Seattle, WA

It sure seems like Blake Snell wants to pitch for Seattle Mariners

Published

1 year ago

November 27, 2023

It sure seems like Blake Snell wants to pitch for Seattle Mariners

Seattle area native Blake Snell just won his second Cy Young Award, is currently a free agent, and is seemingly very eager to play for his hometown team, the Seattle Mariners.

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That last part kept coming up during a big sports weekend in Seattle, as Snell was a high-profile attendee at both the Seahawks’ Thanksgiving night game against the San Francisco 49ers as well as the Apple Cup two days later at Husky Stadium.

During each of those football games, Snell’s apparent desire to pitch at T-Mobile Park was reported. First on the NBC broadcast of the Seahawks game, play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico said matter-of-factly that Snell hopes to be a Mariner in 2024 while footage was shown of the 30-year-old southpaw raising the ’12’ flag before the game.

“Blake Snell won his second Cy Young Award a few weeks ago. He did it pitching for the Padres, he’s a free agent now, he wants to pitch for the Mariners,” Tirico said of the Shoreline High School product.

Then on Saturday before Snell sounded the siren at Husky Stadium, Mike Martin of RealDawg.com tweeted that after some fans in the crowd yelled at Snell to come pitch for the Mariners, he responded, “Come get me.”

2x Cy Young Award recipient and Homegrown, Blake Snell! Thank you for spending Thanksgiving with us! pic.twitter.com/Bi5AtuN5Rk
— 12s (@12s) November 26, 2023

There have been rumblings before that Snell wants to pitch for the Mariners, and at this point it seems pretty clear cut that’s what he’s hoping to accomplish this offseason.

Is it a realistic outcome? On Monday’s edition of Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy, Michael Bumpus and producer Curtis Rogers (guest hosting for Stacy Rost) dove in on the subject.

Digging into a potential Seattle Mariners/Blake Snell pairing

Bumpus in fact had his own interaction on Thursday with Snell, who joined the Seahawks Radio Network pregame show, which is hosted by Bumpus.

“I told him specifically, ‘I don’t work for the Mariners so this ain’t no collusion going on, I’m trying to sell you to Seattle,’ and honestly it feels like we don’t have to do much to sell Seattle to him,” Bumpus said. “He’s from this area and it sounds like he wants to be here, man.”

That’s something that reporter Ryan Divish, who covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times, essentially said on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk last Wednesday.

“I’ve always said that I think they’re gonna sign Blake Snell because he really wants to come home, and then they’ll trade one of the young pitchers for a bat,” Divish said. “… If you’re Blake Snell, you look at the Mariners and what they do, I think they can clean up some of his inefficiencies in the strike zone, make him a guy that goes a little bit more than five or six (innings) every time, getting through the lineup three times without being at 100 pitches. I mean, (signing) somebody like that you could do very easily. Then all of a sudden you’re rolling out a rotation that’s got (Luis) Castillo, (George) Kirby, (Logan) Gilbert, Blake Snell, and then one of the young kids that you kept or even if you kept Marco (Gonzales).”

Rogers, who serves as one of the hosts for Mariners Radio Network pregame and postgame shows during the baseball season, said bringing Snell home makes a lot of sense to him.

“You pointed it out, the heavy lifting is done in terms of trying to convince Blake Snell that Seattle is a place for him,” Rogers said to Bumpus. “… This is a guy who is Seattle through and through. … I don’t know what more you need to do if you’re the Mariners other than to say, ‘Alright, here’s our offer, come play with the Mariners.’”

That leads to the question, though, of whether the Mariners have the same interest in Snell that he apparently does in them. He’s not the only big name on the pitching market the M’s could go after, and despite his résumé, he’s an interesting case as a pitcher who is tough to hit but struggles to keep his walks and pitch count in check, which limits how deep he can make it into his starts.

“There’s got to be interest on both sides to get a deal done,” Rogers continued. “It sounds like there’s a lot of interest from Blake Snell’s side to come home and play for the Mariners. If the Mariners don’t reciprocate that interest, or if they say, ‘We are not comfortable paying a pitcher who is on the other side of 30 now for ‘X’ number of years,’ I think that’s going to speak largely to what the Mariners plan to do this offseason. I think if they don’t go out and get Blake Snell, or if they don’t go out and get another free-agent pitcher, then I think it’s going to be an offseason very similar to what it was last year where there was not a big free-agent splash. It was just kind of develop from within and hope that guys emerge from your system in hopes that they are able to match what they did a year ago or surpass that, guys like Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo.

“I would feel more comfortable with Blake Snell in the Seattle Mariners rotation than a guy like Bryce Miller or Bryan Woo next year, where you’re still kind of wondering can he get you through a full season when neither one of those guys have done so in the past, whereas Blake Snell is a two-time Cy Young Award winner. I would take that.”

Bumpus didn’t need any more convincing on Snell, but he said what Rogers laid out did just that.

“I’ve already been sold, but you even sold me more when you say look, you’re gonna get a guy who you know is going to produce,” Bumpus said. “You’ve got some young arms, some young talent there that you’re hoping to see advance, but I think that’s when you lean on a résumé, and I think that’s what Blake Snell brings.”

Listen to the full Bump and Stacy conversation about the Seattle Mariners and Blake Snell in the final segment of the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.

