The 3 Keys to a Successful Seattle Mariners April

2. The Bullpen

I’m waiting for the next big baseball movie to come out, and I think it will be called The Sandlot 4- Edwin Diaz and the others. 

To be honest, I am somewhat pessimistic about the Mariners bullpen. Apart from Marc Rzepczynski, every single reliever is either young and inexperienced or looking to revive a career that has not gone too well. Obviously, the exception is Edwin Diaz, who is a budding star.

But then again, a year ago, no one knew who Edwin Diaz was. He was just as much of a no-name as Dan Altavilla, James Pazos, or Dillion Overton. Because all of them are hard-throwing and have potential, so perhaps we will see Edwin Diaz 2.0.

However, the Mariners don’t have time for a learning curve despite how many young arms they have. That’s the real concern.

All of those young arms will very likely have promising careers, but the Mariners have one of the oldest cores in baseball. The M’s aren’t the Padres or the Braves, and they don’t have time to develop young arms and have them peak in 4-5 years.

The M’s need to win now, which means their relievers need to mature quicker than they normally would have to. If this is possible remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure if they do mature early and fast, the M’s will be in great shape.