3 electric free agent relief pitchers Mariners can target without breaking the bank

Everyone seems pretty clear on what the Seattle Mariners' priorities should be this winter. They need to address their offense first and foremost, and everything else second. Yet under that "everything else" umbrella is a pretty big area of need: the bullpen.

It went from being a strength in 2025 to, well, not a strength in 2026. And least of all in the second half, when its ERA ballooned to 5.69 to rank dead-last in the American League. Andrés Muñoz and other key members will be back, but at least one new addition would be welcome.

The free-agent market will thankfully be well-stocked with quality options for Jerry Dipoto, with hard-throwing lefty Adrian Morejon representing the best possible target. To hear it from Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, though, Morejon's asking price is likely to be beyond the Mariners' comfort zone. Dipoto has never gone above a $17 million guarantee for a free-agent reliever, and Morejon could command that much annually.

However, the situation does call out for the club's comfort zone to be stretched at least a little bit. So, let's look at three impact relievers the Mariners can target without having to pay a Morejon-sized price.

The Mariners should target Jonathan Loáisiga, Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips in free agency

RHP Jonathan Loáisiga

It's been a minute since Jonathan Loáisiga emerged in the late 2010s to become a potential Next Big Thing for the New York Yankees. It wasn't until 2021 that he finally achieved notoriety as a reliever, and then he spent several years in the wilderness because of injuries.

It wasn't until this year that he finally reemerged, using 67 appearances with the Arizona Diamondbacks to post a 2.42 ERA and 2.88 FIP. He had his fastball humming at an average of 97.8 mph and he only walked 13 of the 261 batters he faced. Those two qualities alone make him sound like a Mariner already.

One catch is that the 31-year-old only struck out 48 batters, with another being that his success was largely fueled by a .415 OPS against righties. Yet there could be more to be squeezed out of a pitch mix that runs five deep. And in terms of the overall quality of his pitching, only Morejon (131) finished the year with a higher Pitching+ score than Loáisiga (124) among free-agent relievers.

RHP Evan Phillips

Evan Phillips was the Los Angeles Dodgers' best reliever in 2022 and 2023, but then he had a rough one in 2024 and had Tommy John surgery in 2025. His recovery kept him out of action for over a year before he finally returned to the mound in July.

He ended up pitching just OK after that, racking up a respectable-yet-unspectacular 3.46 ERA in 31 appearances. He's also another guy who did his best work against right-handed batters, holding them to a .642 OPS while lefties got to him for a .786 OPS.

Also like Loáisiga, however, Phillips is a Pitching+ standout among this winter's free agent relievers with a score of 121. He threw strikes with a 96.8 mph average fastball and used his sweeper to hold hitters to an .059 average. It was a bit of an Eduard Bazardo-like act, except just plain better.

LHP Alex Vesia

The Mariners have two solid lefties in Gabe Speier and Jose A. Ferrer, but a modern team really needs one more for the sake of combatting all the good lefty hitters out there. And besides, those two had issues missing bats in 2026.

This is where Alex Vesia is among the best in the game even despite an average fastball of just 92.1 mph. For 2026, he landed in the 96th percentile with his whiff rate and the 95th percentile with his strikeout rate. He throws a four-seamer, slider and changeup, and all three limited hitters to an average in the .100s.

His flaw is how often he tends to lose the strike zone, and that could be a problem for a Mariners team that had the league's second-lowest strikeout rate in 2026. Alternatively, they might see something in Vesia's mechanics that they can fix. Alternatively to that, they could always deem his swing-and-miss abilities as being worth the occasional walk.

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