Saturday, January 29, 2022

Mariner Starting Pitching

We should be excited about the starting
pitching for the Seattle Mariners going
into the 2022 season.

Robbie Ray: The Seattle Mariners signed
just before the lockout as a free agency.
The 2021 Cy Young award winner will
be the Mariners ace. Ray was 13-7 with
Toronto with an era of 2.84 in 32 games.
He struck out 248 batters in 193 and 1/3
innings.  The Mariners had to replace
Yusei Kikuchi in the rotation and not a
better pitcher to do so. Like Kikuchi he
is a lefty as well.

Marco Gonzales: Another lefty will
probably start the season as the Mariners
number two starter. In 2021 he had a 
poor start 1-3 in April then missed the
month of May because of injury. In
June Marco had another mediocre
month pitching four games with a
0-1 record and an era of 4.66. In 
July another bad month though did
have a record of 2-1 in four starts
with an era of 6.41. August, we saw
the Marco of old where he had a
record of 3-0 with an era of 1.58 in
six starts. In September with the
Mariners looking toward the playoffs
possibility Marco had a record of 4-0
with an era of 3.90. Had one start in
October where the Mariners lost. 
In all Marco had a record of 10-6
with an era of 3.96. If we can see
a healthy Marco in 2022 should be
good for the Mariners.

Logan Gilbert: Former first round
pick in his rookie season. May end
up the second-best pitcher in the 
rotation by the end of the season. 
Depending on how the Mariners
decide how the rotation goes Gilbert
could pitch after Ray. Gilbert came
up in the middle of May. Along with
August they his worst two months.
If we see the pitcher of June, July
and September it will a very good
Gilbert we see. As you know rookies
do have their growing pains. I see
him being the Mariner second best
pitcher of the season.

Chris Flexen: He was the Mariners
best pitcher for the season after 
coming over from Korea in 2021.
The Mariners signed him as a free
agent after the season he had in
2020 in Korea. Flexen was durable
without missing a start for the 2021
season. Flexen had 31 starts with
a record of 14-6 and era of 3.61.
If Flexen even comes close to that
record again in 2022 the Mariners
should make the playoffs especially
if they have a better offensive team.

The Mariners should be going with
a five-man rotation. Hard to know
whether they will pick up another
starter or not. At this point candidates
are Matt Brash right-handed pitcher 
the Mariners picked up in a trade at
deadline in 2020 for reliever Taylor
Williams who was the teams closer
at the time. Brash began the season
at high level-A then made it up to
double-A Arkansas. Had the Mariners
not trying to make the playoffs Brash
may have pitched for them in September.
The Mariners are hoping he will be
the teams fifth starter. Other possibilities
are Justus Sheffield, Justin Dunn who 
both missed time with injuries along with
having poor seasons, and lefty Nick
Margevicius who was injured late April
and missed the rest of the season. Nick
started the season in the bullpen when
Dunn beat him out for the sixth spot. 
Nick had three starts after taking over
for James Paxton after he was injured
in his first start of the season. 

Next up when tackling the Mariners
will be the bullpen. The reason the
Mariners had a successful 2021 season.
They could even be better this season.
Go M's. 



























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