This is my case for the Seattle Mariners not to trade for Brendan Donovan.
Earlier this month, Jerry Dipoto was honored with Baseball America’s 2025 Executive of the Year. It’s the first time a Mariners
executive has been awarded thusly, with Pat Gillick in 2001 winning the Sporting News honor that predated BA’s version back since 1936. It’s a significant achievement, and recognition of the sea change this website and community has borne witness to over the decades. Bluntly, we used to be smarter than them. “We” might not mean me, or you, or all of us, but for a tantalizing window, Mariners fandom in particular featured an opportunity to know better. 10 years into our time with Dipoto, his mantras have been malleable, but the overall approach is consistent and public.
Draft, Develop, Trade. Hey farmer, farmer, put your faith in ‘ol Jerry.
It’s built Seattle an AL West champion at last, primed for another run at the division crown and the American League Pennant. I’ve learned my lesson, not to be “greedy,” even though I feel vindicated fully by Seattle’s floundering following the exhilarating 2022 campaign. I don’t dream at the top of the free agent market as I did in 2021. In pursuit of greater standards than the organization often held for itself, I’ve been laughably wrong, completely right, and probably correct, but in a way that feels like reading a pop culture reference from a different era and continent, just to name a few.
Today, my thought is that Brendan Donovan, within the DDT model, does not move the needle sufficiently to merit a trade. Donovan is an excellent utility-man, whose late debut has nonetheless allowed him to rack up 10.1 fWAR in 492 games, a 3.3 win clip over 162 games. He’s done it with consistency, racking up nearly identical years at the plate four campaigns in a row, with a wRC+ between 115-127 each season, a batting average from .278-.287, and roughly the same low K-BB framework year over year. He doesn’t run well for his position(s), which impacts his range and contributes to what’s a below-average defensive profile that can be patched anywhere, more than a defensive adept who can excel across the diamond.
The most significant recent rumor on Donovan mentioned a potential cost of multiple top prospects for the utilityman’s final two seasons of arbitration: OF Lazaro Montes and SHP Jurrangelo Cijntje. That report from Katie Woo of The Athletic highlights Seattle and the San Francisco Giants as “front-runners” for the Donovan sweepstakes. It’s appreciated that Seattle is seemingly involved in the effort to solidify their roster for another run at the pennant.
And yet, the Mariners have a number of viable options at home that can reasonably be expected to approximate Donovan, and they don’t require trading away flawed-but-fascinating prospects like Montes and Cijntje – whatever such a structure might be. To lay my hand bare, consider the projected numbers by rate for the players below, which includes the two 2B options Seattle’s been connected to by Woo and other reporters, as well as their internal options.
fWAR/600 is a trick and a truth. It standardizes every player by their rate performance if they were to receive a projected 600 plate appearances, and corresponding time in all aspects of play, to simulate a conservative full season. For Cole Young, Ben Williamson, and Leo Rivas, this is a favorable comparison, as none of the trio is expected by the Steamer projections (nor myself) to total 600 plate appearances as things stand. Likewise, Donovan has had a full Operation’s worth of injuries shorten his seasons, with groin strains and a hernia he had surgery for in October shortening 2025, and just one season of over 540 plate appearances out of his four opportunities since his debut campaign. If the 29 year old is expected to play a full campaign, like Dylan Moore before him, it’s a gamble with lengthy odds.
Productivity-wise, Donovan is stalwart, but he’s also not inherently a major upgrade from the options the M’s have on hand, at least by projection. Young is a contact-heavy 22 year old 2B who walks a fair amount and has a great track record of improving in his second turn at each level. Williamson would play third, but had a better debut than Young, and has a good enough glove to justify himself, with both players projecting by a scout’s eye and projection systems to out-defend Donovan. Rivas, frankly, seems liable still to over-exposure, but at every opportunity he’s played like a competent big leaguer, with the best wheels of the bunch.
Seattle’s endeavored to caulk their creases in the Dipoto era. The stars and scrubs of the mid-2010s gave way to a breezy competency, buoyed by superstardom from their backstop and center fielder. It makes for consistent competitiveness and difficult Opening Day rosters, waiting til June to identify which gamble has hit and which needs to hit the Rowdy road. If Seattle is going to bother with making a trade for their upgrade route, the deal should be to dramatically improve their roster.
Ketel Marte is that drama. A homecoming for a kid sent off after a mono-hampered 2016 season, Marte grew into a star in the desert, signing two different contract extensions with the Arizona Diamondbacks including one prior to 2025. This past year, Marte’s Scottsdale, AZ home was broken into and robbed, he was mocked for the death of his mother by a fan, and there were rumblings of a clubhouse issue after the 31 year old missed the first few days following the All-Star Break while still with his family in the Dominican Republic. Perhaps most galling to certain folks within the sport, Marte is up front about his off-days, working with his organization and inform them when he feels he needs an extra bit of rest and recovery to avoid the injuries that shortchanged his early career.
Marte is a switch-hitting star. His “load management” has kept him on the field and in the lineup for 550-650 plate appearances over the last four seasons, and he’s played three different primary positions over his tenure in Arizona. His numbers are consistently among the 20 best position players in MLB, and he has the offensive clout to run nearly-identical lines to Donovan… except with power. Marte is aging into a Robinson Canó-esque slugger, with the controlled self-maintenance to boot. The 2018-19 Marte who led MLB in triples is gone, but so is that player whose speed was crucial to his success.
If Seattle is set to move on an infielder in the trade market that will demand a significant prospect return, it should be a player clearly bringing skills not already represented on the roster. Brendan Donovan is better than what Seattle’s got, most likely, but Ketel Marte absolutely is. One player is worth the time and the cost, the other, considering what’s already on hand in the M’s system, is not.
Bring back the Partay.
