Seattle Mariners’ general manager Jerry Dipoto has struck a trade to help out the M’s outfield and add some depth to its bullpen at the expense of starting pitching depth in an already depleted farm system.

Sources confirms @TBTimes_Rays' scoop. Mariners getting Alex Colome and Denard Span in a trade

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) May 25, 2018

Mariners are giving up Andrew Moore and Tommy Romero in the deal

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) May 25, 2018

Span is the biggest name involved in this deal, and it seems like Tamp is selling low on the veteran outfielder. The 34-year old is currently hitting .238/.364/.365 with a wRC+ of 114 through the two months of the season. He’s had some bad BABIP luck this season as it’s currently sitting at a low .259 — a full 36 points lower than it was last season — which seems like a stat that’s primed for regression; but I’d be concerned that his BABIP is going to remain there because of his age and the fact that it’s steadily been declining over the last few seasons.

Despite the BABIP issue, Span been an above league average hitter through 173 plate appearances, primarily because of his ability to get on base. Span is currently walking in a career high 16.2% of his plate appearances which is because he’s been swinging at only 20.8% of pitches outside of the strike zone.

Ideally I’d like to see Span split time with Ben Gamel in left, less ground to cover and Seattle would get more offensive value from the position than it does now…but I’m fully expecting him to take time from Guillermo Heredia in center. This also means that Dee Gordon is guaranteed to lock up second base, one he’s off of the disabled list, for the duration of Robinson Cáno’s suspension.

Update

The ideal world is coming true.

https://twitter.com/gregjohnsmlb/status/1000147816461684737?s=21

Original story

Relief pitcher Alex Colome is also coming to Seattle in the deal. Colome has been a bit of a fire baller over the course of this season as he’s averaging 95.5 miles an hour on his fastball. But his most effective, and used, pitch is his cutter; which the 29-year old has averaged 90.4 MPH on.

The seventh-year veteran has been a little snake bit by poor defense this season as his career high ERA of 4.15 is not backed up by an impressive FIP of 2.69. It’ll be interesting to see how his ERA trends now that he’ll have Jean Segura and Gordon backing him up the middle. Especially since he’s primarily inducing medium contact near the middle of the infield.

As for what Seattle gave up in the deal, it’s hard to get angry over the departure of Andrew Moore — he never really seemed to put it together in his time with the big club last year — despite his young age and relative lack of experience. It’s just frustrating to see the Mariners give up a young, cost controlled, starting pitcher when there isn’t a ton of depth in the farm system. Then there is young pitcher Tommy Romero. Romero has shown some promise single-A ball…but he’s still a few years away from contributing with the big club.