Seattle Mariners need to deal for the ACE-ing on their cake
Chris Phillips
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Trevor Bauer, Cincinnati Reds.
Mostly Ace-less
Certainly, Dipoto has a backup plan. Technically he has two already in the minors (George Kirby and Emerson Hancock), but there are two more options. Dipoto can sign an ace in free agency or go into full-on “Trader Jerry” mode. Here’s a current updated list of the available free agent starting pitchers.
- Trevor Bauer
- Masahiro Tanaka
- Corey Kluber
- James Paxton
- Jon Lester
- Jake Arrieta
- Cole Hamels
- J.A. Happ
- Jake Odorizzi
- Taijuan Walker
- Chris Archer
That’s just the high end of what’s available. Bauer is the only one that is still a legit ace. After him, the rest are either too old or not top of the rotation quality pitchers.
It’d be cool to “get the band back together” by signing Paxton and Walker. Cool, yes. A good idea, not so much. The M’s don’t need starting pitching depth quantity. They need starting pitching quality. So, it looks like the free agent market is barren.
There is the reclamation project, Chris Archer. He may be a fix for another issue on the M’s roster, but that’s a different article.