Should the Mariners make a big deadline trade?

The subject is headline stuff right now for a couple of reasons …

First, the All-Star Game comes to Seattle next week, and that always means talk about last-minute trades.

Second (and more important), the Mariners are bobbling around .500, unlikely to contend in the AL West race, but still one hot stretch of baseball from popping up in the battle for a wild-card spot.

Now, as we know …

Mariners boss Jerry Dipoto is no stranger to “yowza” mid-season deals.

Last year, he traded the organization’s two most promising shortstops and a couple of pitching prospects to Cincinnati for Luis Castillo.

On Tuesday night, Castillo will be on the American League roster for the All-Star game.

The ace that his teammates call “La Piedra” (The Rock) delivered an outstanding stretch late last season, playing a huge role as the Mariners reached the playoffs for the first time in two decades.

It was a fair trade on both sides, since the resurgent young Reds may greet those former Mariners in the big league lineup before too long.

It was also a deal in which the Mariners could honestly say that they were “one player away.”

But now …

Maybe you can make the case for a major deal.

Maybe, but it would be VERY difficult.

It also would be costly beyond sensible, and the situation is completely different.

A YEAR ago, the Mariners were seven games over .500 and already in a wild-card spot when they made the trade for Castillo.

Most of the time, teams paying a big price for a deadline acquisition are pretty obviously just a player or two from making the postseason — and maybe producing a deep run toward the World Series.

You really have to squint to see the Mariners in that position right now.

As it happened, two MLB experts did interviews on Seattle radio over the past week, and they disagreed about whether the Mariners could really gain something dramatic with another deadline trade.

Jon Morosi of MLB Network saw the benefit of adding “more balance” to a Seattle roster that is loaded with pitching, but needs plenty more punch from its everyday lineup.

His trade possibility?

“It’s a potential need-for-need, major league type of deal with a club like the St. Louis Cardinals,” Morosi said. “Now look at the Cardinals. They’ve got an abundance of young bats and they don’t all fit right now. The Mariners have an abundance of young pitching.

“And so that’s where you take someone like Brendan Donovan, who is potentially going to be an All-Star player, left-handed batter who can move around the diamond, he’s somewhat blocked positionally because they’ve got (Nolan) Arenado at third and (Paul) Goldschmidt at first.”

Donovan is 26, under team control until 2028, and finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2022.

He played all four infield spots for the Cards, and is slashing .274/.361/.396 (.757 OPS) with seven home runs, 21 RBIs and 26 walks to 39 strikeouts.

Donovan won a Gold Glove as a utility man last season, but he certainly would take over at second base in Seattle.

Sounds good, but …

The problem, obviously, is that St. Louis would want one of the Mariners’ regular front-line starters in return.

There could be other tweaks added to the deal, but Logan Gilbert’s name has been floated in connection with a possible trade.

MEANWHILE, Jeff Passan of ESPN turned up a few days later to argue against a trade with the Cardinals or anybody else — unless a team offered a deal that knocked Dipoto’s socks off.

Passan’s position …

Donovan is a good player, he does fit a hole in the Mariners’ lineup, so perhaps he’d be an off-season target for Seattle.

(With St. Louis adding someone else to the deal, if Gilbert is going the other way.)

But Passan feels, and I agree, that Donovan isn’t going to be the difference in the Mariners getting hot enough to reach a wild-card spot.

In fact, I’d say that no single offensive player — not even Shohei Ohtani — could carry Seattle to the 90-win level.

“Here’s the thing,” Passan said. “If the right deal were to come around, then that potentially could be the case.

“But I just look at the Mariners and I see the path to relevancy through their arms.

“I feel like the clearest way the Mariners are gonna get to the playoffs in 2023 is by outpitching everyone.

“And I don’t think it’s necessary right now to move one of those arms, just to try and maybe make this a playoff team in 2023.”

Nope.

Just throw the hell out of the ball, hope Julio and the guys can get hot, and if it doesn’t work this season, then shop your seven solid starters and build a better team in 2024.

There are times to panic and trade a star.

This isn’t one of them.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”