Naturally, most Mariners fans focused on Zunino, Heredia, and Mallex. After all, these three players all had significant MLB experience. Zunino and Smith were the biggest names and the deal was so interesting, it could still be argued that Dipoto hadn’t decided to rebuild.
Little attention was paid to the “throw in” of the deal, 24-year-old outfielder Jake Fraley. In fact, as the story goes, the Mariners interest in Fraley didn’t start until an intern brought him up in an off-season meeting.
It wasn’t hard to see why Fraley might be overlooked. He struggled in 2016 and 2017, battled through injuries, and was given a 4th outfielder label.