Mariners enter Meetings targeting rotation help

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Jerry Dipoto has been a man of action already this winter, but the Mariners general manager — like the vast majority of baseball’s top executives — spent most of Monday talking about potential trades and free-agent prospects without making any moves on the opening day of the Winter Meetings.

While the Dodgers signed free-agent starter Rich Hill to a three-year, $48 million deal and the Giants agreed to a four-year, $62 million pact with closer Mark Melancon, most teams didn’t generate headlines right out of the gate at the four-day gathering at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

• Hot Stove Tracker

And that was true as well of the Mariners, who came to the Meetings having already pulled off six trades and two free-agent signings in the previous four weeks of the offseason. One of those deals — sending Taijuan Walker as part of a five-player swap to the D-backs that brought back shortstop Jean Segura — created a need for a rotation boost, and that was Dipoto’s primary focus on Monday.

“We’ve had a fair amount of discussion, both in our room talking about different targets and we talked to a couple different teams, but nothing that is imminent,” Dipoto said. “The most-likely scenario, if we do anything here in D.C., it would be via trade.”

The Mariners search for a starter is not exactly a unique pursuit among the 30 teams gathered about 10 miles south of the nation’s capital.

How many are searching for similar pitching help?

“Twenty-nine other clubs,” Dipoto said.

Hill’s signing leaves Jason Hammel and Ivan Nova as the two next available starters on …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com