On January 27, the Mariners quietly bought catcher Jhonny Pereda from the Twins for… cash. A week later, the Twins quietly claimed Jackson Kowar—the very player Seattle had just DFAed to make room for Pereda. On paper, these were two separate transactions. In reality? It operated exactly like a “trade.”
And like many other roster-ending moves, it was both logical—and looked a little silly.
From the Mariners’ perspective, the logic wasn’t complicated. What they were buying wasn’t an upside, but insurance. More specifically: insurance for Cal Raleigh.
Catching depth is something you only notice when it… disappears. An injury, a sick player, or simply an overloaded game streak—and the whole team could be scrambling to make do. Pereda had the other option: he could stay put in Tacoma, not occupying the 40-man slot when unnecessary. No flashiness, no headlines—but it was perfectly timed. Conversely, Kowar is the kind of player a strong pitching organization would want to try. Former first-round pick, fastball to, a “maybe we can fix this” profile. Seattle tried. They got 17 innings, a 4.24 ERA in 15 appearances. Not bad. Not exceptional. And then he got a shoulder problem, ending the season early.
The problem wasn’t that Kowar played badly. The problem was that he had no other options.
A low-lever bullpen arm, no options, and just injured — that’s the kind of profile where a career is teetering on the brink of 40. Every roster decision has a price. And the Mariners, clearly, made their choice: they can produce bullpen innings, but they can’t replicate catcher depth.
That’s what the back of the roster always reveals. It’s not about what a team says they value — but about who they’re willing to cut, and what they’re willing to cut.
Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic perfectly encapsulates the story: Seattle trades Pereda, DFA Kowar, and the Twins claim Kowar — “so, kind of a trade.” Right. An unnamed trade. A trade born from 40-man math, not from long-term strategic needs.
And it’s also very… offseason.
This is the time when teams aren’t thinking about opening day lineups anymore, but about June when things start to fall apart. They play Tetris with rosters, swapping little pieces, pretending everything is in order — while in reality it’s a long-lasting, nagging headache.
The Mariners, after all, probably did the right thing. Pereda is the kind of player you don’t need… until you desperately need him. Kowar is the kind of player you prefer the idea to the reality of, and just one small factor (option, injury) and he’s gone off the chessboard.
The problem is, when things spin so fast—when the team you just bought depth from is the one benefiting from the player who was dropped—then the “right thing to do” can still look strange.
But that’s the price of smart roster management: sometimes it’s not pretty, not neat, and doesn’t give you a winning feeling. It just helps you avoid losing games you shouldn’t have lost.
And over a long season, sometimes that’s enough.
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