Seattle Mariners Winter Meetings Day 1 Update

Hello from the room above in Nashville, Tennessee. There are no winter meetings taking place in this room. There are only several dozen, if not hundred people writing about the winter meetings taking place in other rooms, and lobbies, and hallways. I guess they're all rooms. They're all either rooms, or the great outdoors. I don't think there are any winter meetings taking place in the great outdoors, but I haven't checked, because the great outdoors are expansive and far away. (This resort is big.)

The winter meetings are a time of great activity, and greater rumored activity. Every baseball team is present, and every baseball team participates to at least a passive extent. Nobody shows up and turns their phone off and stays in the room and sleeps and drinks. Baseball fans, at least the non-casual ones, generally can't hear enough about what their favorite teams might be up to, so here's an update on the Seattle Mariners, for Seattle Mariners fans. I need to just start writing bare-bones sentences because it is still and will forever be impossible to think. Sorry in advance for the worse writing this week you guys. And also I hope you're not only paying attention to Lookout Landing because other people are doing way more. Onward!

Moves the Mariners have made
Not one of them!

Moves the Mariners have almost made
Unknown.

Moves the Mariners are actively trying to make
Unknown. Moves for hitters, probably. And I wouldn't be surprised if also moves for pitchers.

Moves the Mariners will certainly not make
There's no signing Mike Napoli, as you already knew. That wasn't just an empty, agenda-driven rumor -- the Mariners did have a sincere meeting with Napoli, and the Mariners were sincerely interested in signing him. They weren't sincerely interested in paying him what the Red Sox did, and Napoli was presumably more interested in the Red Sox than the Mariners anyway. Basically the big Mariners news of the day so far is that we can stop thinking about how Mike Napoli could fit. I've been told things tend to pick up come night-time -- I can't imagine why that would be -- but if the Mariners are about to do something on Monday, it's been kept under wraps.

Players to whom the Mariners have been linked today
This is hardly going to be an exhaustive list, but we've seen the Mariners linked to Billy Butler, Ryan Ludwick, Michael Morse, Adam LaRoche, and Delmon Young. Some of these are names that we've heard about at least once or twice before. Some of these are Delmon Young. Jon Morosi claims that the Mariners have checked in on Delmon Young, and I can only imagine they did so to make sure Delmon Young isn't telling people he signed with the Mariners. Even though that would be patently untrue, the Mariners don't really need any more people laughing at them and thinking of them as inept. Delmon Young could damage the Mariners' reputation by telling people they're interested in him as a baseball player. Remember how Delmon Young got drunk? Remember how Delmon Young got drunk and anti-Semitic? Remember how Delmon Young sucks a lot? Delmon Young sucks, a lot. There are precious few major-league baseball players in whom I'd be less interested, unironically.

Granted, I guess the Mariners could be genuinely interested. Who knows! Maybe they are that inept! All Jack Zduriencik would say is that the Mariners are looking to add a bat and they have the theoretical flexibility to add it anywhere. Could the Mariners add a catcher, in theory? Yes. Could the Mariners add a corner outfielder, in theory? Yes. Could the Mariners add a hybrid shortstop/first baseman/closer, in theory? Yes. The Mariners are committed to adding a player who can hit to their stable of players who have hit before at some level. This is all just about finding the right match, or, failing that, about finding a match. Failing that, there's always trying to force it, but then you get into some legal and ethical gray areas.

Zduriencik has claimed that no one is untouchable, outside of Felix. As it basically should be. He is also very high on his own prospects, and other teams have been particularly demanding so far in trade talks. If other teams hadn't been so demanding in trade talks, the Mariners presumably would have swung a trade. That the Mariners haven't made a trade implies that other teams have wanted more than the Mariners have been willing to surrender. This is how negotiations work. In time, minds change, or they don't.

Ludwick would be not uninteresting, and relatively affordable. Morse would be not uninteresting, and relatively affordable. Butler would be interesting and costly, and while we can't say what that cost might be, exactly, Butler's a DH with a non-elite bat, so he'd be only so valuable. Dave's already gone through this. It seems tough to find a good Butler fit, given the Mariners and the Royals' respective and similar situations. But when dealing with the Royals, you never want to say never, because the Royals acquired Yuniesky Betancourt two times on purpose. It would be silly right now to write anything off.

Moves the Mariners will make relatively soon
Some. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day, but the Mariners will eventually make some sort of shit happen. They need to and we know that the moves are coming. We just don't know what the moves are going to be. Let the Mariners do most of the worrying about that. It is very stressful. Do not accept that kind of stress into your life. What are you doing to yourself? Do you even want to be healthy?