Seattle Mariners 2016 Report Card Part 2

 

Now going to look at the catchers and pitchers of the Seattle Mariners 2016 season; going to stop with the catchers where I give them a grade of C-. I am probably giving them a kind grade here but I think defensively in general they were good however the hitting was another suspect year.

The season started with Chris Iannetta being the starting catcher and Steve Clevenger who they got in the trade for Mark Trumbo from the Baltimore Orioles. As we all know it was made as a salary dump. I will mention it more when we get to the first baseman position. For the first half of the season Chris Iannetta was the primary catcher while Clevenger played sparingly until he got hurt in July. His batting average was below .200 however he did have a few key hits while Iannetta played almost every game except getting a Sunday off. The first half of the season his batting average hovered around .230 while his defense was OK; when Clevenger was hurt Mike Zunino came up from Tacoma. The Mariners plan was for him to play the year in Tacoma too improve on his hitting. For a couple months he played about two games to Iannetta’s one game. Zunino started off hitting pretty well when he was called up especially hit home runs however over time his batting average went down. Hitting with power especially home runs was the key to him and the Mariners. On some occasions even when he was struggling at the plate he hit some key home runs even at the end of the season. Chris Iannetta playing time dwindled in September when the roster’s expanded and Jesus Sucre was added onto the roster. Most of September Zunino did a lot of the catching however Sucre did some catching especially when Felix Hernandez was pitching. In fact Sucre hit pretty well in September batting near .500 including a couple of home runs that helped win a game for the Mariners. Iannetta defense got worse over the season because he was catching way too much for someone in their mid-30s. The Mariners have a club option on Iannetta of over $4 million so likely he will not return. The Mariners expect that Zunino will be the everyday catcher in 2017. How long that last will depend on his hitting. If he can hit around .230 with power because of his defense he will catch however if he is around .200 then the Mariners will look elsewhere for another catcher. Speaking of another catcher Jesus Sucre may start as the backup or they may go out for a veteran catcher who has some pop in his bat.

Now I will look at the starting pitching. I give a grade of B- to them. The season started out well for the starting rotation going through May however injuries cost the Mariners victories in June and July. In fact it is the primary reason they did not make the playoffs and have a run against the Texas Rangers for the West division title.  The injury to Felix Hernandez was the key one because the team counts on him so much.

When Felix returned in August although he was not his old self the team won several games while he was on the mound; Iwakuma and Paxton were the key pitchers during the second half of the season along with Ariel Miranda the Mariners picked up for Wade Miley who had his ups and downs all season long. While Felix was out along with TaiJuan Walker the Mariners had to count on pitchers who were called up from Tacoma and did a poor job to say the least. TaiJuan Walker return from the disabled list at the beginning of September had a terrible outing in his first outing and could not make it through the first inning. With the help of pitching Coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr he came back to pitch pretty well and again shows potential for the upcoming season. It looks as though the starters at the end of the season will be the ones starting next season unless the Mariners can pick up a top notch pitcher. Nathan Karns coming back after being out for half of the season will bring depth to the starting rotation however I don’t think that is enough.

The bullpen was pretty good most of the season though they had to get rid of a few relievers and add a few along the way too. The key to the bullpen success happened when the Mariners brought up Edwin Diaz to first be one of the setup relievers before putting him in place of Steve Cishek as the closer. Cishek had a good season except the short period of time before they moved Diaz into the closer position. Diaz showed that he is the future closer though he did struggle the last couple weeks of the season because he never pitched this late into the season. Cishek became the number one setup man after returning from an injury himself. We will look at the reliever going into next season in a few days. The grade for the bullpen is  B+. Next post I will look at the infield, outfield and designated hitter that were excellent most of the season. The defense was questionable at times however the offense is what helped the Mariners get to eighty-six wins. Until next time Go M’s.