Jeff Passan Challenges Seattle Mariners to Get Aggressive at MLB Trade Deadline

A few weeks ago, Jeff Passan gave the Mariners an uncomfortable question to answer.

“Has this team earned us pushing this season?”

Now, he sounds ready to answer it for them. During his latest appearance on Brock & Salk, Passan urged the Mariners to “go out and be aggressive” before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. He even floated Padres closer Mason Miller as the kind of impact talent Seattle should pursue and pushed back against the idea that every decision has to fit comfortably with analytics.

The Mariners have stuck with what they’re good at. They develop pitching, protect their best young talent and generally try to avoid a reckless move.

The Mariners Have the Prospect Capital to Make an Aggressive Trade

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach. It helped create one of baseball’s deepest rotations and a farm system currently ranked No. 8 by MLB Pipeline. Seattle has six prospects in the Top 100, which gives Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander the organizational depth most teams would love to have at the trade deadline.

But eventually, those assets have to serve a major-league purpose. The Mariners are hovering around .500. And this is largely the same core that won the AL West and came within one victory of reaching the World Series last season.

They’re no longer waiting for their competitive window to open. They’re standing in it. They have established stars and a strong young core developing behind them. Cole Young looks like a legitimate long-term answer at the keystone. And Colt Emerson still has some developing to do at the plate, but he’s at least arrived and learning in real time.

The rotation remains good enough to carry Seattle through October, assuming the rest of the roster gives it a chance to get there.

Last year’s deadline already showed us how big of an impact can be made down the stretch. The M’s traded five ranked prospects in separate deals for Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez. Those moves helped strengthen the lineup, win the division and push Seattle to Game 7 of the ALCS. Some of the players sent away may eventually become valuable major leaguers. That’s part of the risk.

That is where the Mariners’ conversation around aggression sometimes gets stuck. Every prospect becomes a possible future regret, and every expensive trade target comes with a warning label. The problem is that clean deals rarely exist, and this season is likely going to be more difficult to negotiate than the last.

Seattle has an MLB-worst .631 OPS against left-handed pitching. The bullpen needs at least one proven leverage arm, especially with Matt Brash and Cooper Criswell working back from extended absences. Those aren’t hidden weaknesses that the Mariners address quietly, or internally, while everyone else is looking in another direction.

The market is also extremely crowded. 23 of 30 teams were either holding a playoff position or within four games of one coming out of the All-Star break. There are fewer obvious sellers and plenty of buyers looking for the same help the Mariners are in search of.

That’s why the price will be painful. But it doesn’t explain why the Mariners might refuse to pay it.

Seattle likely won’t offer Kade Anderson or Ryan Sloan. That’s reckless, not the same as aggression. Mason Miller, in particular, would require an enormous return after San Diego surrendered a package headlined by then-No. 3 overall prospect Leo De Vries to acquire him last summer.

Passan’s larger point doesn’t depend on Miller being the target. It’s about understanding that protecting the future also carries its own risk. A prospect can fail to develop. And standing pat counts as a decision too.

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