Update – 10:07 AM
It’s official.
Original story continues below
The Seattle Mariners have finally broken their off season silence by trading for San Diego Padres’ second basemen Adam Frazier. Seattle will be sending a pair of prospects in LHP Ray Kerr and OF Corey Rosier to the Padres. It’s a smart move that makes a lot of sense for 2022 and beyond.
Frasier was traded to San Diego at the July trade deadline in 2021 and now he’s being moved to his third team in less than five months. The 29 year old hit .305/.368/.411 with a wRC+ of 114 in what was a breakout season for the young outfielder. There’s a lot to like about the young infielder, in particular his ability to get on base and not strike out (his career strikeout rate is 12.9%); while it would be nice if his walk rate was higher, it’s hard to bitch too much about someone who doesn’t give up free outs too often to opposing pitchers.
This move probably moves Abraham Toro over to third base to fill in for the recently released Kyle Seager. The defensive metrics aren’t Frazier’s biggest fan but his offensive production is what Seattle is really looking for in this trade.
The cost for Seattle is a pair of prospects that aren’t in its top-40 according to MLB.com. Rosier has only had 121 at bats in 32 games in the minor leagues, in that incredibly small sample size he hit .380/.451/.570 which doesn’t give us a lot of information to go off of. What we do know is that he was the 68th highest rated high school outfielder in the country after the 2018 season and played a couple of seasons in UNC Greensboro before Seattle drafted him in the 12th round.
As for Kerr, he’s been heavily used as a relief pitcher since Seattle drafted him. The M’s had added the southpaw to its 40-man roster to protect him from the rule five draft last week and now they’ve shipped him off to San Diego.
The reaction
This move isn’t terribly surprising, and it also explains why Seattle’s been so quiet on the free agent market. General manager Jerry Dipoto was rumored to be interested in Frazier when the Pirates moved him at the deadline but the M’s were unable to outbid the Padres. Now, with San Diego’s complete and utter collapse in the rear view mirror, Dipoto has got his guy and filled a major hole at second base.
It also looks like Seattle will be unlikely to make a serious play for Marcus Semien as they now have a pair of young middle infielders that are both coming off of breakout years at the plate.
Now that we know this trade was (probably) percolating in the background it makes a lot of sense for the front office to want to see if they could pull this move off before signing any free agent contracts. Seattle now has young core pieces in place at all infield positions and can focus its free agent efforts on shoring up the outfield and pitching staff.
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