The signing of Robinson Cano has left the Seattle Mariners second basemen Nick Franklin competing for the starting shortstop position with incumbent Brad Miller. There are some baseball writers out there who see Franklin as a surplus, and the M’s currently are in need of depth in the starting rotation; this combination of factors has led some baseball writers to speculate that Franklin’s time in Seattle is coming to  a close.

One of the clubs that is rumored to be interested in trading for Franklin is the New York Mets. The Mets currently have Ruben Tejeda penciled in as the team’s starting SS heading into the 2014 season; and apparently the team isn’t two enamored with the 24-year old. In fact, these rumors have the team as willing to trade 23-year old SP prospect Rafael Montero.

While Montero is an intriguing prospect, the Mariners are in need of a starting pitcher who can contribute immediately — during the 2014 season — and not be a steaming pile of dog manure.

The Mariners should target Mets’ starting pitcher Dillon Gee.

In the four years since he was called up, Gee has been a consistently okay pitcher. He has put up a career 3.89 ERA, 4.16 FiP, 6.63 K/9,  2.9 BB/9, and 2.2 WAR (according to FanGraphs).

One of Gee’s biggest attributes is the fact that he doesn’t give up a lot of home runs — 10.4% of the fly balls hit against him turned into home runs — and that number that would likely decrease at Safeco Field. The only Mariner starting pitcher to have a HR/FB rate than Gee in 2013 was Felix Hernandez (10% of the fly balls hit against Hernandez turned into home runs).

Dillon Gee is also under club control until 2017 and is due $3.625 million in 2014.

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