Mariners Moose Tracks, 2/9/23: Chris Flexen, Will Benson, and Kevin Durant

Good morning everyone! Let’s get to it.

In Mariners news...

• The Mariners announced a development project in a property adjacent to T-Mobile Park with plans to turn it into a softball and baseball training facility.
• Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors wonders if the Mariners will trade or hang onto Chris Flexen. At this point, I’d prefer they keep both Flexen and Marco Gonzales.

Around the league...

• We do have a very minor trade to report on between the two Ohio squads.

• Arte Moreno reiterated his intention to keep Shohei Ohtani in Anaheim beyond 2023. Now, whether he will actually fork over the money to make it happen is another question.
• A redditor discovered that retired umpire Joe West spent much of this offseason editing his own Wikipedia page to remove things that made him look bad.
• Baseball Prospectus is adding a new defensive metric — Range Defense Added. ($)
• Michael Baumann at Fangraphs previewed the free agency sweepstakes coming for Aaron Nola next winter.

Anders’ picks...

• Former Seattle SuperSonic Kevin Durant was dealt from the Nets to the Suns late last night in a blockbuster deal.
• With a minority stake of the team changing hands, we now know the Seattle Storm are valued at around $151 million, a WNBA record.