Mariners must feel pangs of regret every time Jhoan Duran dominates for Phillies

That the Seattle Mariners' bullpen has the third-best ERA in the league is a small comfort. Because in reality, it's hard not to feel the absences of Matt Brash and Gabe Speier, just as it's hard not to perceive the specter of Jhoan Duran.

Lest anyone forget, he could have been a Mariner. Heck, maybe he should have been a Mariner. The club was on him leading up to the 2025 trade deadline, and a deal with the Minnesota Twins was close to the finish line at one point. FanSided's own Robert Murray was on it:

That the 28-year-old flamethrower went to the Philadelphia Phillies instead might not point to any failing by Jerry Dipoto or anyone in Seattle's front office. Even so, the whiff on Duran became a tragic story as soon as that ball left George Springer's bat in last year's ALCS. And so far in 2026, the haunting is ongoing.

Acquiring Jhoan Duran could have saved the Mariners from their current bullpen mess

Even at a time when every reliever throws gas, Duran still stands out with fastball speeds that have gone as high as 105 mph. He has a career 2.41 ERA over 257 appearances, and it's only been creeping lower since the Phillies got him last summer. He has a 2.01 ERA in 34 appearances for them.

Meanwhile in Seattle, the Mariners were missing Carlos Vargas even before Brash and Speier landed on the injured list. Eduard Bazardo is still terrific and Andrés Muñoz has been coming around, but such short-handedness never fails to reveal itself.

Take Wednesday, for example. The Mariners lost 4-3 in extra innings, but the turning point was a sixth inning in which a 2-0 lead went "poof." Bryce Miller was asked to go back out even though he had come close to his pitch limit through five innings, and he found trouble right away with a leadoff homer by Christian Walker. Then, the guy who came in with two on and one out was Cooper Criswell.

Criswell has been a pleasant surprise, but he's not a guy you want on the mound in any pressure spot, much less one in which Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez are looming. So when he only gave up a bases-loaded walk to Altuve, it felt like a relief.

Even if Brash, Speier and Vargas were still injured, you can imagine how things could have gone differently if Dan Wilson had both Muñoz and Duran in reserve. That trouble spot could have been one for Bazardo, with Criswell staying back for calmer waters as the game inched toward the shutdown guys at the end of the bullpen.

It all points back to the question of how the Mariners didn't land Duran. And for all we know, the answer isn't outrageous. Just because the Twins accepted an offer of Mick Abel and Eduardo Tait from the Phillies doesn't necessarily mean Seattle's offer was inferior. It could be that the Twins simply wanted those two guys more.

All the same, you wonder if Dipoto and company wish they could have a do-over on this one. For all the amazing work they have done in recent years, not getting Duran won't stop being a painful sliding-doors moment any time soon.

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