all three were positive, since combined Ichiro, League, and especially Delabar helped us very little, and yet we got trade value for them. None of the prospects the M's got in return scream huge value, but they're all potentially pieces, and Eric Thames is a major league baseball player, albeit a so far below-average one. Here are the five things I learned from the moves the Mariners made over the last week.

1. There's a plan in place

If you had told me ten days ago, that the Mariners would trade Ichiro to the Yankees, I would have either completely disregarded you or punched you in the face, depending on how negative I was feeling about Ichiro at the time and depending on how mad at you I was. I was under the impression that the organization was too chicken to move Ichiro, or even dare to not re-sign him in the offseason. But whether they were going to re-sign him or not, he asked to be traded, and the organization honored his request. For me, that said that Jack Z has a plan, and the organization allowed him to execute it. Unless he's not the GM we think he is, there's no way Ichiro was in his plans past 2012. Jack has a plan, and he's sticking to it.

The same goes for the Brandon League and Steve Delabar moves. The Mariners had invested in League to be their closer, and he showed that he couldn't do it effectively enough. So they shipped him out for potentially helpful prospects. Steve Delabar wouldn't stop giving up big home runs and sucking in general, so Jack Z cut him lose and grabbed a major league outfielder. There's a plan, and Jack is executing it without ownership interfering.

2. That being said, Jack Z won't just make trades for the sake of acquiring more pieces

Imagine that you also told me that the Mariners would trade three players in the week leading up to this year's deadline and then asked me to guess which ones got moved. I would have said Jason Vargas, Brandon League, and Kevin Millwood. I would have been one for three. Jason Vargas probably had the most trade value of any truly available Mariner, but in the end it didn't make sense to let him go. He had too much value to the current and future (contract extension?) team, and the rotation would have been screwed without him. I'm not sure why Millwood didn't go somewhere, but clearly the package wasn't good enough for him. That's fine. Jack Z needs to make trades to help the team, not just trades for the sake of trades. I think he made the right moves, and making more than three moves might have shown a little too much desperation.

3. The Mariners are still trying to get younger


Ichiro shipped out for a pair of 25-year olds, Steve Delabar becomes a 25-year old outfielder, and Brandon League becomes two players who were in A-ball this season. Essentially, even more youth. Throw in that the corresponding moves brought Trayvon Robinson, Steven Pryor, and Carter Capps up to the MLB squad, and the focus is clear: youth is being served. For the remainder of 2012, that's OK. The Mariners are out of the playoff hunt and should use the remaining two months of the season to help bring along the kids. But by next season, they need some solid veterans in place that can pick up the slack when the young guys falter.

4. Some Mariners "veterans" may be up for contract extensions soon


Jack didn't trade Jason Vargas, even though he was linked to like seven different teams this week and could have brought back some value. He didn't trade Brendan Ryan, whose bat has been coming around lately and should certainly win an AL Gold Glove for his defense. Do the M's finally have some veteran players who can help the team win? It seems like the organization feels Ryan and Vargas can do just that. Sure, the M's have James Paxton, Danny Hultzen, and Taijuan Walker all waiting to join the rotation next season, and they have Nick Franklin and Brad Miller showing huge promise at shortstop. But maybe Jack had to look beyond the "potential" of these guys in the minors and focus on what he has in Vargas and Ryan. He has a solid and consistent number three starter in Vargas who keeps his ERA in the mid-threes and has the team lead in wins, and not because of insane run support. He also has the best defensive player in all of baseball at shortstop, who is totally acceptable if he hits .240 out of the nine hole. Instead of stressing through more rookie development, Jack may decide to commit to players who don't need to develop, since they are already known entities.

5. Felix is ours, and you can't have him


Another sub-.500 trade deadline gone, yet Felix Hernandez remains a Mariner. The Diamondbacks were apparently working on a huge blockbuster trade for  a starting pitcher this morning, but that didn't pan out. Could it have been Justin Upton and Trevor Bauer for Felix? Maybe. But who cares? Felix is a Mariner, and all of that speculation and "the Mariners need to trade him" shit is just that, shit. Because Felix Hernandez is now the only icon this team has. He's the best player, the most-liked player, the most-watched player, and the most exciting player. And he's ours. And you can't have him. Great job Jack Z. Go M's.