Garrett Olson Career Timeline

October 18th, 1983
Garrett Andrew Olson is born in Fresno, California. His parents are extremely proud of his beautiful eyes and extraordinarily defined chin.
2005
Olson finishes his final college season at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, going 12-4 with a 2.71 ERA.
June 7th, 2005
Garrett Olson is drafted by the Baltimore Orioles with the 48th overall pick in the 2005 baseball amateur draft, a compensation pick. He spends the majority of the rest of the season in low-A ball Aberdeen, where he posts a 1.58 ERA in 40 innings.
2006
In his first full pro season, after being named the Orioles’ 6th best prospect by Baseball America, Olson finishes the first half with a 3.50 FIP, 77 strikeouts, and only 19 walks in 81.1 innings in high-A Frederick. He is then promoted to double-A Bowie, where he goes 6-5 with a 3.27 FIP, and is named the Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Year.
July 4th, 2007
After a strong first half in triple-A Norfolk, Olson finally gets the shot he’s been waiting for. He makes his Major League debut on July 4th, 2007 against the Chicago White Sox, where he goes 4.1 innings, giving up 2 runs. He goes on to pitch 6 more Major League games in 2007, posting a 5.90 FIP and an even worse ERA.
2008
2008 was Olson’s first full year in the big leagues, and he went on to post a 5.13 FIP in 26 games. One of his strengths as a highly-touted minor leaguer was his ability to throw strikes, but that had seemingly evaporated upon making his Major League debut, as he posted BB/9’s of 7.79 and 4.21 in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Fun fact! In 2008, Olson went to 3-0 on 8% of all batters he faced in 2008 – the highest percentage in the majors.
January 18th, 2009
Olson is traded to the Cubs in a deal that sends Felix Pie to the O’s. Just 10 days later, he is traded to Seattle with slick fielding shortstop Ronny Cedeno, in a deal that sends Aaron Heilman to the Cubs.
2009
Olson starts the 2009 season in triple-A Tacoma, posting a respectable FIP of 3.85. He is called up to make his Seattle Mariners debut on May 6th against the Royals, where he pitches 5 relief innings of 3 run ball (2 earned). He finishes the 2009 campaign going back and forth between Seattle and Tacoma, finishing with a MLB FIP of 6.42, despite posting an extremely low BABIP of .250. Seattle Mariners fans are not pleased.
March, 2010
It quickly becomes evident that Garrett Olson has hit rock bottom. After being a semi-decorated prospect in a good minor league system just 3 years earlier, he is now battling as the long-shot candidate for a long relief role at the age of 26. He has posted an ERA over 20 through two weeks of Spring Training games.