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Seattle, WA

State ferries: A better idea from Nordic countries

Published

8 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

State ferries: A better idea from Nordic countries

Re: “Diesel or hybrid ferries? How about simply reliable” (Jan. 7, Opinion): Gov. Jay Inslee, Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson and The Seattle Times editorial board are asking the wrong question: diesel or hybrid ferries? Inslee and the majority of Democrats support…

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Seattle, WA

Manhunt underway for Mason County shooting suspect

Published

16 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Manhunt underway for Mason County shooting suspect

Manuhunt underway for Mason County assault suspect

Mason County deputies are looking for a man wanted in a shooting in Belfair on Monday.

MASON COUNTY, Wash. – The Mason County Sheriff’s Office is currently searching for a convicted felon wanted in a recent shooting.

The sheriff’s office says Michael Allen Beyer is wanted for first-degree assault and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Deputies believe Beyer was involved in a shooting that happened in Belfair on January 6.

Beyer is considered armed and dangerous. If you see him, do not approach him and call 911 immediately.

Anyone with information regarding Beyer’s whereabouts is asked to call Detective Helser at 360-427-9670 x657, or Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

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Seattle, WA

Two more Seattle restaurants close due to minimum wage hike

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2025

Press Room

Two more Seattle restaurants close due to minimum wage hike

Two more Seattle restaurants are calling it quits thanks to the untenable minimum wage hike.

At the same time that the Seattle minimum wage rose from $19.97 an hour to $20.76 an hour, the city ended the tip credit of $2.72. Under the previous rules, restaurants were able to pay $17.25 hourly wage if their staff earned at least $2.72 in tips per hour. But as cost of business continues to skyrocket in Seattle, a minimum wage hike without a tip credit is simply untenable for many small businesses.

Jackson’s Catfish Corner in Seattle’s Central District closed its doors in this new year. In an interview with Converge Media, owner Terrell Jackson argued Seattle is too expensive to operate in.

“I know that the minimum wages went up to 20 bucks an hour … I know that’s hard for my business as a small Black business,” Jackson said. “I’m not Amazon or Walgreens or Walmart who can pay their employees that much.”

Jackson isn’t alone in his complaints.

More from Jason Rantz: Panic as Seattle restaurants may not survive massive minimum wage shift

A second West Seattle eatery closes, citing the minimum wage hike

Bel Gatto, a bakery and café, became the second West Seattle eatery to close its doors over the Seattle minimum wage hike. The owner posted a sign to the front door to thank supporters but said she can’t afford to stay open anymore.

“Our revenues, unfortunately, are not able to cover the close to 20% increase in mandated wages, salaries and payroll taxes put into effect by the Seattle City Council effective 1/1/25. This ruling has made the continuation of our bakery operations untenable,” the sign read.

The owner, Peter Levy, explained to the West Seattle Blog that, “we were approaching close to a break even status in the last quarter of 2024, but the requirement to absorb another $4,000 per month in payroll expenses with the new mandate by the city put a break even further from our grasp which is what led to the closure.”

Last week, a video by Corina Luckenbach, owner of Bebop Waffle Shop in West Seattle, went viral as she said the minimum wage hike was forcing her to close after 11 years. She said she didn’t have an extra $32,000 a year to pay her staff what the city mandates.

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Will more restaurants close?

Ahead of the minimum wage hike, restauranteurs offered many warnings over what’s to come.

Ethan Stowell operates a number of Seattle’s top restaurants, including How to Cook a Wolf, Staple and Fancy, and Tavolata. He warned this change would be exceptionally costly for businesses in an industry notorious for razor-thin margins. And restaurants can’t merely raise menu prices again.

“I know everybody wants to say, ‘Just raise things (on the menu) a dollar or two,’ and that’s what it’ll be. That’s very simplified math. I wish it was that easy, but it’s not. This is a large increase that’s probably large enough to be equal to or close to what most restaurants in Seattle profit,” Stowell told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Portage Bay Cafe co-owner Amy Fair Gunnar noted the minimum wage change will cost her about $45,000 more a month. She said restaurants will have to “seriously change what they’re doing or they’re going to close their doors.”

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Ignoring the warnings, mocking the business people

The warnings from restaurant owners were mostly ignored or mocked.

Efforts by the Seattle City Council to address the forthcoming crisis fell apart after activists said they didn’t want restaurants to get an exception. Council president Sara Nelson told “The Jason Rantz Show” they will take up the issue again this year but there’s no specific idea yet to forward for legislation. The Mayor of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, has been almost completely absent from the issue.

Left-wing voices, meanwhile, claim to not care. That if businesses “can’t afford to pay a living wage,” then they shouldn’t be in business.

One reporter with The Stranger mocked one of the closures, quipping on X, “Has anyone ever eaten at bebop waffle lol.” Left-wing Seattleites condemned the business for “creating a right wing media darling to complain about paying people a living wage.”

KING 5 reporter Maddie White helped elevate this talking point by citing the National Low Income Housing Coalition, claiming “the average renter needs to make upwards of $40 an hour to afford rent.” But she’s quoting a stat for two-bedrooms. Minimum wage jobs aren’t meant to cover the cost of a single person renting a two-bedroom home or apartment.

Ironically, as activists dismiss the concerns of small business owners, they fail to acknowledge the inevitable consequence: when those businesses shut down, people lose jobs. A $20.76 hourly minimum wage — even with a $2.72 tip credit — means nothing if you’re unemployed.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on X, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz

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