Top Seattle Mariners Executive Explains Why Team Couldn't Trade For More Bullpen Help
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SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners, and the rest of the major leagues, wrapped up trade season at 3 p.m. PT on Thursday. The Mariners walked away with one of the best returns in the big leagues.
Seattle was able to add first baseman Josh Naylor on July 24, and left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson and third baseman Eugenio Suarez on Wednesday. Those three additions are significant upgrades to the roster and made an immediate impact in the Mariners' 6-0 win against the Texas Rangers on Thursday.
Even despite that haul, there was still the possibility that Seattle could have made more additions.
The Mariners were tied to several high-leverage bullpen arms through the hours leading up to the trade deadline. There were a plethora of relievers moved in the final six hours that came at hefty prices that Seattle didn't seem keen on acquiescing to.
"I was fascinated with what was happening with the relievers around the league," Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said in a pregame news scrum Thursday. "And we were in a lot of those conversations for weeks now on the back-end bullpen guys. Felt like we were in the end zone in one case and near the goal line in some others. But really active deadline. ... But the bullpen, and the returns for bullpen — I think this was about as aggressive as teams have been with their farm systems in quite some time, us included."
Seattle was able to acquire its trio of new additions for six combined top 25 team prospects (per MLB Pipeline), including top 10 prospect Tyler Locklear. The Philadelphia Phillies traded top two prospects for former Minnesota Twins reliever Jhoan Duran; the New York Mets dealt their No. 10 and 12 prospects to the San Francisco Giants for Tyler Rogers; and former Twins reliever Griffin Jax was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays for starting pitcher Taj Bradley — to get an idea on what the market for bullpen arms was.
We have acquired RHP Tyler Rogers from San Francisco in exchange for RHP José Buttó, RHP Blade Tidwell, and OF Drew Gilbert.
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 30, 2025
Welcome to New York, Tyler! pic.twitter.com/AHIEo2nCQg
Even with the fire sale on relievers, the Mariners weren't inclined to dip into the top end of their farm system for an arm, and many of their more desirable middle-tier prospects were already dealt.
"Would we have have liked to add more guys? Sure," Dipoto said. "That's why we were in the market. We just came up a little bit short."
Ferguson made his debut for the M's on Thursday, proving to be a valuable acquisition in his own right. He retired the side in order in the seventh inning, inducing a groundout and two lineouts.
The Mariners are now 58-52 and in possession of the third and final wild card spot in the American League. They'll play the Rangers again on Friday.
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