Seattle Mariners 2021 Grades: Part 4 – Starting Pitchers

Seattle Mariners
Marco Gonzales, Seattle Mariners. (Photo by Udeez, via Wikicommons)

Now that the Seattle Mariners 2021 season is over, it’s time to evaluate the team. In Part 4, we grade the starting pitchers.

The Seattle Mariners had a roller-coaster type season from their starting pitching in 2021. During the offseason, they brought in Chris Flexen. Flexen was a New York Mets reject that spent the entire 2020 season in Korea playing for the Doosan Bears.

When we entered spring training, though, Seattle made a big and somewhat controversial move in signing The Big Maple. James Paxton‘s return to the Mariners was exciting for fans who needed familiarity. There were plenty of prognosticators that predicted at some point Paxton would get injured. That nightmare came true 1.1 innings into his first and only outing of the season.

Joining the spring training hype was heralded prospect Logan Gilbert. He worked limited innings and pitches in the exhibition season. That led fans to wonder when the phenom would get his ticket to the show.

The final piece of controversy was over how many starting pitchers the Mariners would use to start the season.

The rotation started with Marco Gonzales, James Paxton, Chris Flexen, Justus Sheffield, Yusei Kikuchi, and either Nick Margevicius or Justin Dunn as the sixth starting pitcher. Eventually, all of them but Flexen and Kikuchi spent time on the Injured List. Meanwhile, the latter of the two healthy hurlers was passed over, down the stretch, due to his ineffectiveness.

The final rotation was enhanced by Tyler Anderson‘s arrival from Pittsburgh in a trade deadline deal. He performed decently, especially when Seattle needed someone to eat innings.

Starting Pitching

All totaled 15 different pitchers started for the Mariners in 2021. They were Chris Flexen (31), Yusei Kikuchi (29), Marco Gonzales (25), Logan Gilbert (24), Justus Sheffield (15), Tyler Anderson (13), Justin Dunn (11), Robert Duggar (4), Nick Margevicious (3) and six others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjxxf_v4PDI

 

Next: Page 2 – From Korea to the Emerald City

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