Last week, the Seattle Mariners acquired DH/1B Kendrys Morales from the Minnesota Twins for relief pitcher Stephen Pryor. Morales signed with the Twins in early June, right after the date to acquire free agents without draft compensation going to his former team, the Mariners, for a pro-rated $12M, or $2M less than he turned down from the Mariners in the offseason.
The 39 game Minnesota experiment was less than successful. The Twins were 29-31 when they signed Morales and were 46-55 when he was dealt to the Mariners. Morales, a lifetime .277/.328/.469 hitter, has only hit .233/.265/.321 this season.
Morales tests free agency, Mariners don’t pursue him during the season, he signs with the Twins, and gets traded to the Mariners scenario seems like a lose – lose – lose for all involved.
Morales lost paychecks in April and May totaling close to $5M, but also spring training and a chance to round into form. The Twins lost a little over a month’s payroll of close to $3M in exchange for a sub .325 slugging percentage slugger. And, the Mariners needlessly lost a relief pitcher when they could have acquired Morales at any point in April or May.
Now to be fair, Stephen Pryor has only pitched 9 innings in the big leagues, 7.1 last year and 1.2 this year, and has had shoulder surgery. But, he just turned 25 a few days ago and has had impressive K/9 rates in A+ and AA ball, with corresponding low BB/9 rates. So, Pryor for Morales certainly isn’t a bad deal, but simply an unnecessary one.
As for Morales, the Mariners can only hope that his first 40 games or so is the equivalent of spring training and a slow April and that he can regain the form he demonstrated last year in Seattle when he hit .277/.336/.449 with 23 HR and 80 RBI.
Given his slow start, ZiPS (R), which takes into account previous projections and the year to date and projects a player’s remaining stat line, has Morales playing 37 games (barring injury this should be higher – the Mariners are going to play him) with a .255/.306/.400 stat line, with 4 HR and 18 RBI, not exactly what you’d want from your DH who has no real defensive position or value.
Steamer (R) is a tad more generous, projecting 45 games, .269/.322/.442, with 7 HR and 25 RBI, production much closer to what Seattle must hope it’s getting.
With the trade deadline looming on Thursday, July 31st, the Mariners still need to upgrade the offense, preferably with a right handed bat to play one of the corner outfield positions.
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