Mariners can do Bryan Abreu a favor by targeting him for bullpen in free agency

As much as the Seattle Mariners obviously need to upgrade their offense, don't be surprised if fixes for that don't come from the free agent market. It's light on bats, whereas Jerry Dipoto seems to see more opportunities to find bullpen help.

"This year's bullpen market is pretty appealing," Dipoto said, per Teren Kowatsch of Roundtable Sports. "There's a lot of guys out there we feel like could help us. We've already identified who they might be. Whether we can land them or not is a different story. But, we're looking to add to our bullpen."

As for which relievers Dipoto might be talking about, well, take a wild guess. Hopefully, he has Adrian Morejon on his radar. More likely, it's the guys on the tier below him.

This is where Bryan Abreu resides, and he's indeed been mentioned as someone the Mariners should pursue by Zac Hereth of Seattle Sports. Abreu himself might be open to the idea, if for no other reason than it would get a thorn out of his side. The Mariners have had his number over the last two seasons, getting to him for a 6.75 ERA in 13 appearances. In 123 appearances against everyone else, he has a 2.59 ERA.

The Mariners should be intrigued by the one key area where Bryan Abreu really needs to improve

More generally, Abreu looks like a buy-low candidate among his fellow free agent relievers. The 29-year-old righty has a 146 ERA+ for his career, but he slipped to a 111 ERA+ this year. It won't be lost on teams that this had a lot to do with a brutal start that he eventually recovered from, though there were still other red flags at the end.

Even though his fastball velocity did get better as the year went along, Abreu's final average of 95.7 mph was still 1.6 mph below his average for the 2025 season. And even if his walk rate did improve from the first half to the second, we're still only talking about an 18.3 BB% vs. an 11.9 BB%. To wit, the latter mark is the same as the league-worst BB% authored by Cincinnati Reds relievers.

This is where it's worth having faith that the Mariners could help Abreu. For all the things that went wrong for their pitchers this year, their well-known ability to throw strikes wasn't one of them. Mariners starters ranked second in walk rate, with relievers doing worse but still landing comfortably in the top 10 of MLB with an 8.8 BB%.

In eight seasons, Abreu has never had a walk rate that low. But if Trent Blank and company could get him anywhere close, the Mariners would stand to heighten the effect of Abreu's pure unhittability. Among relievers who have made 300 appearances since 2022, only four have allowed a lower slugging percentage than his .311.

As for how much it could cost to sign Abreu, projections for his contract are falling in the range of two years and $20 million. Dipoto hasn't gone swimming in those waters for a reliever since he signed Juan Nicasio in 2017, so this (and the entire bullpen search in general) may be an "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of situation.

Yet if ever there was a time to take such a risk, it's now. The Mariners had a good run of digging up effective relievers out of nowhere, but recent seasons sure seem to suggest that well has run dry.

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