In recent years, Seattle Mariners trade talk has centered around veterans they could bring in by dealing from their well stocked farm system.
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After all, that’s how the M’s picked up Brendan Donovan in the offseason, Josh Naylor last summer and Randy Arozarena in 2024.
This year, though, there’s the potential for the M’s to trade away a player from the active roster – and not for the usual reason of being out of the playoff race, which is far from the case even with Seattle’s inconsistent start to 2026.
“It’s a redundant roster,” MLB Network insider Jon Morosi explained to Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob last week. “… To me, at some point, there’s probably a trade to be had here.”
Morosi was responding to a question about how the Mariners will sort out the eventual returns of All-Stars Cal Raleigh and Brendan Donovan from core injuries. Raleigh, the slugging catcher, in particular could use regular time as the designated hitter when he comes back. And with rookie Colt Emerson currently playing third base and shortstop J.P. Crawford potentially switching spots with Emerson, the versatile Donovan – who began the year as Seattle’s third baseman – may find his playing time more in the outfield.
It seems unlikely Donovan will take the left field spot from Arozarena (.867 OPS), who has been Seattle’s best offensive player in 2026. That just leaves right field, which is precisely where the roster redundancy Morosi brought up is centered. Seattle has Luke Raley, Victor Robles, Dominic Canzone and Rob Refsnyder all as players who are either primarily playing right field or splitting their time between that position and DH.
“I’m not saying (trading one of the right fielders would be) a blockbuster – OK, we’re not trading Griffey here – but one of those guys you mentioned, there’s just some redundancy there,” Morosi said. “And maybe part of this gets decided once Cal is fully back to being himself from a health standpoint, then that sort of re-centers what the DH position looks like. But I think for now you can be a little bit lopsided, but once Donovan and Cal are fully back in the lineup every day, you almost have to either designate someone for assignment or make a trade because you cannot carry that many right fielders. The math doesn’t make sense for you to do that.”
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“A difficult spot”
The nature of the injuries Raleigh and Donovan are dealing with add to the difficulty of the situation, because there’s no guarantee they won’t re-aggravate them when they return. They both essentially already have, as Raleigh played a stretch after initially straining his oblique before going on the IL, and Donovan is on his second IL stint with the same groin strain coming off of offseason sports hernia surgery.
“Assuming when Cal’s playing time gets redistributed, how many DH days is he going to need? There’s just so many questions right now. They don’t have to make that decision at the exact moment, but it’s coming,” Morosi said. “And the difficult part of it is, and why you don’t want to have to designate someone for assignment so quickly, is there has to be some level of re-injury risk with some of these guys that we’re talking about here. The last thing you want to do is DFA someone because Cal’s ready to play and then all of a sudden Cal tweaks this again and then you’re in trouble.
“They’re in a difficult spot. They’ve got options, but this is not an easy decision and it’s not as though they’ve got one through nine all rolling in a big way offensively, because that would make these choices a lot easier. As we all know, they don’t.”
Jon Morosi of MLB Network is a weekly guest on Wyman and Bob. Catch Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob live from 2-7 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.
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