The Mariners are 14 games out in the AL West, so yesterday when they traded for Russel Branyan of the Cleveland Indians, it seemed a bit of a surprise.  Afterall, it seems they should be the sellers, and they also had an opportunity to keep Branyan after his amazing season in Seattle in 2009.

Branyan is only signed through this year, so why would a seemingly wise GM make such a short-term trade when their chances of making the playoffs seem so slim.  Why?  Well,  the quotes from Jack Zduriencik in this Greg Johns post tell you exactly why.  The Mariners need a bat to have any hope of staying in it.  They probably also need one more good bat in their line-up to be able to better evaluate the young players they currently have.  We all know pitchers pitch differently to players depending on who is behind them- if you have that one more power bat in their- well that changes everything.  Also, it seems, the Mariners want their own young pitchers to learn what if feels like to win- and putting another bat in the line-up might just help them do that.

But, Zduriencik says one more thing.  He wanted a bat that was not going to mess with the Mariner’s long-term plan.  They must be thinking years out, and so winning right now is not the priority, but sustaining winning is. Here is part of a quote:

With three-plus months to play we want to give our team every opportunity to be as productive as possible this season, while not harming the long-term plan for the franchise.

The two minor leaguers sent to Cleveland must not have been part of Seattle’s long-term plan, but clearly Branyan was not part of Cleveland’s.  Additionally, Branyan may end up as a Type A or B free agent, so if he walks away from the club, their could be compensation in a draft pick.

So, even though this looks like a very short-term decision on the part of Seattle, it could have far reaching effects.  Seattle will be back in the mix one of these days.  Their GM is just too smart for it not to happen.