Every season has a trade that makes you blink and check the calendar just to be sure it’s not July yet. This one qualifies.
The Washington Senators trade a 3rd-round pick and RP Greg McMichael to the Seattle Pilots for C Mickey Tettleton, RP Sean Maloney, and $532,000 in cash.
Well now—this is a fun one for a deal made just a couple weeks into the season.
Washington entered the year riding high, then promptly ran into the kind of injury that forces a front office to act fast. With their starting catcher sidelined for five weeks, Senators management immediately went shopping for help. They made little effort to hide their interest either, loudly telegraphing to the Boston Red Sox that they wanted Mike Stanley back. When that predictably went nowhere, Washington pivoted and landed a much louder name.
That name? Mickey Tettleton.
Eight-time All-Star. Six-time Silver Slugger. And yes, it’s at least reasonable to whisper “possible future Hall of Famer” without being laughed out of the room.
So what’s to like here? On paper, plenty. Even at age 37, Tettleton still sports a 16 power and 17 eye, and his 1996 season was peak Tettleton: a .215/.358/.486 slash line and 5.3 WAR. That’s production Washington couldn’t realistically replicate internally.
What’s not to like? Basically everything that’s happened this season. His current slash line sits at an alarming .089/.177/.250, with contact and avoid-K ratings of 9 and 7 respectively. Age, it appears, is finally beginning to tap Tettleton on the shoulder—possibly with some force.
Still, from Washington’s perspective, this is a calculated bet. On paper, Tettleton offers a higher ceiling than almost any other stopgap they could’ve acquired on short notice. Whether he starts or settles into a backup role remains unclear, but this is a low-risk, decent-reward move for a team trying to survive a short-term problem without punting upside entirely.
Now let’s talk about Seattle—because this deal says a lot, even if it doesn’t shout.
The Pilots sit at 7–9, without ownership, and clearly not operating like a team with playoff aspirations. Tettleton was on an expiring contract and producing next to nothing (a 14 OPS+), making this less of a baseball trade and more of a financial one. Seattle is effectively purchasing a third-round pick for a player they weren’t going to re-sign and weren’t benefiting from anyway.
That said, there are fair questions here. Washington’s third-round pick projects to be very late. Did Seattle settle by not shopping Tettleton harder? Could they have landed a better pick from a more desperate contender? We’ll never know—and that uncertainty is part of the problem.
Even if Seattle were trying to compete, could they really not approximate this production with someone like Francisco Cabrera? With Tettleton now gone, it’s reasonable to assume rival teams are taking a harder look at this roster and wondering who might be next to move.
This trade works. It just doesn’t inspire.
Trade Grades
Washington Senators: B+
Seattle Pilots: B-
A sensible short-term fix for a contender—and another reminder that Seattle appears to be playing a very different game this season.