Mariners' pitching staff gets high praise in recent Bleacher Report article

We knew that the 2024 Mariners would be carried by the pitching staff. They have three guys that could be legitimate aces on 75% or 80% of the teams in baseball. They also have two promising, young pitchers looking to join that next tier of starting pitchers. I don't think anyone could have imagined that they would be as good as they have been, however.

This isn't a rotation carried by one or two starting pitchers, the one through five has been absolutely dominant. They had a historic stretch being the first team in the history of baseball to record 15 straight outings while striking out at least four and giving up no more than two earned runs...that is just an insane stat! They even got some great outings from Emerson Hancock before he was sent down in favor of Bryan Woo.

Maybe even more impressive than what the starting rotation has done, is what this bullpen has been able to provide, especially with losing Matt Brash for the year and having yet to see Gregory Santos throw. Without those two, the Mariners bullpen is still top 10 in ERA, K/9, BB/9 and fWAR. They have had some guys step up! Guys like Gabe Speier, Trent Thornton, and Austin Voth have really stepped up, while Andres Munoz continues to prove that he is in the elite of the elite category among closers.

Bleacher Report released its article, "Ranking all 30 MLB Pitching Staffs" and the Mariners got some deserving praise from Zachary Rymer. Rymer had the Mariners as the second-best rotation in all of baseball. Sure, there is a very solid argument that the Mariners are the best rotation in baseball, but Rymer had the Phillies rotation as the best, and I get it. The Phillies have the fourth-lowest ERA, second-highest K/9, and here's the craziest stat, they have compiled an MLB leading, 8.3 fWAR by starters, which is 1.8 fWAR higher than any other rotation!

Mariners' pitchers like to bring the heat, as they lead MLB in average fastball velocity and in fastball run value. You know, just in case anyone was wondering where the league's third-highest strikeout rate was coming from.

This pitching staff will continue to lead this team and as the pitching goes, so does the whole team. Hopefully they can start to get some help from the offense because the way this rotation is going, we need to see them playing deep into the playoffs; they have the potential to carry this team to a deep playoff run.