The Mariners Don’t Need Arquimedes Caminero’s Heat

The latest reports say that the Mariners hard-throwing righty, Arquimedes Caminero, may be heading to the Nippon Professional Baseball League if he can close a deal with the Yomiuri Giants. While the Mariners might miss Caminero’s heat during these colder than usually winter days in Seattle, come next season, he’ll already be a long lost memory.

If the translations are correct, and there’s no reason to doubt that it would be, Ethan Novak of Lookout Landing has found reports that the former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher and current Seattle Mariners flamethrower, Arquimedes Caminero could be headed to Japan to play in the NPBL.

Caminero and the Mariners haven’t had too much time to get acquainted as he was acquired by the M’s in early August, but in the time they’ve had, the relationship seemed pleasant, especially from Caminero’s point of view. He told Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN in Seattle:

"“I have a pool table at my house, I am going to play pool in the M’s Olympics,” he said adding with a laugh, “It’s fun to be here.”"

And it was fun for the Mariners too at first. Within the first week of his play with the M’s, Caminero pitched often, and with precision. In his first five games in the organization, Caminero went six innings without allowing a walk, struck out five men and only surrendered three hits.

In that span, he also picked up two holds and his first win with the Mariners.

His specialty was throwing the ball at or around one hundred MPH with consistency. His fastball average sat at about ninety-nine MPH and even his sinker was regularly reaching speeds of ninety-eight MPH.

The sinking-bite that both pitchers had made it hard for batters to track the ball, but when they did, it was rarely hit where fielders weren’t.

It was after that first week, though, when the fun turned into frustration.

Over the next ten games, he threw eight walks while striking out seven men. He gave up eighteen hits and eight runs over ten innings, making his ERA over that period 7.20.

It was this stretch that would force the Mariners hand to sideline him during the crucial final month of the season as they were in the thick of the playoff hunt. Caminero would throw in just five games from the start of September ’til the season’s end.

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Caminero’s absence during those key games didn’t seem to factor in on the Mariners win/loss record, which is probably why there is little urgency to keep him on the roster.

When the Mariners brought him over from Pittsburgh, GM Jerry Dipoto was frantically making bullpen adjustments to deal with injuries and get the team ready for the second half of the season.

Now that Dipoto has had ample time (and resources) to build the team as he wishes, Caminero’s heat is no longer needed in Seattle.

Dipoto already had Edwin Diaz closing out games with one hundred- plus MPH heat, and now that he’s added, right-hander, Casey Fien’s mid-nineties fastball, traded for top prospect, James Pazos’s mid-to-high nineties fastball, called up the Brazilian fireballer, Thyago Vieira, who does reach triple digits with ease, not to mention he has the Mariners number three prospect, Luiz Gohara who also reaches one hundred every once in a while waiting in the wings for his chance at the big leagues, to fear that the M’s don’t have enough fire power going into 2017 would be laughable.

Next: Mariners Complete Trade With Braves, Ship Pike

So, all that can be said now is, “Sayonara to guddorakku, Arquimedes Caminero” I hope your fastball powers a resurgence in your career over in the land of the rising sun. As for the Mariners, if the deal goes through, there is enough heat in that bullpen to start a fire. A fire that hopefully burns through October.