Seattle, Rays start trading season with six player deal

The Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays have made the first big trade of the offseason, with the M's sending Brad Miller, Danny Farquhar and Logan Morrison to the Rays for Nate Karns, Boog Powell and C.J. Riefenhauser.

This is a weird deal...Miller is the poor man's Ben Zobrist, a guy who can play a variety of positions and adds versatility, while Farquhar throws hard, had a couple of good years in the M's pen, but struggled badly in 2015.  Morrison, meanwhile, is a first baseman who is in his final year of arbitration eligibility, and seems like a non-tender candidate, though maybe Tampa thinks they can unlock something with him.

Nate Karns is a righthanded pitcher who turns 28 this month, and who had a nice season in the Rays rotation last year as a rookie.  Boog Powell, meanwhile, came to Tampa in the trade that sent the real Ben Zobrist to Oakland last offseason, a 22 year old outfielder who split the year between AA and AAA, hitting in AA and not hitting in AAA.  C.J. Riefenhauser is a lefty reliever with little major league experience who turns 26 in January.

Weird trade.  Powell and Riefenhauser are both former 20th round picks, and I'm not sure if two 20th round picks were each sent to the same team in the same trade before.  It appears to be a collection of role players swapped around, to me.