Mariners can count on Andrés Muñoz to punish Padres for trading him

Like many international free agents, Andrés Muñoz was signed at just 16 years old back in 2015. While he has become renowned for his abilities for the Seattle Mariners, the first team to pick him up was actually the San Diego Padres.

Muñoz pitched in the Padres organization for five years before being part of a trade package that sent him and Ty France to the Mariners. After five seasons with his new squad, he'll get yet another chance to show San Diego what they lost as he takes them on in the upcoming Vedder Cup.

Andrés Muñoz has punished everyone since leaving San Diego, but especially the Padres

His abilities have improved quite a bit since debuting in 2019. However, even after just one outing, it was clear that he was a special arm talent.

His fastball velocity (which has since gone as high as 103 mph) was his most obvious quality, but the Padres must be credited with encouraging him to develop a slider which has become the most valuable pitch in his arsenal by far. This year, while throwing it nearly 50 percent of the time, opposing hitters are batting just .028 against it while whiffing at a 55.7 percent clip.

Funnily enough, the Padres have seemingly struggled the most to find success against Muñoz. In his six total appearances against San Diego since becoming a Mariner, he has given up one hit, three walks, and zero earned runs while striking out 12 and accumulating three saves.

The Friars are unlucky enough to be facing Muñoz during what seems to be the peak of an already impressive career. After 19 innings of relief, he still has a 0.00 ERA with a WHIP of 0.79 and a 35.6 strikeout percentage.

Not only is he missing bats and punching out hitters at an elite rate, those that do make contact aren't finding much luck either. He is the only pitcher with a strikeout rate over 35 percent and a ground ball rate over 75 percent. All of this has given him more rWAR than all but one player on the Mariners.

There is a nearly unlimited amount of information one can unpack to try and pick apart what has made Muñoz such a special presence in the bullpen. In fact, Alex Chamberlain did just that in his recent FanGraphs article, focusing on the shape of his fastball in particular.

Whether it's his eye-popping velocity, unhittable slider, or overall dominant statistical performance, 2025 is already Andrés Muñoz's year. To be fair, the Padres already have a solid closer of their own in Robert Suarez but one has to wonder whether they'll be looking at Muñoz on the mound and wondering, "What if?"