The Seattle Mariners All-Dipoto Acquisition Team: Relief Pitchers

LHP ROENIS ELÍAS

Roenis Elías first arrived on the scene as a starting pitcher in 2014 thanks to Jerry Dipoto’s predecessor Jack Zduriencik, who signed the Cuban import to a minor league contract three years prior. In Dipoto’s first offseason as the Mariners’ general manager, he shipped Elías and reliever Carson Smith to Boston for pitchers Wade Miley and Jonathan Aro.

Elías stumbled in his time with the Red Sox, ultimately only throwing eight total innings for their Major League team over the course of the two years he spent in their organizaiton. Eventually, things came full circle and Elías was reacquired by Dipoto in April 2018 and the now 31-year-old lefty quickly turned his career around as a full-time reliever in Seattle.

In the 67 appearances he made for the Mariners up until his trade to the eventual World Series winning Washington Nationals this past July, Elías threw for more than an inning 18 times, accumulating a 2.58 ERA in those instances. Overall, Elías posted a 3.12 ERA and 3.84 FIP with 14 saves, 7.26 K/9, and 3.03 BB/9 while working pretty much every role a pitcher can possibly fill within a bullpen during his second stint with the Mariners.

RHP JUSTIN DUNN

Colby and I decided to have a little fun with this decision, as it was our last to make in order to complete the roster. Yes, we could have chosen a more proven MLB talent like Sam Tuivailala or Matt Magill for the final bullpen spot, but Justin Dunn was a massive part of what may wind up being Dipoto’s best trade thus far in Seattle and his floor may very well be a high-leverage reliever when it’s all said and done.

Currently slated to be a starter, however, Dunn has a mid 90s fastball with a pair of breaking balls that continue to improve as time goes on. The fastball could push upper 90s if his workload is decreased in a relief role and the slider would serve as a nasty complementary piece to keep hitters off balance in the late going.

With the way our roster is constructed, Dunn would be the ideal candidate to open for one of our starters like Wade LeBlanc or vice-versa. Dunn would come out firing right out of the gate before LeBlanc steps in to casually pick away at opposing hitters for a few frames before the big guns step in.

LHP JAMES PAZOS

Jerry Dipoto has made a ton of low risk, high reward trades that have flown completely under the radar and quite a few of them have panned out rather nicely. Acquiring James Pazos from the New York Yankees for pitcher Zack Littell is one of those deals.

Despite only logging 8.1 career innings pitched before arriving in Seattle, Pazos assumed a pretty hefty role during his time with the Mariners. The southpaw appeared in 119 games over two seasons, notching 103.2 innings while averaging a little over a strikeout per inning.

While opposing left-handed hitters have posted a modest .255/.327/.365 slash line against Pazos in his career, he’s far from a LOOGY. Righties have put up relatively similar numbers against him, slashing .244/.327/.399 in 310 matchups. Pazos would likely be leaned on more for a stretch of tough lefty hitters on this roster, but we certainly wouldn’t be afraid to put him in most situations given his track record.

RHP STEVE CISHEK

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Mariners fan who thinks back on Steve Cishek’s time in Seattle fondly. It’s hard not to immediately think of the seven blown saves in 2016, particularly one that occurred on Sunday Night Baseball in a late July game at Wrigley Field. But when you finally work through those emotions, you’ll come to find that Cishek was pretty damn solid more often than not with the Mariners.

For as good as Dipoto has been at trading for relievers, signing them has been a bit of a struggle. Cishek is one of the few exceptions, putting up a 9.75 K/9 and 2.89 ERA over the span of 84 innings in his year-and-a-half with Seattle. In the month of September 2016, Cishek didn’t allow a single run in 13 appearances, and had another similar stretch earlier on in the year.

He was incredibly streaky, as most relievers are. But it was either a stretch of shakiness or an even longer stretch of pure dominance for Cishek. When he was on, he was really on, and more often than not. Unfortunately, his reputation amongst Mariners fans has been muddied by the few hiccups mixed in there, which admittedly do stand out, even for me, but ultimately shouldn’t tarnish an otherwise fantastic run in the Emerald City.

RHP NICK VINCENT

Like the Pazos trade, Dipoto’s late Spring Training acquisition of Nick Vincent from the San Diego Padres (for cash!) is one of his better deals that no one talks about. Vincent had already established a fine career in San Diego, so being able to pry him away for as little as Dipoto did is something to be applauded for in and of itself, but what the righty did once he got to Seattle made the deal that much sweeter.

