Seattle Mariners Emilio Pagan 1st Half Fall League Update

The Mariners Emilio Pagan is so close to making his debut in the big leagues. Pending on how he does during the AFL season and spring training, it is likely that the coaching staff will want to fit him in somewhere in the bullpen. Here are his first half AFL stats. Has he helped his case for a 2017 call-up?

After Pagan struggled mightily in his debut of the 2016 AFL season, the Mariners organization were holding their breath until his next start. In that debut, not much could have gone worse. He gave up a home run, walked a batter and most importantly, allowed four earned runs, all in one inning of work.

His next start he was able to hold his opponent to zero runs scored, but instead, he raised his total walks. Pagan walked three batters this outing. Those three walks were distributed over two innings rather than one, though, so there is a silver lining.

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Over his next five outings, all but one were very impressive. In four of those appearances, he gave up zero earned runs. He also walked just two men in the four games combined. Both walks even happened in the same game, therefore making three outings walk-less ones.

Of course, this means that this other outing mustn’t have been very good, and it wasn’t. It was a relief appearance much like his 2016 AFL debut. In one inning he allowed four hits which led to two runs.

In all, his six earned runs allowed don’t paint a complete picture of Pagan’s game, and the Mariners probably recognize that. He was hit hard twice (accounting for all the runs he’s surrendered this season) but that means opposing batters didn’t get to him in his five other outings. And, we haven’t even mentioned his strikeout total which is nine in eight innings.

Next: Mariners Heredia 1st Half AFL Update

If Pagan can bring his walks down and do better damage control when opponents get hits off him in bunches, there is more of a chance that we will see him promoted from AAA Tacoma in 2017. He has the second half of the AFL season to prove to GM, Jerry Dipoto and the rest of the Mariners staff that he deserves that chance.