As the trading deadline approaches the Seattle Mariners’ front office should be looking towards the future. Instead of having one megapost about all the players that are potentially on the trading block, I decided it would be best to go one player at a time.

When a team begins rebuilding you don’t expect to see the name of 24 year old second baseman who is hitting over .300 and signed on the cheap for the next few seasons, but Jose Lopez should be one of the players the Mariners are shopping. First of all, those aforementioned attributes make him an attractive bargaining chip despite being an over-rated defender and a guy who can’t buy a walk and hasn’t put together a consistent offensive season.

Second, Seattle has the minor league depth at second base, enabling them to deal Lopez if the right package comes along. While a lot of this depth lies in the lower levels, Luis Valbuena was recently promoted to AAA Tacoma. He doesn’t project as a superstar, but it’s looking more and more like he’s got a little more power, better plate discipline, more speed and is a better defender than Lopez, all while hitting for average. While his minor league track record is a little scattered, he’s using the whole field with a great compact swing and looks to be on the fast-track to the bigs.

Do I expect Seattle to shop Lopez? Not really. Either way there may be some teams inquiring about him over the course of the next month.  Lopez could bring in a pair of mid-level prospects.