Seattle Mariners: Taking stock of what’s in the cupboard
Justus Sheffield, Seattle Mariners.
Starters
Marco Gonzales, Justus Sheffield, Yusei Kikuchi, Nick Margevicius, Justin Dunn, Ljay Newsome
Gonzalez, Sheffield, Kikuchi, and Dunn are the Mariners top four starting pitchers. Gonzalez greatly improved upon his 2019 numbers. He is not an ace, but right now, he’s an opening day starter.
Sheffield and Kikuchi showed improvement as well. There are still things they need to work on, but their future as starters looks secure. Dunn has the goods to be a major league starting pitcher. His rookie year in the majors wasn’t anything special. As the year went on, he showed he could handle major league hitters.
With Trevor Bauer on the market and league-wide hatred directed at Houston, I would greatly love to see him sign with the Mariners. Taijuan Walker is also a free agent and someone I’d like to see brought back to Seattle.
Bullpen
Any pitcher that wasn’t rostered by another Major League team and/or wasn’t in the Mariners starting rotation
This group was an unmitigated disaster. There were a couple of bright spots, but overall if you told me none of these guys come back, I wouldn’t be shocked.
Yohan Ramirez is probably the odds on favorite to be the Mariners 2021 closer. Last season proved Yoshihisa Hirano is not a major league closer. I still believe that he can be a good bullpen arm. However, his best role may be as a middle-innings guy.
Andres Munoz is the future closer for this team. He’s going to be the next Edwin Diaz. A pitcher who the Mariners can develop into a late-inning weapon. Munoz is a stud!
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This team will compete for an AL West title next year. At the end of the season, the Mariners battled Houston and Oakland, taking four of seven from them to close out the year.
While there are still some deficiencies on the M’s current roster, the farm system has reinforcements ready to go. I have faith that General Manager Jerry Dipoto will make smart moves this winter to strengthen the team.