Mariners News: Felix Hernandez Lands on DL; Pax-Man Recalled

Felix Hernandez lands on the DL, and James Paxton will make his 2016 Mariners debut on Wednesday night.

The Seattle Mariners have placed Felix Hernandez on the 15-day disabled list with a calf strain, and have recalled James Paxton from Tacoma in a  corresponding move. Calf strains typically take a month to heal, but the Mariners are hopeful Felix will only miss two starts.

Felix was roughed up in his last outing, and perhaps his calf issue is to blame. The lowly Minnesota Twins ran roughshod over the King, scoring 6 runs on 8 hits across 6 innings. Hernandez did tally 6 punch outs, but he was deserving of the defeat.

Unfortunately, sub-par performances have been the norm for the 30-year-old right-hander this season. Overall, he is 4-4 with a 2.86 ERA through 10 outings. Hernandez has struck out 53 and walked 26 across 63 innings pitched. On the surface, this numbers are very respectable, but a closer look suggests otherwise.

Hernandez may have a 2.86 ERA, but his 4.10 FIP is the worst mark of his career. FIP stands for a pitcher’s fielder independent pitching number, and many experts consider this to the true indictor of how effective a hurler is. To put 4.10 in perspective, Felix has only registered a FIP higher than 3.13 once since 2009, and that was last year when he posted a 3.72 FIP.

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Strikeout to walk ratio is another stat people judge a pitcher’s performance by. Felix’s career average of 3.35 is excellent for a power pitcher, but that number has dipped to 2.04 in 2016. If that number does not improve, it will be the worst ratio of his career and the first time he dropped below 3.0 since the 2006 season. Hernandez’s strikeouts are down this year and his walks are way up, that’s a bad combo for a pitcher.

Most disturbing of all has to the obvious drop in Hernandez’s fastball velocity. Long gone are the days when Felix would burn it in at 95+ mph, but the decline has come faster than most anticipated. Hernandez’s fastball has averaged just 90.0 mph so far this season. That’s nearly 2 mph slower than 2015, and 2.5 mph slower than when he dominated baseball in 2014.

There a few different things contributing to the disappointing start, and much of it is not Hernandez’s fault. He has been criminally overworked during his career, amassing over 2,300 career innings and hurling at least 200 innings in each of the last 9 years. That’s a ton of wear and tear on the body. Also, he has struggled with little injuries during the past couple seasons. Prior to today he had not been forced to go on the DL, but he pitched through pain in his ankle for much of last season.

The sad part to me is that the Mariners are finally playing playoff caliber baseball, and Felix is having less of an impact that one would have expected. Yes, he has kept them in game during most of his starts, but he has not been the forceful King we are accustomed to. This season it’s been Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager leading the team to victories. He stuck by this organization through the (very) lean years, and hopefully he is able to return to his former self once he comes off the disabled list.

Now let’s turn our attention to Wednesday night’s starter, James Paxton.

The 27-year-old Ladner, BC product spent parts of the last three seasons with the Mariners, but he was beat out this spring by Nate Karns for the final spot in the starting rotation. Paxton has been pitching for the Rainiers in Tacoma, and he has fared well. He sports a 4-3 record with a 3.97 ERA across 10 starts in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League. Pax-Man has fanned 50 and walked 14 through 47.2 innings of work in 2016.

The lanky southpaw’s overall stats may be decent, but his recent outings have left plenty to be desired. Paxton is 0-1 with a 6.32 ERA across his last three starts with the Rainiers. He has posted an impressive 20:3 strikeout to walk ratio in 15.2 innings, but he has surrendered 16 hits.

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Regardless of his recent hiccup in Tacoma, Pax-Man has proven to be a quality pitcher for the Mariners when healthy. Injuries have limited him to just 26 combined starts in 2014 and 2015, but he boasts a 12-8 record with a 3.16 ERA in 30 career outings. He has tallied 136 strikeouts and issued 65 free passes in 165 innings pitched.

The light-hitting Padres’ lineup should be a nice way for Paxton to get his feet wet. Also, the spacious confines of Petco Park should allow Pax-Man to be aggressive with hitters early in the count with his mid-90’s fastball.

This situation with Felix Hernandez going down and James Paxton being recalled is a prime example of the fantastic job done by Jerry Dipoto and his staff this winter. Very few teams have a pitcher of Paxton’s caliber just sitting in AAA. The depth on this club is remarkable, and that should make the Mariners a tough team to beat down the stretch in September.

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Make sure you tune in tonight to see James Paxton make his first start of the season for the Seattle Mariners as they take on the Padres in San Diego. First pitch is set for 7:10 pm at Petco Park. The game will be broadcast live on Root Sports Northwest and MLB.tv subscribers can watch worldwide on connected devices.