Fastball

Here's How Much Money the Seattle Mariners Have Saved This Offseason

The Seattle Mariners have made a series of bizarre moves this offseason in the name of "payroll flexibility," so how much money have they actually saved?

Brady Farkas

Here's How Much Money the Seattle Mariners Have Saved This Offseason
Here's How Much Money the Seattle Mariners Have Saved This Offseason /
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On Sunday night, the Seattle Mariners traded away former stud prospect Jarred Kelenic to the Atlanta Braves.

The move was nothing more than a salary dump, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN - and he's right.

In order to dump the contract of veteran Marco Gonzales and the oft-injured Evan White, the M's attached a former top prospect with huge upside, who will now get a chance to find himself in Atlanta.

The Mariners' brass says that they are going to use the savings from this move - and other weird offseason moves - to make the baseball team better instantly, but that remains to be seen.

So just how much money has been saved this offseason? Seattle Sports 710 personality Brock Huard attempted to answer that on social media:

So @luke_arkins let me know if my accounting is wrong….but quick search 

-No QO to Teo = $20 Million savings 

-Trade Geno Suarez= No $11M salary 

-Trade Marco = Avoid $12M salary 

-Trade Evan White = Avoid $7M salary 

-Trade Jared Kelenic = Avoid $770k 

Bring in Urias ($4M) & a bunch of big pieces & small contracts 

Are we selling or stashing cash for a big deal?

For what it's worth, Arkins said that Huard was mostly right. He did note that there are buyouts attached to both Suarez and White with regards to future options, so there was even more savings in terms of not having to eventually pay those. You'd also save whatever Kelenic is going to make in the future through arbitration.

The Mariners now have nearly $50 more million to spend this offseason, the question is, how will they use it? And will they use it at all?

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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