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Look around the minors.  Some of the best 3B prospects coming in to this season were:
- Bret Lawrie.  Was good and developing until this year...and then demolished Las Vegas with an unholy vengeance.  Yes, it's a launching pad...but wow. 21 years old. Minor League OPS: .850.  Continuing the show for Toronto.
- Mike Moustakas.  Hit for huge power last year, good power every other year, acceptable average. Career minor league OPS: .840. 22 years old. One of the best-liked offensive 3B prospects.  Atrocious in his first couple hundred big league at-bats, but it's early.
- Lonnie Chisenhall. Okay at everything, great at nothing.  Minor league OPS: .795.  2 years old.  Still one of the best 3B prospects, with a comparable swing to Seager.
- Matt Dominguez.  Bigger SS moved over to 3B, low average, decent-to-good power, Ks aren't too high.  People keep expecting his power to climb, but if he keeps hitting .250 in the minors, who cares? Career OPS: .745
- Nolan Arenado.  Still in the low minors, just 20, doing well.  Career OPS: .830, but half of that is in the Cal League.
- Josh Vitters.  Beloved for conquering the low-low minors as a teen, has struggled more in AA.  Have I mentioned he sucks at defense and might not stick at 3rd?  21 years old.  Career OPS: .760
There's also Todd Frazier (the two-years-older, plateaued version of Seager), Nick Castellanos (19, in A-Ball, still a baby...) and others, but none significantly different than this cast of characters.
And now:
- Kyle Seager.  Viewed as a 2B prospect because of his lack of HR power, and because that's what he played his junior year, but was a 3B before that. Doubles machine.  23 years old.  Good park fit for the Mariners.  Minor League OPS: .875 (half of that produced in a hitter's haven).  Holding his own in the majors so far.
So tell me:  of all the other players on this list, who would you trade Seager for?  I'd want Lawrie for sure, and Moustakas has a higher upside (but isn't ready with his approach yet).  That's it.  I don't like Chisenhall any more than Seager, I like Dominguez and Vitters less, and Arenado is years away. 
There's a drought out there when it comes to good young third basemen. Thumping 3B are still very rare, and even just good hitters are hard to find.  Why do you think I was so hacked off about Rendon?  His skill-set is practically non-existent at the position right now in the minors.  Good glove AND good stick there?  It's like finding a two-horned unicorn.  We just traded for a 3B whose minor league OPS after 1200+ at-bats is UNDER .700 and people are very impressed by his potential.  Heck, Carlos Triunfel is one of the better 3B prospects in the game, and he's not any good.
To fix our immediate problem at the hot corner, there are only a few options::
1) go with Seager, who's as good as almost any 3B prospect out there, has shown a couple of promising skills including crazy doubles potential, and can handle it defensively.  If he doesn't work out, Miller and Franklin should be showing us if they will by that time.
2) trade for a better player, knowing it will be expensive.  If you want to try to get your hands on a Zimmerman or a Wright then get ready to leave a suitcase full of unmarked bills and several quality prospects on a street corner and wait for further instructions.
3) use a better hitter at the more challenging defensive position and let the poorer glove be made up for by the better stick.  This is the move-Carp, leave-Catricala-there option.
Right now, option 1 sounds fine to me, as long as we get significant thump elsewhere.  But as long as we stay away from option 4 (give Figgins several hundred more ABs to figure it out, then patch with a mid-30s vet when that doesn't work out), I'm good.  Any of those options COULD work.  It's all about implementation...and finding the right player(s) for the problem.
~G