Seattle Mariners acquire two pitchers to aid rebuild
Last week, the Seattle Mariners added two more arms to their pitching staff. One was an obscure free agent, and the other was a Rule 5 pickup.
The Seattle Mariners’ pitching staff continues to evolve. The M’s added a pair of arms to bolster a staff that finished 10th in the American League with a 5.03 ERA.
Chris Flexen
Give it up to GM Jerry Dipoto; he’ll go anywhere to get players he thinks will help the team. For this group, he dug deep. The first man, Chris Flexen, pitched in South Korea last year.
A right-handed pitcher, Flexen started all 21 for the KOBO’s Doosan Bears. The 26-year-old threw 116.2 innings, with an 8–4 record,3.01 ERA, and 132 strikeouts. Korean baseball isn’t the major leagues, but Dipoto felt strongly enough to take a gamble on Flexen with a two-year, $4.75M. Flexen also got a $4M option for 2023. That option climbs to $8M if he pitches at least 150 innings in 2022 or 300 innings in total between 2021 and 2022.
Based on Flexen’s previous Major League experience, that’s a huge leap of faith. In parts of three seasons with the New York Mets, he threw 68 innings with an 8.04 ERA. Not exactly impressive.
Chris Flexen will compete for a spot in the starting rotation in spring. The Seattle Mariners are likely to go with a six-man rotation again in 2021. Unless the M’s sign someone else in free agency, he’s one of the top six candidates. With a 94 miles-per-hour fastball and a hard slider, Flexen has a spot in the bullpen if he doesn’t make the rotation.
Will Vest
On December 10, Dipoto went back to a more familiar hunting ground. He plucked pitcher Will Vest from the Detroit Tigers organization in the Rule 5 draft. Out of the 18 players taken in the Major League phase of the draft, Vest was one of six that weren’t part of their parent organization’s top 30 prospects.
Vest was drafted in the 12th round by the Tigers in 2017, after pitching for Stephen F. Austin University. He spent 2017 in rookie ball, advanced through Low-A and High-A the following season, and spent most of his time in Double-A during the 2019 season.
Although Vest wasn’t part of the Tigers 60-man squad this year, he did pitch in the Arizona Instructional League. That’s where caught the Mariners’ attention. He has a mid-to-upper 90s heater, a nasty changeup, and is learning the slider. All of which made the Houston native the M’s top target. In an interview with MLB.com’s Greg John’s, M’s assistant GM Justin Hollander was excited about the team’s latest acquisition.
“He’s a very athletic right-handed reliever who really took a step forward in the instructional league. His velocity was up, action was up and command was up. … The step forward we saw with all his pitches and command was pretty significant.”
As a Rule 5 pick, he will have to spend the entire 2021 on the M’s roster or be sent optioned back to Detroit. Over the past two seasons, the team had success with other Rule 5 acquisitions, Brandon Brennan in 2018 and Yohan Ramirez in 2019. That doesn’t mean Vest has a free pass. Currently, Seattle has 14 relief pitchers on the 40-man roster. They will also invite some non-roster pitchers to spring training, and there is plenty of time to add free agents.
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Judging by the video, Vest brinks the heat.