AL West: Seattle Mariners Acquire Mark Trumbo

Mark Trumbo is coming back to the American League West.

The prospects were shortly revealed after as infielder Jack Reinheimer and outfielder Gabriel Guerrero.

The Major Leaguers are journeyman backup batcher Welington Castillo and 23-year old reliever Dominic Leone. Seattle also received fringe staring pitcher Vidal Nuno.

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The two names to me that stick out in this deal (besides the obvious Trumbo) are Leone and Guerrero.

Leone has great ground ball potential with a developing slider, and Arizona’s rebuild could definitely be helped by adding another quality bullpen arm.

The other is Gabriel “Gabby” Guerrero, a prospect I’ve had my eye on for over a years time now. Ranked by Baseball America as Seattle’s 7th best prospect entering 2015, the Mariners signed Guerrero as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in early 2011.

He’s since been making the rounds through the lower parts of the Mariners system, peaking (as of now) in 2014 when he hit .307 with 18 home runs and 18 stolen bases in High-A High Desert, which is now ironically the Texas Rangers High-A squad.

Making the jump to AA hasn’t bore the same results, but such is prospect development. It wouldn’t be surprising if Arizona dropped him back in high A before committing to moving him up the ranks, which is what Seattle potentially would have done in a month or so anyway for the 21-year old.

Reinheimer will add depth to an already deep middle infield system (Chris Owings, Nick Ahmed, Brandon Drury, Domingo Leyba) but certainly increases Arizona’s odds of finding another regular player for their future.

The Diamondbacks, however, are just a year and a half removed from trading for Trumbo. They dealt two very good young players prospects —Adam Eaton to the White Sox and Tyler Skaggs (back) to the Angels– in a three-team deal.

Guerrero and Leone and even Reinheimer possess potential and perhaps Castillo can be flipped for another young piece, but as it stands now this has been a major loss for the Diamondbacks, who are under new management than when the prior deal was made.

As for Mark Trumbo, the extremely defensively challenged but big powerful bat joins a player of similar circumstance in the Seattle outfield corners. He and Nelson Cruz will presumably rotate in and out of the DH spot with lefty Seth Smith. Trumbo also could spell Logan Morrison at first base.

The defense of all four leaves a lot on the table but offensively Seattle got better, and they gave a whole heck of a lot less than Arizona did to acquire Trumbo 16 months ago.

With the Houston Astros starting out red hot, the Texas Rangers surprising and even the Angels beginning play ahead of Seattle, the Mariners overall made a good move that impacts the whole battle in the American League West. In his career, Trumbo has played 57 games against the Rangers, having hit .263/.316/.488 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI.

Next: Without Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers Lineup Leans Too Far Left