Seattle Mariners' Jerry Dipoto Spotted with Rival Executive at GM Meetings, Prompting Speculation
At the general manager's meetings on Wednesday, Seattle Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto was spotted with Jed Hoyer, who holds the same job with the Chicago Cubs.
While the conversation could be perfectly innocent, it prompted speculation from reporter Bruce Levine of 670 The Score.
He wrote the following:
In addition to free agency, the trade market is the other route for the Cubs to acquire a starting pitcher this offseason. The pitching-rich Mariners may be a trade match and could be interested in the talented young infielders coming through the Cubs’ system such as Matt Shaw and James Triantos. Hoyer was seen talking with Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry DiPoto on Wednesday after the sessions at the GM Meetings had broken off for the morning.
Adding a starting pitcher is a priority for the Cubs this offseason, writes @MLBBruceLevine.https://t.co/GUNQUuY4Gz pic.twitter.com/SZDV4Qg1K4
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) November 6, 2024
First and foremost, Dipoto is known to be an active trader, so it's always fair to speculate on a trade whenever he's talking to anyone. Second, the Mariners are not expected to be active in big-time free agency, so trade conversations certainly make sense for them.
As for the rest of the speculation, we're just not quite sure. Dipoto himself came out and said that trading a starting pitcher was "Plan Z" for the offseason. The M's have been thought to be looking to supplement that group rather than take away from it.
Furthermore, Shaw and Triantos are both listed as top-five prospects for the Cubs and they are both predicted to debut in 2025, but for an M's team with a giant sense of urgency to win, do they really want to acquire prospects that have yet to play? If they were going to do that, couldn't they just turn the job over to their own prospect, Cole Young, while keeping their staff in tact?
The idea of acquiring middle infielder Nico Hoerner could be appealing to the M's, but he currently underwent surgery on his throwing elbow and it's unclear exactly when he'll be ready.
For now, we'll file this under "interesting offseason conversation" and keep tabs on it, but it's nothing to overreact to just yet.
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