Vincent never lit up the radar gun but was incredibly deceptive in his time with the Mariners, averaging over a strikeout an inning in his first season with the team and nearly doing so again in his third and final year with them. More importantly, he was dependable and durable, throwing 55+ innings in all three years with a high of 64.2 in 2017—his best season as a Mariner, in which he put up 1.7 fWAR with a 2.82 FIP.

Vincent and his iconic goatee fulfilled every bullpen role under the sun, including being one of the first relievers the Mariners used as an opener in 2018. He also earned three saves in 2016 and accumulated 61 holds from the start of his Seattle tenure to the end, posting a top-50 WHIP (1.15) amongst all qualified MLB relievers over that time.

RHP AUSTIN ADAMS

Austin Adams’ inclusion on this roster shouldn’t come as a surprise, but perhaps his placement in the late inning reliever grouping over guys like Steve Cishek and Nick Vincent may seem kinda odd at first given that he’s only thrown 31 innings in a Mariners uniform and is currently rehabbing from a torn ACL. But hooboy, were those 31 innings a lot of fun.

Adams didn’t have a great track record in his time with the Nationals, the team that eventually traded him to the Mariners for left-handed pitcher Nick Wells and cash, so there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement generated by this move amongst the general public. But as some of our previous additions to this bullpen have proved, Mariners fans should probably pay more attention when Jerry Dipoto takes a flyer on a reliever.

The Mariners were able to convince Adams to tap into his slider more consistently and it paid huge dividends, leading to a 14.91 K/9 in 2019. Additionally, Adams generates a ton of movement on his two primary pitches, placing 10th amongst all MLB pitchers in fastball spin rate, and 24th in slider spin rate last year.

While the Mariners’ organization boasts a ton of big arms throughout their system, perhaps none have a higher ceiling than Adams does despite his recent injury. Upon his return to game action, expect Adams to immediately push for a high-leverage role in the M’s current bullpen and eventually establish himself as their next full-time closer, which is why we’ve landed him here in such a key role on our All-Dipoto Acquisition roster.

RHP ÁLEX COLOMÉ

Perhaps Dipoto’s best midseason trade as the Mariners’ general manager thus far, he acquired outfielder Denard Span and right-handed reliever Álex Colomé to pair with eventual Reliever of the Year Edwin Díaz from the Tampa Bay Rays in May 2018. Colomé, of course, was the prize of the deal, being the center of trade rumors for quite some time and finally landing in the Emerald City to create one of the best one-two punches of any bullpen in the league.

Colomé was as advertised for the Mariners, overall posting a 2.53 ERA with a 9.52 K/9 in 46.1 innings pitched. He didn’t allow a run in 19 straight appearances from the start of July to mid August, and did so again for another 10 straight appearances to finish the 2018 season.

If the Mariners carried a lead into the eighth inning that year, a notch in the win column was all but certain. It was nearly an impossible feat to do any sort of damage against the tandem of Colomé and Díaz, which brings us to our final addition to the bullpen.

RHP EDWIN DÍAZ

Yes, this is the All-Dipoto Acquisition team, and Jerry Dipoto certainly did not acquire Edwin Díaz. That would be Jack Zduriencik, who drafted Díaz in the third-round of the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft. That’s what brings us to the caveat I mentioned at the top of the article.

While Zduriencik brought Díaz to Seattle, it was Dipoto who helped turn Díaz into what he is now: one of the elite relievers in today’s game, despite a rough season in his first year with the Mets in 2019.

Under Zduriencik, Díaz was on a much different path as a starting pitcher, and while he had some success in the lower levels of minor league ball, the lack of development of a tertiary pitch and so-so command was going to hinder his ability to be anything more than a raw arm at the back of someone’s rotation.

Dipoto and company quickly pumped the brakes on Díaz’s aspirations as a starter and, in one of his earliest critical executive decisions as the Mariners’ general manager, converted him into a reliever to fast-track him to MLB action. Díaz appeared in just 16 Double-A games in 2016 before being called up to the bigs and having his feet put to the fire.

The young Díaz accepted the challenge and faced it head on, putting his electricity on full display from the jump and almost immediately securing the team’s full-time closer role. From that point forward, he never looked back and went on to have one of the greatest seasons of any reliever in MLB history in 2018, saving 57 games with a 15.22 K/9, 1.96 ERA, and 3.5 fWAR.

Dipoto may not have acquired him, but the impact he had on Díaz’s career cannot go unnoticed and it was impossible to leave him off this roster as the two feel synonymous with one another.