Mariners Hypothetical: Imagining a Healthy Pitching Staff

Mariners would have a true ace if he was healthy

April 6th, 2021. That was the day that James Paxton took the mound for his Mariners return. It was supposed to be a return to something wonderful for Mariners fans, seeing the Big Maple back at the front of the rotation. Instead, just 24 pitches in, he would be taken from the game and later diagnosed with a torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament and would need Tommy John.

Then, there is Marco. I don’t know if he is still injured or not, but he doesn’t seem healthy. A lot of people expected him to return to 2018-2020 Marco, when he had a 3.85 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP, with six innings per start.

Then there is Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn. Dunn was looking great this season, while Sheffield was struggling. If, like me, you think the Sheffield struggles were due to injury, he likely would’ve done better. Still, once we look at all these starters as being healthy, there are some moves that would need to be made. Even with a six-man rotation, it would look something like this.

• James Paxton
• Marco Gonzales
• Yusei Kikuchi
• Chris Flexen
• Justin Dunn
• Justus Sheffield

That leaves no room for Logan Gilbert. Let’s say they still wanted him up for this season (it’s a hypothetical, so my rules, and I want Logan Gilbert in the rotation), they likely would’ve moved Sheffield to the pen. I’ve heard that rumor a bit, so that’s where we are going to put him. Which leads to the rest of the pen. What would it look like?

Mariners could have an all-time bullpen if healthy

“Hold on, all-time?”

Yeah, I think you could make an argument. The bullpen has been incredible this year. Due to some of the injuries, time missed, and call-ups, it doesn’t look as spectacular as it could. Think of it this way.

Ljay Newsome. Nick Margevicius. Casey Sadler. Kendall Graveman. Hector Santiago.

They’ve all missed time. If not, we wouldn’t have seen the likes of Daniel Zamora, Yacksel Rios, Wyatt Mills, Aaron Fletcher, Brady Lail, or Vinny Nittoli. That’s 22.1 innings and 26 earned runs, for an ERA of 10.48. I’ll even keep the first 25 appearances by Rafael Montero, and we can boot him when Sheffield gets moved to the pen when they call Gilbert up.

That still gets rid of another 20 runs by Montero in his last 17 innings, for an ERA of 10.59. See what I mean? I’ll even keep Will Vest around the entire time, and when you look at it all together, the Mariners bullpen gives you an ERA of 3.18.

3.18!

That’s an amazing ERA to have from your bullpen, especially in today’s game.

I understand all the projection, wishing, and silver lining that goes into this. That’s the point. I wanted to see what the Mariners pitching would look like if they were healthy. You know what? I’m real happy about it. OH! That’s not even mentioning that they have Ken Giles and Andres Munoz that will be back next year. I really like this Mariners pitching staff, and am excited about what it will look like when/if they become healthy.