The Seattle Mariners traded veteran starting pitcher Marco Gonzales and young position players Evan White and Jarred Kelenic to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday night.

In addition, they also sent nearly $5 million to Atlanta, according to the Associated Press:

Seattle is sending Atlanta $4.5 million on Aug. 1 as part of the trade. Gonzales is owed $12 million for the 2024 season, while White has $17 million in guaranteed money remaining on his contract.

While this trade for Seattle was viewed as a pure salary dump, the total savings are muted by the $4.5 million sum going to Atlanta. Still though, it saved the Mariners more than $25 million total between the three players.

The Mariners insist that they are going to use that savings to re-invest in the ballclub for 2024, but fans certainly have their doubts on that. There’s a growing distrust between the fanbase and the organization’s ownership group.

While White was oft-injured and hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2021 and Kelenic never reached his potential in Seattle, the M’s are losing a guy in Gonzales who really played a critical role for the franchise.

Acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017, Gonzales was meant to be a building block for the next wave of M’s contending teams. He was just that, winning 13 games in 2018 when the M’s last went for it with the Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, Felix Hernandez and Robinson Cano group.

Then, when the team started its rebuild, Gonzales was there, serving as the ace in both 2019 and 2020. He won 16 games for the M’s in 2019, despite the team only winning 68 games. He then went 7-2 during the COVID 2020 shortened season before winning 10 more games in 2021 as the M’s pushed back towards contention.

Unfortunately, he regressed in each of the last two seasons, going 10-15 with a 4.13 ERA in 2022 and pitching to a 5.22 ERA in 10 games in 2023 before shutting it down with an elbow injury.

Gonzales will get a chance to start his career again, although it will be in Pittsburgh. The Braves traded him to the Pirates on Tuesday night.