Colorado Rockies: Which Seattle Mariners trade proposal is best for Jon Gray?

The Seattle Mariners are in a place where they haven’t been in recent years: in playoff contention. They have a record of 48-43 entering the second half of the season and they are seven games back in the AL West but only 3.5 games back of the 2nd American League Wild Card spot (and, more importantly, no other teams ahead of them for the Wild Card spots beside the current Wild Card teams).

The Mariners own their own destiny as their AL West rival, the Oakland A’s, is the team that currently has the second Wild Card spot and the Mariners face Oakland 12 more times this season.

One of their biggest weaknesses is starting pitching. On the season, their starting pitchers have an ERA of 4.62, which is 22nd in baseball, so our colleagues over at SoDo Mojo, our sister site that covers the Seattle Mariners, had three trade proposals to acquire Rockies starting pitcher Jon Gray.

For all three proposals, they are trades that are realistic. However, as we noted last week, the Rockies may not even trade Gray because they may try to extend him.

Of the three trades proposed by SoDo Mojo, we believe the second trade is the best, though.

Here is what that trade looks like:

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Campbell, 23, is a bit of a Wild Card because the Mariners drafted him in the 2nd round of the 2019 draft but since he had a heavy workload at the University of Arkansas (118 1/3 IP), the Mariners elected to not use him in the minors for the rest of the season. His 2020 season was wiped out due to the minor league season being canceled for COVID so he just made his professional debut this year for the Mariners.

He has pitched well in five games in Advanced-A ball but he is currently on the injured list with elbow surgery. He is still the Mariners #10 prospect, according to MLB.com, though, so he still has some great upside, including a good frame (6-4, 230 pounds), three average or above-average pitches, and the ability to throw strikes consistently.

Cardozo, 18, has very little time in the minors (one game to be exact) so with that and his age, he is far away from the major leagues so far. However, when the Mariners signed him in 2019 he was the #21 prospect in the international pool.

Of the three deals, this would probably be the deal with the highest risk but also, perhaps, the highest reward for the Rockies. Whether the Rockies trade Gray (or anybody for that matter) will be something to watch in the next few weeks but the Rockies should consider trading Gray to the Mariners, especially if they show interest and offer players that would help the Rockies turn the page to the future, not stuck in the middle, as they currently are.