Meet the newest Mariner, Dominic Leone!

Earlier this week, the Baseball world was shocked when the Los Angeles Angels, Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees placed a number of players on waivers. The Angels were the most surprising team to do this, because just 4 weeks ago, they traded their farm for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez from the White Sox. The Angels then placed both of those players, among others, on waivers. Angels fans just can not catch a break. Before the players were placed on waivers, Shohei Ohtani was revealed to have a torn UCL in his throwing elbow, and Mike Trout came off the Injured List just to go back on the next day.

While the Mariners were not able to land Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore or Reynaldo Lopez, they were able to claim Relief Pitcher, and old friend, Dominic Leon from the Halos. Dominic has bounced around in his MLB career. You may remember him from the 2014 and 2015 seasons, when he pitched out of the Mariners bullpen. He flashed in 2014, with a 2.17 ERA over 66.1 innings as a 22 year old rookie. He struggled a bit in his sophomore campaign, and was traded to the Diamondbacks mid-season in a package for Mark Trumbo. He has also pitched for the Cardinals, Giants, Blue Jays, Guardians, Mets and Angels.

This year, Leone signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers. He opted out of that deal on May 2nd, By May 4th, he was pitching for the New York Mets. In 30.2 innings with the Mets, he pitched to a 4.40 ERA and 1.23 WHIP. At the trade deadline, Leone was traded from the Mets to the Angels. So he has bounced around this year, but he will be a welcome addition to a Mariners bullpen in need of mid to high leverage help. Do not hold his 9 walks in his 13 innings with the Halos against him, literally every Angels player has struggled in August.

Dominic has been getting hit hard in 2023. His Baseball Savant page shows he is in just the 3rd percentile in barrel percentage. He will walk some batters, as his 4.1 BB/9 shows. His fastball sits right at 96 MPH, and he can touch 99 MPH. He will be fun to watch down the stretch, when he gets with the mariners pitching coaches. They have taken guys like Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo and turned them into high leverage pitchers. I am excited to see what Dominic Leone brings this September! As always, Go Mariners!