The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

SEATTLE—It was fun while it lasted. After getting off to a 13-2 start to the season, the Seattle Mariners have hit a wall.

They are now in last place in the American League West division after finishing May with a 7-21 record. The offense continues to hit home runs and average five runs per game. However, the pitching staff is giving up six runs per game. The starting pitching ranks 24th out of 30 teams and the bullpen ranks 28th.

Expect a lot of trades from now until the July 31st trade deadline. Jay Bruce was traded to the Philadel- phia Phillies on Sunday for minor league prospect Jake Scheiner. Jake is a 24-year-old third baseman in minor league A ball in the Phillies system. He’s not one

of the top 30 prospects in the Phillies system which is a little surprising in this trade since the Mariners are picking up $18 million out of the almost $21.5 million left on Bruce’s contract.

Don’t get attached to anyone over the age of 27 on this year’s team. Slugger Edwin Encarnacion will probably be the next to go as he is likely to get the best return.

With the Mariners payroll dropping they have flexibility to take on other team’s “bad” short term contracts in exchange for prospects. If they are aggressive and act quickly, they could help a contending team by taking a short-term contract that allows the contender to stay under the soft salary cap penalties and pick up a piece from another team for the playoff run. Without starting pitching to trade before the deadline, this strategy is likely to be the best way to acquire the multiple prospects they need to rebuild the team.

Expect them to also be acquiring additional international bonus pool money from teams in trades.

The Mariners bonus pool currently sits at just under $5 million and I’d expect them to be more active in the international market this year.

Although it is difficult to watch a team tear down, there are some bright spots looking ahead. Seattle’s Omar Narvaez is having a breakout season at catcher. He’s currently hitting .280/.357/.453 and is on pace to hit 21 home runs in 128 games. Compare that to the best season by Seattle catcher Dan Wilson’s 1996 season .285/.330/.444 with 18 home runs in 138 games and you can see hope on the horizon.

The other name to keep an eye on is Jarred Kelenic. Jarred was the key piece coming back in the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade. He’s only 19 years old but has already been promoted to minor league A+ ball. The team is expecting him to rise quickly through the minors and be ready for majors in as little as two years.

Seattle currently has six of the top 100 prospects in baseball, and with some creative trades, could add to that. It’s just going to take some time.