Mariners Prospects: Michael Stryffeler is having a career year

The Mariners are one of the best, if not the best, farm systems in all of baseball. They’re both deep and have strong high-end talent, which is a combination that all teams covet. The only downside is that you can have some players fail to get noticed because of how many talented players there are. One of those players happens to be Michael Stryffeler.

A 25-year-old RH reliever, Stryffeler signed with the Mariners as an undrafted free agent in 2019 after playing four years at Lake Erie College. He didn’t stand out much as a starter but had a lively fastball that would see its velocity drop as the game went on. This is what caught the eye of anyone watching him in the California Winter League, where he showed the ability to touch 98 out of the pen.

The Mariners took a chance on him, and 2021 has been a career-defining year.

It wasn’t just the velocity that jumped, but the strikeout rate as well. So far in 2021, Stryffeler has notched 66 Ks in 40.1 innings, good for a rate of 14.7/9. With the added velocity, his heater has developed into one of those hard sinking fastballs we see so often from big league relievers.

He has spent the entire 2021 season in Arkansas, something you might not expect for a reliever with only 13 innings in rookie ball and 1.1 in High A. Yet, the Mariners showed that it was the correct decision. Through those 40.1 innings and 39 appearances, Stryffeler has given up just 9 runs and is sporting a 2.01 ERA with eight saves.

During the “off-year” of 2020, the Mariners gave him a plan of continuing to work on his fastball/slider mix of pitches, while getting stronger. It makes sense, as getting him to more consistently reach and stay at 98/99 gives him a great shot to make the big league club someday if he can continue to miss bats.

The other part of working on the slider is the relative newness of the pitch. He used to have a curve, but with his terrific arm speed, moving to a slider greatly increased his efficiency. It’s pushing to be a plus slider, yet another one in the long list of Mariners minor leaguers with nasty sliders.

If he can fix his control, he’s got a wonderful chance to be a legit reliever at the next level. There are some mechanical fixes and adjustments that he needs to work on, as a long arm action paired with some funk in his lower half leads to roller coaster accuracy. It’s sort of what you expect from someone with 30+ walks in ~40 innings.

The Mariners have a lot of pitching depth. Next year, if they are looking for a minor leaguer to take a chance on, they could add to the stable of relievers whose last name starts with “S”, and give Michael Stryffeler a chance.