After Springing a Few Leaks, Mariners Patch Bullpen with Ryne Stanek

Each group heads into spring coaching with The Plan for his or her roster. February is a time to dream about what might be, as new offseason acquisitions combine with the holdovers in camp. Then the fact of March settles in, spring accidents begin to mount and The Plan is instantly compromised or must be thrown utterly out the window. For the Mariners, The Plan for his or her bullpen included some mixture of Andrés Muñoz, Matt Brash, and Gregory Santos locking down the ultimate few innings of any sport they had been main. Sadly, the latter two of these three relievers are actually coping with harm points that can maintain them from being prepared come Opening Day.

Brash had been coping with elbow irritation this spring after making extra appearances (78) than some other reliever in baseball final 12 months. Fortunately, surgical procedure isn’t on the desk but, however the M’s are taking an understandably cautious approach to a key member of their ‘pen. Santos ended final season on the injured listing as a consequence of an elbow challenge and confirmed up in Arizona this spring with a sore shoulder. He had simply began to ramp up his throwing program when he strained his lat on Tuesday. It doesn’t look like a severe challenge, but it surely’s one other setback for a pitcher who gave the impression to be a key offseason acquisition. Along with shedding Brash and Santos to start out the season, Seattle’s bullpen depth took successful when Jackson Kowar was identified with a UCL tear final week; he’ll endure Tommy John surgical procedure, sidelining him till 2025.

To supply some insurance coverage for his or her sudden lack of high-leverage choices, Seattle signed Ryne Stanek to a one-year, $4 million deal on Friday. A setup man for the Astros during the last three years, Stanek compiled a stable 2.90 ERA throughout that point, although his 3.91 FIP wasn’t as fairly due to a really excessive stroll price. Nonetheless, his 27% strikeout price and elite stuff permit him to be efficient regardless of all of the site visitors on the basepaths.

Final 12 months, Stanek managed to get his stroll price to a hair beneath 10%, the bottom of his profession. His strikeout price additionally dipped, nevertheless, and the extreme home run luck he loved in 2022 regressed again in the direction of his profession norms. The top end result was an ERA over 4 and a FIP greater than a run and a half increased than it was two years in the past. The improved stroll price is fairly simple to dissect: Stanek situated his pitches within the strike zone on the highest price of his profession final season. Particularly, his fastball was thrown over the plate virtually 60% of the time. Opposing batters weren’t fooled by the change in strategy; hitters’ total swing price in opposition to Stanek’s pitches rose 5 factors to a career-high, a rise that was solely pushed by extra swings on pitches within the zone.

The need to curtail his downside with free passes is a noble one, although pumping fastballs into the strike zone may be the unsuitable technique. Stanek doesn’t have nice command of his slider or splitter, although each of these pitches generate tons of swings and misses. For nearly as good as his secondary choices are, Stanek is fairly reliant on his four-seamer, throwing it practically 65% of the time. Maybe the Mariners’ vaunted pitching growth lab will help him determine methods to hone the command of his secondary choices. For his half, Stanek is excited to work with the group to seek out methods to enhance. “As a pitcher and anyone that desires to get higher, it’s a very cool factor to observe and now to be part of,” he informed reporters after signing. Even when nothing modifications, he’ll nonetheless be an skilled high-leverage reliever filling a sudden hole in Seattle’s bullpen.

With Stanek now within the fold, it seems as if the Mariners have six spots of their reduction corps nailed down, with Muñoz, Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo, Trent Thornton, and Austin Voth rounding out the group. Meaning there are two spots up for grabs and loads of pitchers battling to interrupt camp on the main league roster:

Carlos Vargas was one of many gamers the Mariners acquired within the Eugenio Suárez deal this offseason, and his uncooked stuff offers him a leg up on the remainder of the competitors. His fastball sits within the higher 90s and he additionally possesses a wonderful onerous slider. His outings this spring have been a bit of inconsistent, but when he’s capable of harness his command with the assistance of the Mariners growth workers, he might be an actual weapon out of the ‘pen. He’ll probably get a shot to show he can stick within the majors out of spring coaching.

The ultimate spot is extra up within the air. With each Brash and Santos more likely to return from the IL someday early within the season, roster flexibility will likely be paramount. Meaning non-roster invitees and gamers who don’t have any minor league choices remaining have additional hurdles to beat. That features Ty Buttrey and Tyson Miller, two spring standouts. The previous is trying to return to the majors for the primary time since 2020; he stepped away from baseball in 2021 and has spent the final two years toiling away within the minor leagues. At his peak again in 2019, nevertheless, Buttrey was a high-leverage reliever for the Angels and is reportedly firing fastballs within the higher 90s this spring.

Miller has drawn comparisons to Paul Sewald from Mariners supervisor Scott Servais this spring due to his using fastball, sweeping slider, and low launch level. And like Sewald, Miller is a little bit of a reclamation venture after having bounced round between three completely different groups final 12 months:

When you squint, you’ll be able to form of see some similarities between Sewald and Miller. Miller’s launch level is low, although not as little as Sewald’s, and his fastball has some fairly good experience to it, although not as a lot as Sewald’s. What Miller does have working for him is elite extension down the mound due to his 6-foot-5 body.

Buttrey and Miller might want to proceed to face out via the tip of the month to safe that remaining spot within the Mariners’ bullpen. It’s more likely Seattle will go together with one of many choices already on their 40-man roster, like Cody Bolton or Mauricio Llovera. Each had been offseason waiver claims and neither has had a lot success within the majors to date. Bolton has a mid-90s fastball that he pairs with a sweeper and a changeup. Like Stanek, he fills the zone along with his heater and makes an attempt to get batters to chase his secondary stuff out of the zone, although that strategy didn’t work within the huge leagues throughout his transient cup of espresso final 12 months. Llovera has a bit of extra main league expertise, seeing motion in components of the final three seasons. He works east-to-west with a sinker-slider arsenal that has tons of horizontal motion. He’s additionally out of minor league choices, making his struggle to make the Opening Day roster a bit of extra pressing.

Irrespective of who they go together with, although, they’ll have to get artistic with how they deploy their bridge relievers to get to Stanek and Muñoz within the eighth and ninth innings. What’s actually thrilling is considering the potential power of this unit as soon as Brash and Santos return to full well being. As Servais put it, “We’ve got a variety of velocity. And if we get everyone wholesome, we now have a shit ton of velocity.” Till then, the Mariners must hope that Stanek and whoever emerges from their spring competitors will likely be sufficient to carry down the fort.