Seattle Mariners: Who Will Be the #5 Starter?
The Seattle Mariners have an open spot in the rotation. Who will fill it is anyone’s guess. However, let’s look at the in-house options that will be competing.
First, let’s explore where the Seattle Mariners were in 2021. The Mariners had just signed James Paxton to take over as the #2 starting pitcher. GM Jerry Dipoto and Scott Servais felt they had enough resources to run a six-man rotation. Originally the rotation was Paxton, Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Flexen, Justus Sheffield, Justin Dunn, Nick Margevicius. However, there was some fluidity in how the fifth and sixth spots would be handled.
How did the 6-man rotation work? Mixed results. Paxton getting injured in his first start didn’t help and forced the Mariners to live with Sheffield’s struggles and Dunn’s inability to get deeper into innings. In addition, Margevicius also got hurt. As the M’s were trying to stretch him out and he struggled.
Marco Gonzales struggled too and also spent time on the injured list. The only pitchers that thrived in the 6-man rotation were Kikuchi and Flexen, but mostly Kikuchi. Post-All-Star break, the Seattle Mariners moved to a five-man rotation Kikuchi fell off a cliff.
For 2022, the Mariners are back to a 5-man rotation.
The first four in the rotation are set. Free Agent acquisition Robbie Ray will be the #1 starter and the staff ace. He owns a great fastball, but his best pitch is a wipe-out slider. Opponents batted .173 with a meager .321 slugging percentage off of the slider and have a 45.8 percent strikeout rate.
This might not settle well with Seattle Mariners fans not steeped in baseball strategy, but the #2 pitcher shouldn’t be Gonzales; it should be Flexen. A right-handed middling velocity pitcher should go after the hard-throwing lefty. The strategy keeps teams from getting too comfortable with similarly suited pitchers.
Third in the rotation comes Gonzales, who had one of the best second halves of any pitcher in 2021. After the All-Star break, he went 9-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 14 starts. Gio features pinpoint control coupled with soft contact. After the All-Star break, hitters had a .202 BAA, which ranked 4th in the American League.
The final locked-down spot of the rotation goes to Logan Gilbert. The 24-year-old was amazing at times and struggled at others in 2021. However, in the final month of the season, Gilbert really found his groove. He started 6 games, was undefeated, and carried a 2.70 ERA in 33.1 innings.
Using Gilbert fourth in the rotation this season is a true benefit. In a few seasons, he’ll be a top-of-the-rotation starter.