Mariners' 40-man roster is hiding an exciting Jose A. Ferrer alternative

When you look at the top four options out of the Seattle Mariners bullpen last season, it was tough to find many combos better than Andrés Muñoz, Matt Brash, Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier. However, the M's still could have used more quality depth relief options, especially when injuries meant an over-reliance on the likes of Bazardo, which ultimately proved costly in the playoffs.

The Mariners took care of this to a certain extent with the offseason trade for Jose A. Ferrer from the Washington Nationals, although it did mean giving up top catching prospect Harry Ford. Still, the belief is that Ferrer will help boost the quality of the bullpen with the added bonus that he's a lefty, something which the organization was particularly keen to address during the winter.

The optics certainly look encouraging when it comes to Ferrer, with Baseball Savant ranking him in the 99th percentile for GB%, 95th percentile for BB%, 94th percentile for Fastball Velo and 93rd percentile for Barrel%. He also will seemingly help on the durability side of things, with him setting career-highs of 72 appearances and 76.1 innings last year.

However, you do have to counter this with Ferrer's overall MLB percentile ranking being average, with a similar conclusion for his career 4.36 ERA over three years, which includes 4.48 last season. In some respects he's an experiment, and his Cactus League debut of three hits, a walk and two earned runs in just 0.1 innings isn't exactly a good first impression with the Mariners.

While we're not suggesting by any stretch that the Mariners should panic and give up on Ferrer (not that we would even expect them to), it doesn't hurt to at least consider backup plans. And it just so happens that the organization might well have an alternative hiding in the wings.

An exciting potential bullpen arm for the Mariners

The relief pitcher in question is Robinson Ortiz, who the M's acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers last November in exchange for minor league right-hander Tyler Gough. Ortiz had been with the Dodgers since signing as an international free agent in June of 2017, and his journey has been one marred by adversity, including missing all of the 2022 and 2023 seasons through injury.

We'll admit that we didn't have Baseball America running a story about Oritz on our bingo card, but it certainly makes for an intriguing read. As Jesús Cano writes: "His four-seam fastball, which he throws harder post-surgery, should sit in the mid 90s and touch 98 mph. He can get chases against lefties with a high-spin slider and also works in a low-90s cutter."

The 26-year-old has a career 3.48 ERA in 238.0 combined innings at all levels of the minors, but what should encourage M's fans is his 2.76 ERA in 15 appearances when he finally made it to Triple-A last season. (He had a 2.73 ERA overall in 48 combined games at three minor league levels.) As Cano mentioned, it really looks like his four-seamer played in the minors during the 2025 campaign.

In addition, Ortiz also had a .565 OPS versus right-handed bats compared to a .701 OPS against left-handers, which makes for nice reverse platoon splits. We appreciate none of this guarantees anything with the Mariners, but with the organization's reputation for developing pitchers, it at least makes for an exciting proposition, especially with a player who had an overall 28.3 strikeout rate last season.

In an ideal world, two good lefties in the Mariners bullpen should be enough, but it sure can't hurt to have a third option, whether it be to provide quality depth or to take the pressure off if Ferrer struggles for whatever reason. Now we wait to see if Oritz will repay the M's faith in thinking enough to trade for him, by tapping fully into his upside — if nothing else we know he has the desire and mental fortitude to succeed after battling back from two lost seasons.