The Seattle Mariners didn't sell off any of their veteran parts at the trade deadline because they preferred to keep the roster intact.
"Again, I think from an organizational standpoint, there is a commitment from us to the players," Jack Zduriencik said. "And I hope that this message, the fact that we kept this group of guys together, I hope they together realize that, 'OK, so we believe in what you're doing. We believe that you guys can compete. And let's continue to do that. Let's continue to play good baseball.'"
Michael Morse and Kendrys Morales were rumored to be on the market. Both players will be free agents at the end of the season.
"When you let a guy leave, it's harder to get him back," Zduriencik added. "Once you break your marriage up and all of a sudden you want to go back and ask that player to come back, at the end that's much harder to do. He probably feels somewhat betrayed and now you're basically starting all over again. The fact that the guys are here, certainly they have the right to walk. But we also have the right to have the first opportunity to sign them if we choose to do that. And I think that's important to a player, especially if they like Seattle.
"(If they say) 'I'd like to be a part of this thing going forward. I like what's going on here. Man, it would be great!' Who knows what's going to happen? We're going to be able to maybe have the inside track on bringing some of these players back here. And that was a little bit of the thinking as well."