Giants rob Mariners of a chance at fixer-upper flier on Yankees castoff Camilo Doval

As much as we've gone on about it almost ad nauseam recently, it still holds true that the Mariners bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster this season. They've suffered almost a perfect storm of everything going wrong, including underperforming stalwarts, a bevvy of injuries and too few quality options. The result has been a team ERA which ranks 22nd in the majors for the season, 29th since the beginning of June and dead last since the start of August.

The understandable hope for next season is that the bullpen will bounce back and look more like what it collectively achieved in previous years. However, this is going to take more than scenarios such as Andrés Muñoz reverting to his All-Star form and Matt Brash being back and fully healthy. No, this is about Jerry Dipoto and company having a renewed focused on what they do best when it comes to relievers, which brings us to Camilo Doval.

As per Aiden Stepansky of MLB.com, Doval had been designated for assignment by the Pirates on Tuesday. They had acquired the righty at the trade deadline from the Yankees as a project piece, but it just didn't pan out as hoped, with him producing a 3.79 ERA and 1.737 WHIP in 19.0 innings spanning 20 appearances.

A talented pitcher who has lost their way, would have been right up the Mariners' street

However, as much as Doval struggled in Pittsburgh -- and indeed prior to that with the Yankees -- he appealed to us as someone the Mariners should have taken a chance on. While it's been three years since he was an All-Star with the Giants the talent is still there, as Pirates manager Don Kelly said despite the decision to DFA him. Now though that potential opportunity has gone awry, with the 29-year-old heading back to his first team after being claimed by the Giants.

To say this is a shame is an understatement, because if there's one team which enjoys reclamation projects with discarded pitchers, it's the Mariners. Sure, they aren't always successful when it comes to revitalizing the Major League careers of pitchers, but they've been better than most. Just off the top of our heads, we can think of the likes of Paul Sewald, Erik Swanson, Justin Topa and Gabe Speier to name a few.

Certainly, we would have had a lot of confidence in the Mariners' ability to work some more magic with Doval. His main issue seems to be his ability to throw strikes, but last time we checked the M's are pretty good when it comes to helping in this area. He also has some intriguing weapons at his disposal, with his 98-99 mph fastball ranking in the 95th percentile and matched with an effective slider.

Whether Doval is able to return somewhere close to his 2023 form when he led the NL in saves, is of course open to debate. However, it's just a shame the Mariners weren't able to snag him, as the type of low-risk/high-reward pitcher who could have helped them. If nothing else, maybe this can serve as a wake-up call to have some more urgency and aforementioned focus on rebuilding a bullpen which needs a lot of help.

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