Mariners acquire reliever Joaquin Benoit from Padres

Old friend Corey Brock drop the beat:

#Padres trade RP Joaquin Benoit to #Mariners for RHP Enyel De Los Santos, INF Nelson Ward. Santos, 19, big arm. 15 teams called on Benoit.

— Corey Brock (@FollowThePadres) November 12, 2015

• Joaquin Benoit will be 39 next season. The Mariners just got rid of an old, right-handed, power fastball/change up reliever. Let's hope this ends better.
• Joaquin Benoit is getting PAID next year. 8 million bucks. That seems like a lot for a situational reliever. That is a lot for a situational reliever.
• Joaquin Benoit has been a very good situational reliever. 4 of the past 6 seasons he's had an FIP below 3, and also shown he's capable of being a 1-1.5 fWAR player. That's good production for 60 IP of work. It's conceivable he could be a candidate to close. This would make his salary more tolerable.
• I know very little about the prospects traded for Benoit. It sounds like De Los Santos is the primary cost here. Fortunately Brendan knows all, so I asked him:
  
  

  "With a tailing, low-90’s heater, a bat-eluding slider and a change that flashes average, De Los Santos has the raw stuff of a big league starter. Conversely, his upper and lower halves are often out of sync, his change is usually flat and his command below average. An airplane view of the profile suggests that De Los Santos is a reliever-in-waiting but if he can extract more out of his off speed while tightening his mechanics, there’s more in the tank."

So we have a one year, moderately high money cost acquisition to shore up what was by all accounts a huge area of weakness for the Mariners at the expense of one organizational filler and one low minor league B minus prospect. Like all of Dipoto's work so far it makes a lot of sense and fits around his stated vision and intentions, even if the deal doesn't scream steal or work of genius.

There's a lot more rumors out there. Dipoto is far from done. The 2016 Mariners are going to look very, very different.