What's next for Bryan Woo?

Mariners’ brass has gone on record about their desire to protect rookie Bryan Woo’s workload. Mainly because he’s never thrown more than 44 professional innings in a season until this year; he’s now at 70 innings with a little less than a month left. Manager Scott Servais skipped Woo this weekend for a traditional bullpen day, and there is a chance that won’t be the first time we’ll see the team empty the pen.

Bullpen days might be great for young starters like Woo, but it puts a tremendous strain on relievers. It also has lasting effects on the manager’s late-game decision-making, like we saw yesterday in Tampa when Servais was forced to burn both recently called-up Eduard Bazardo and Justin Leone for four innings. While that strategy likely recharged a lately overtaxed bullpen, the team should make a couple of moves to keep pace in the playoff chase.