Mariners' roster is hiding an X-factor in breakout reliever from 2024

If the Seattle Mariners' current roster has a weakness, it has to be the back end of the bullpen, right? There's a pretty big drop-off in the last three spots, which makes you want to call out for another guy with high-octane stuff and bat-missing ability.

Somebody like, say, Troy Taylor.

If his name came up at all in 2025, it was typically with pessimistic overtones. He entered the year with a golden chance to win a spot in the bullpen, but it went kaput when he sustained a strained lat before spring training. His year only continued to go south, ultimately consisting of a 12.15 ERA in eight appearances with the Mariners and a 6.85 ERA in 50 appearances with Triple-A Tacoma.

And yet, the 24-year-old is still on the 40-man roster and not necessarily on the outside looking in at the bullpen. He could even be "a big piece" for the pen, as Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times mused upon watching Taylor throw live BP on Sunday.

Mariners bullpen could be transformed if 2024 Troy Taylor shows up

Taylor was ranked by Baseball America as the Mariners' No. 17 prospect this time last year, with the report emphasizing his upper-90s fastball and sweeper with "frisbee action."

By then, neither thing existed in the minds of Mariners fans solely in the abstract. Taylor had shown off what he could do in 21 appearances with the big club late in 2024, notably racking up 25 strikeouts over 19.1 innings.

This followed a 40-game stretch at High-A and Double-A in which Taylor had posted a sub-2.00 ERA. He averaged 97.0 mph on the fastball as a major leaguer, with his sweeper drawing a 44.6 whiff rate.

The one problem Taylor did have in the majors in 2024 was with the long ball, as he gave up four home runs despite his limited action. That carried over in 2025, with his 51.1 total innings yielding nine balls over the fence.

On top of that, control problems that had plagued Taylor in college and at the outset of his pro career came roaring back. He walked 13.1 percent of the batters he faced between the minors and the majors, compared to a league-wide norm of 9.3 percent for MLB relievers.

After a year like that, there's no way that Taylor was ever going to enter 2026 as a favorite to break camp as part of the bullpen. And yet, dare we say he could do exactly that?

Especially once the World Baseball Classic ramps up, there's going to be plenty of Cactus League reps to go around for pitchers on the bubble of the Mariners' roster. Taylor is bound to get some of those, and he doesn't need to worry about outperforming the five guys who are locked into the top of the bullpen depth chart.

He more so has to worry about Carlos Vargas and Casey Legumina, and maybe Cooper Criswell. None of the three has any minor league options left, but they still resemble shaky parts of the on-paper ensemble. Legumina, especially, got shelled for a 5.62 ERA and -0.9 rWAR last year.

If the Taylor of 2024 does show up this spring, that's a potential game-changer. Even if he's not going to supplant Andrés Muñoz, Matt Brash, Gabe Speier, Eduard Bazardo or Jose A. Ferrer as Dan Wilson's top options, him having yet another electric arm to go to could only help with the World Series aspirations the Mariners rightfully have for 2026.