52 days until Mariners Opening Day! Previewing Nick Margevicius

With the NFL season over and the NBA and NHL in full swing, the next sport to start its season is the MLB and it is only 52 days away! Let’s celebrate by looking at one of the most underrated pitchers in the Mariners system number 52 Nick Margevicius.

First things first, his last name is pronounced “mahr-GAV-a-chiss” according to Baseball-Reference, and I know everyone struggled with it before last season and some might still not know how to pronounce it.

Nick Margevicius made his way to Seattle after being DFA’d by the Padres at the age of 23. The lefty is now just 24 and he put his rough rookie year in San Diego behind him after having a solid year last season as the replacement in the rotation for Kendall Graveman.

Nick had an ERA of 4.57 last year along with a FIP of 4.35, and an xwOBA of .307 (right around league average). He also had an ERA of just 4.46 in games he started, as he started 7 games and made his first three appearances of the season out of the bullpen.

I think Margevicius is one of the more underrated players in the Mariners system because he has a real chance to be a 4th or 5th starter or long reliever on a competing Mariners team. He is just a 24-year-old southpaw and while he threw an only 90mph 4 seam fastball on average, that was a number that was up from an average of 88.3 with the Padres two years ago.

Margevicius might be the first to go out of the rotation if the Mariners sign another starter as the only non-locks right now looking at the 5th and 6th spots in the rotation are Justin Dunn and Margevicius. However, long term I like Margevicius more than Dunn and I could see him beat out Justin for the final spot in the rotation if the Mariners sign someone.