According to Bob Nightengale, of USA Today, the Seattle Mariners “have informed teams that closer Paul Sewald, outfielder Teoscar Hernández and first baseman Ty France are available in trades.”
At 54-51, the team are just 4.5 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros for the final AL Wild Card berth. It sounds as though they may be sellers ahead of today’s MLB trade deadline.
Jon Morosi of the MLB Network added more details on Monday:
The Mariners' willingness to listen on Ty France and Teoscar Hernandez, per @BNightengale, is a significant development.
Several teams — Blue Jays, Brewers, Giants, Phillies — are looking for right-handed hitters.
In return, Seattle would need young bats.@MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 31, 2023
France, 29, was an All-Star in the 2022 season but hasn’t quite replicated his breakout year, hitting .253 with seven homers, 39 RBI, 57 runs and a .691 OPS this campaign.
The 30-year-old Hernández, meanwhile, is having a pretty standard year given his past production, hitting .238 with 16 homers, 58 RBI, 45 runs and a .696 OPS.
Sewald, 33, has already set a career-high with 21 saves on the season to go along with a 3-1 record, 2.93 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 60 strikeouts in 43 innings.
Whether the Mariners will commit to a playoff push or will indeed sell off a number of players remains to be seen.
“Something’s going to happen, we just don’t know what it is,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh told Nightengale. “It’s out of our control. We want to be in this thing. We don’t want to be giving anybody away. We want to be adding, not subtracting.”
