Mariners Rumors: Seattle to Sign Right-Handed Pitcher Anthony Bass

The Seattle Mariners roster crunch never takes a day off. Earlier this morning, it was reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN and later confirmed that the team will be bringing in another veteran to help in the bullpen.

Reports are now coming out fast and furious that the Mariners are going to sign right-handed reliever Anthony Bass to a Major League contract and will add him to their bullpen in the coming days.

If that name sounds familiar to you, Bass was a Seattle Mariners pitcher for slightly longer than Mallex Smith was with the club. He was acquired with Leonys Martin from the Texas Rangers but was granted his release just 6 weeks later to pursue an opportunity in Japan.

Bass returned to the states in 2017 and has gotten just 21 innings of work in the big leagues since then. He did throw 15 good innings for the Chicago Cubs in 2018, posting a 2.93 ERA and a 4.67 K/BB ratio.

This season, Bass signed a Minor League contract with the Cinncinatti Reds. In his 19 outings for the Reds AAA affiliate, Bass posted 2.21 ERA, an 8.4 K/9, a 2.7 BB/9, and 9 saves but ultimately decided to opt-out to pursue an MLB opportunity.

The Mariners are willing to give Bass that chance thanks in large part to a depleted bullpen that has been largely ineffective. The signing hasn’t been made official, but when it is, Dipoto will need to make room on both the 40-man roster as well as the 25-man roster.

In his last taste of MLB, Bass used his 94 MPH sinker and slider about 98% of the time, effectively shelving his split-finger fastball. The slider is his swing-and-miss pitch. Bass is a prototypical sinker-slider bullpen arm who throws a lot of strikes.

He also has a knack for generating groundballs, a trait that is appealing for the Mariners home run a happy bullpen. Ultimately, this move won’t turn the Mariners bullpen from terrible to good. It won’t make it average. But Bass is still a useful arm to help until further re-enforcements can be added to the roster.