Jack Z Makes a Really Awful Trade

By: Anthony

As a college student, I have certain freedoms that I do tend to indulge in that other, older people do not have. The abundance of sunshine where I am is one of them, In-N-Out burgers are another thing, but my favorite indulgence is napping.

          

 I may have to only wake up at 10AM but that is still too early for me sometimes, so I take a midday nap when I get the chance. So as I was beginning to settle in for a snooze today I was awoken by a text from my brother. It read “Morse Eh?” and was quickly followed by Patrick texting me “Morse!” That instantly made me go to Twitter and investigate. Sifting through the Manti Te’o fake girlfriend stories, I found a few stories about the M’s closing in on Mike Morse. I wasn’t a fan of adding Morse because, as I told Patrick a week ago, he really fills the hole we have at 1B and DH. He didn’t get the sarcasm.

            

This is a top result when you google search for MIke Morse images. I am not kidding

Anyway, I then kept looking through my tweets and saw that it was a three-way trade and the A’s were the third team involved. Cool, good for Billy Beane. Then I saw the thing that ruined any chance I had at finishing my siesta. John Jaso was whom we traded away in return for Morse. I then quickly replied to both Patrick and my brother with expletive-heavy texts.

            
This is an awful trade for the Mariners. And the worst thing is that there are six seven reasons why this is an awful trade for the Mariners and leaves them in a super awkward place roster-wise.

1. Mike Morse can only play 1B/DH. I really couldn’t tell you who would be a worse outfielder, him or Raul Ibanez. And even worse, I don’t know whom that is a worse insult to. As a reminder, that now makes three first basemen on the roster right now, four if you count Ibanez and five DH’s.

2. Fine, I’m adding an extra reason in case the M’s see Morse as an outfielder. We already have Guti, Saunders, Wells, Thames, Carp, Peguero and Bay competing for a spot in the outfield. And Morse needs Guti next to him in center to hide his lack of defense. So not only does he not clear up anything at 1B/DH, but he also makes the outfielder even harder to figure out.

I'll say this for Morse, he knows how to prepare for Seattle weather

3. Jesus Montero is the only catcher on the 40-man roster right now. Yes, the same Jesus Montero who is supposed to be transitioning from C to DH and 1B. And there is no way the organization is counting on Mike Zunino breaking camp with the team. So we either carry one catcher all year, or have to sign or trade for another C who will now see significant playing time and will probably be awful offensively.

4. Mike Morse broke into the league in 2005. Seven seasons ago. And has played in 485 games. That is less than 70 games a season. He has broken 500 AB’s in a season once in his career. He is a huge injury risk and becomes a free agent after this upcoming season.  To summarize this reason, we could be giving up John Jaso for most likely less than a whole season of Mike Morse.

5. John Jaso is really good. He was by far one of the best hitters on the 2012 M’s and did so partially from the catching position, normally a position of offensive ineptitude. His .850 OPS put him in the company of Alex Rios, Paul Konerko and Austin Jackson. He was the 5^th best catcher in the MLB by that metric. I know he faced favorable matchups and was pretty bad against lefties. But still, he has way more value than Mike Morse.

6. More on John Jaso, he gets paid less than $500,000 this year and is not a free agent until 2016. He also has an awesome beard. As one who has grown a similar beard to Jaso (The amish neck beard), he truly was a source of inspiration for me and all other amish-beard fanatics.

Justin Smoak, Kendrys Morales, Mike Morse, Raul Ibanez have to share 1B and DH now. Process that for a while. And we gave up one of our best players to let that situation happen.

I'll miss you John

Is this the worst trade Jack Z has made while in Seattle? I wouldn’t go that far, the Fister trade was pretty bad. But this trade only further muddles the water of the 2013 Mariners roster by adding a piece we simply did not need and giving away a piece we sorely did need. Not to mention that the piece coming in is more expensive, more injury prone and will be a free agent sooner than the piece leaving. I might have to go for a run or something right now since I can’t nap. Just kidding, I’ll just go to In-N-Out and drown my sorrows in a double-double or something.