Marco Gonzales, Seattle Mariners. (Photo by Udeez, via Wikicommons)
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.
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.
Overall: B+
Chris Flexen led the team in nearly every starting pitching category last season, except strikeouts. That’s okay because strikeouts aren’t really his bread and butter.
Control: B+
With only 40 walks in nearly 180 innings pitched, Flexen showed excellent control. Down the stretch, Flexen was Seattle’s ace, and his control was outstanding as he kept going deeper into games. Here’s an amazing stat, Flexen only walked more than two batters in a game once in 2021.
Dominance: C
There are two ways to measure dominance. The first is strikeouts and Flexen finished third on the team in that category. His 6.3 K’s per 9 innings was one of the lowest in the American League among qualified pitchers.
On the other hand, he only gave up 19 home runs, also one of the lowest in the league among qualified pitchers. Flexen led the Seattle Mariners in quality starts (3 or less earned runs in 6 or more innings pitched) with 15.
Intangibles: B+
Flexen was called on time and time again to stop losing streaks, keep winning streaks going, and eat innings. Down the stretch, he was an integral part of the Mariners’ playoff push. He finished with a 14-6 record, 3.61 ERA, and 3.5 WAR. The 27-year-old is at the beginning of his prime and is poised to pick up where he left off with a better supporting cast.
Overall: C
Yusei Kikuchi was on fire to start the season and earned the Mariners’ lone All-Star nod (though there were others that were deserving). He finished the first half at 6-4 with 98 strikeouts in 98.1 innings. In addition, Kikuchi was one of the league leaders in WHIP (Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched) at 1.09.
Unfortunately, his second half was one of the most brutal halves of baseball in recent memory. After July 1, Kikuchi was 1-6 with a 6.22 ERA, 1.81 WHIP, and .917 OPS against. He was wild in and out of the zone, giving up as many hits as he did the first half, but in 40 fewer innings.
Control: C-
Kikuchi showed good control in the first half, working into the 6th inning in 69% of his 16 starts. He had horrible control after the break and couldn’t get out of his own way.
Dominance: D
Same story. Kikuchi’s first half was absolutely dominating. In the second half, he could be blown over by a light.
Intangibles: F
When the Seattle Mariners needed him most, they couldn’t trust Kikuchi. Instead, Servais elected to go with bullpen days or to bump up starting pitchers, including Tyler Anderson, who started on two days rest in late September. If Kikuchi couldn’t be relied on to do his job and wasn’t injured, Seattle should have released him.
Outlook: B
In 2020 Marco Gonzales finished with the same amount of games won and walks en route to leading the Majors in SO/W (Strikeouts per Walk) ratio at 9.14. Everyone expected the 29-year-old to come out the same as he was in 2020, but that proved to not be the case. Unfortunately, due to injuries, his first half was a slower version of Kikuchi in nearly every way. He turned it around in the second half and was back to his Ace-like self.
Control: C
This is the hallmark of Marco’s game. The first half of the season was an F; the second half was an A. He walked 21 in 56.2 innings before the All-Star break, then walked a paltry 21 in 86.2 innings post-All-Star break.
Dominance: B
No one will confuse Gonzales’ heater with Nolan Ryan’s. In fact, the second half showed that Gonzales is that finesse pitcher who knows the zone and plays chess, not checkers from the mound. He finished the season 10-6, thanks to a 9-1, 2.70 ERA, 0.97 WHIP after the ASG.
Intangibles: B+
Gonzales is the leader of the Mariners’ staff. He’s humble but at the same time is a massive clubhouse presence, and he wants to be that person. Part of being a leader is setting the right example in times of adversity, and he did that.
His second-half performance was absolutely fantastic and one of the best halves of baseball from a starting pitcher in Seattle Mariners history. At least from someone not named Randy Johnson or Felix Hernandez.
Overall: C-
The 24-year-old Mariners’ top starting pitching prospect got his call up on May 13, 2021. Seattle selected Logan Gilbert 14th overall in the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft. He was brought along slowly through the M’s farm system, and that continued when he reached the big club.
His first half was good, not great, with a 3-2 record and 3.51 ERA in 10 starts. His second half didn’t go as smoothly, and Gilbert was hit hard at times despite no difference in velocity.
Control: B
One of the key stats to look at when analyzing control is WHIP. The combination of walks and hits and can demonstrate control in the zone as well. In the second half, Gilbert left too many pitches in the red zone. Hitters crushed those baseballs leading to some early departures. His walks, however, remained the same in both halves.
Dominance: B-
At times the rookie looked utterly dominant and finished with 128 strikeouts (second on the team) in only 119.1 innings. But throughout the season, he couldn’t get deep into games. In the beginning, it was because of pitch limits placed on him.
Once they raised his ceiling, Gilbert struggled facing batters his third time through the order. In those at-bats, he had a .866 OPS against him. In fact, the sixth inning was his worst, and he would rarely get out of it unscathed.
Intangibles: TBD
He’s young and clearly has the tools and pitches to be successful at the Major League level. But it’s too early to figure out what grade to give him. After a full season, we’ll see where he falls.
Overall: B+
For the Mariners, Tyler Anderson was outstanding. He did have one really horrible start where he gave up nine earned runs against the Angels in two innings of work. Take that game out, and his numbers were on par with Flexen’s during his time in Seattle.
Control: B+
He only walked 13 batters in 13 starts with the Mariners. While Los Angeles annihilated him in that one start, 11 of his other 12 starts were outstanding. Those other times his control was on point.
Dominance: C
Anderson isn’t a strikeout pitcher with dominating stuff. His follow-up start to the bad one against the Angels on two days rest was absolutely brilliant, and it was what the Mariners needed.
Intangibles: C
He came in at the deadline from Pittsburgh and did the job the Mariners asked him to do. Despite struggling against the Angels, he did it very well.
Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn were two young pitchers the Mariners expected to improve on their 2020 seasons. Both men were greatly disappointing and spent time in Triple-A Tacoma. Texas Tech alum Robert Dugger “opened” four games and was awful.
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Joe Swenson is an author, award-winning playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, podcaster, actor, and all-around interesting dude.