Mariners Analysis: With Diaz, Bullpen Gets Longer

The 22-year-old Puerto Rican touched 101 MPH on the gun in his dazzling one-inning relief debut.

It is natural for hype and expectations to go through the roof after a major league debut like the one Edwin Diaz just had on Monday night. Of the 11 pitches he threw, 10 of them were strikes. If he wasn’t hitting 100 it was because he was throwing a nasty slider. Players in both dugouts were giving each other the, “are you kidding me?” look.

He made it look easy.

Now, we all know that in baseball, nobody has a 0.00 ERA through 50 appearances with 110 strikeouts. The league will adjust and figure out how to at least flail at such a fastball and get the occasional hit. This is a game of adjustments. But what an opening act! This bears the question, where does he fit in the MLB’s 4th-best bullpen?

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With stuff like that, it certainly can’t hurt to have him in there. He dominated Double-A once he became a reliever. In 10 appearances, he did not allow an earned run while striking out 16. He has the stuff of a late inning guy or even a year or two down the road, a nasty closer.

With Tony Zych suffering a setback, no sign of Charlie Furbursh and Joel Peralta being designated for assignment, Diaz should be in the bullpen for the foreseeable future.

Starting pitching has been a bit rocky these past few weeks. Now with perhaps an electric arm in the bullpen, the starters should not feel as much pressure to have to go 7 or 8 innings. When the Mariners are up but the game is still close, the bullpen should look thus:

7th- Edwin Diaz/Nick Vincent

8th- Joaquin Benoit

9th- Steve Cishek

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The M’s should ease Diaz into that 7th inning “hold ’em” guy. Nick Vincent is a good reliever to pair with him to allow baby steps. The great thing about this setup is that of these four relievers, only Benoit has an ERA above 2.30. Most of them are also averaging more than a strikeout per inning. That is what you want in a bullpen.

The bullpen can be “longer” now, if Diaz stays true to his form and hype. When we say longer, we mean if a starter can only go five or just into the sixth inning, it won’t cripple the bullpen to have to pitch three-plus innings. Manager Scott Servais has options.

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Also, imagine when guys like Zych and Furbush do come back sometime this summer. What a nice problem to have, deciding which of these good arms might have to head to Triple-A for the summer. Depth in the bullpen is something a playoff team has to have and the Mariners seem to be getting it.