Will Vest, Seattle Mariners.
By now, nearly every Seattle Mariners fan has heard of Will Vest. Why? Aside from having one of the shortest names in MLB, the rookie, Rule 5 Draft pickup is outperforming his more experienced teammates in the early stages of the 2021 season. Today we dig a little deeper.
Will Vest played shortstop for nearly all of his life leading up to college. The 25, almost 26-year-old right-handed reliever graduated from Ridge Point High School in Sienna, Texas. The Lone Star State is a hotbed for professional sports talent, yet Vest is the only player on the Mariners from Texas.
Vest never started a single game as a pitcher in college or professionally. Some pitchers are like that, but they don’t come around very often. After his senior year at Stephen F. Austin, he was drafted in the 12th round by the Detroit Tigers in 2017.
It’s not like Vest toiled in the minors; he actually moved through the Tigers system pretty fast for someone that was drafted as late in the amateur draft as he was. He immediately made an impression with a mid-90s fastball and a mid-80s slider with late-breaking action. The same year Detroit drafted him, Vest appeared in 21 Rookie League games, posting a 2.83 ERA and 0.84 WHIP.
In 2018 he struggled. Although Vest struck batters out at a higher clip (10.4-per-9-innings), he also gave up many more hits. Despite a promotion to High-A Lakeland, Vest’s struggles continued. He finished the year with a 5.18 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP.
The following season, Vest started in Lakeland and was outstanding, giving up only a pair of runs in 21.1 innings and striking out 30. His performance earned a promotion to Double-A Erie, where he fell flat.
Despite the poor results, he was promoted again to Triple-A Toledo, where he pitched 6.2 innings in three appearances and yielded two earned runs. His 2019 ended in the Arizona Fall League, where he was terrible.
Overall, his minor league numbers don’t look terrible. Vest has a career 3.88 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. What stands out the most is that he only gave up eight home runs in 132.1 minor league innings. Very impressive numbers. He also struck out batters at a 9.7-per-9-innings clip.
Vest did not play during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He did, however, play in the Arizona Fall League again. That’s where he caught the eye of Seattle Mariners scouts.
One of the longest traditions in baseball, the Rule 5 draft predates the existence of the American League. In 1892 the first Rule 5 Draft happened. It’s an interesting process that has only produced one Hall-of-Famer (Roberto Clemente). Some of the more famous Rule 5 picks are Jose Bautista, Johan Santana, and Bobby Bonilla. Every December, teams select between 10 and 20 players.
The Rule 5 Draft is designed to prevent teams from stockpiling minor league talent. Each draftee costs his new team $100K. There is a caveat; the draftee must stay with the team that selects him for the entire Major League Season. Should the draftee not make the opening day roster, then the team that drafted the player can option him back to the original club for $50K.
Seattle Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is a big fan of the Rule 5 Draft. In 2017 the Mariners drafted Mike Ford from the Yankees, but he did not make the opening day roster, and the M’s sent him back to The Bronx. Here’s a bit of irony though, in 2019, Ford hit his first multi-home run game against the Seattle Mariners.
The following year Seattle took Branden Brennan as the second to last selection of the draft. He stayed on the major league roster for the entire 2019 season and became Mariners’ property. He pitched in five games with the Mariners in 2020 and is currently at the alternate site/minor league camp.
In 2019 the Mariners chose Yohan Ramirez from the Astros organization. He had a fantastic 2020 in the Emerald City with a 2.61 ERA in 16 games. While the ERA was fantastic, Ramirez’s control was not. He walked nearly as many batters as innings pitched. Like Brennan, the flame-thrower is at the M’s alternate site.
This brings us to the 2020 Rule 5 draft, where the Seattle Mariners drafted Will Vest with the 10th overall pick. He was a bit of surprise, and while the future is unknown for most Rule 5 draftees, Vest has had some strong results to start the 2021 season.
Vest didn’t have a particularly great spring training. So far in the 2021 regular season, Vest has been outstanding. He’s only given up one earned run through 8.1 innings. During the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against Baltimore, he managed a three-up-three-down inning on just seven pitches. That kind of efficiency will get him far in this business.
Vest features a strong spin-rate on his slider (2300+), but it’s his change-up that is absolutely unhittable. In fact, he’s thrown his change-up 29 times (21.5% of his pitches), and he has yet to give up a hit. He’s only given up five hits total (four on his fastball, one on his slider), so overall, he’s not very hittable.
The overall results through three weeks of major league baseball are outstanding. In a statistical oddity, Vest has a 1.08 ERA and WHIP with a .179 batting average against, no barreled-up balls, and a whole host of qualitative growth.
The Mariners bullpen was one of the worst in all of baseball last season. Will Vest is part of the reason that narrative has changed to start 2021. With two more innings of scoreless baseball Friday night, the Mariners bullpen ERA is 3.40, which is nearly two runs lower than in 2020, and Vest’s 1.08 ERA is helping to drive that down.
The closer situation for the Mariners appears to be up-in-the-air at present. With Opening Day closer Rafael Montero relegated to a set-up role after a few poor performances. Kendall Graveman and Keynan Middleton both picked up saves during Thursday’s doubleheader sweep. Vest was the set-up guy for Middleton’s save in the second game, and he’s a big part of the reason for the Mariners’ early success and 9-5 record.
Joe Swenson is a life-long Seattle Mariners fan, writer, director, producer, and editor for Broken Arts Entertainment and author of the Young-Adult Fiction novel, Letter #3.