Dan Altavilla

 This spring Dan Altavilla is having one of the best training camps of anyone on the Mariners roster. He is looking to fill one of the last spots in the bullpen.

Between his time between the Mariners and triple A team in Tacoma he struggled last year primarily trying to keep the ball over the plate. Just like Edwin Diaz 2016 was his first season coming out of the bullpen in Double A and when he was drafted by the Mariners he had been a starter. The Mariners figured in the same was as Diaz his quickest route to the major leagues was as a reliever. He came up to the Mariners in August 2016 and he had a lot of success.

This year he is feeling comfortable now pitching in relief. He throws his fastball around one hundred miles per hour in the way as Diaz. On Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies he pitched one inning and faced three batters striking them all out. He threw only two balls in that outing. The Rockies batters couldn’t hit his pitches at all.

Altavilla continues to have this kind of spring training he will make the roster for sure. The Mariners do plan to stretch him out to two innings during spring training because they are hoping that he can go more than one inning when necessary. Depending on how often Diaz is used he could come into a save situation if needed but the Mariners are planning to use him anywhere between the sixth and eighth inning most of the time. Starting out I would see manager Scott Servais bring him in for an inning when the Mariners have a two or three run lead and then expand to two innings later in the season.

Getting a good season out of Altavilla will make the Mariners even a better bullpen than what is already expected. This will give them added depth just in case of injuries as well. Having an outstanding season out of Altavilla will give the Mariners more strength in the bullpen for the years to come.

Another one that the Mariners hope to get good production out of is lefty James Pazos who will be in his second season in the bullpen to for the Mariners. Like Diaz and Altavilla he throws the ball pretty hard too though not as hard as either one of them. He likely will face mostly lefty hitters as he did last season but he can go multiple innings to if necessary. This will depend on the situation and how often he has pitched already. Both Altavilla and Pazos will be important to the bullpen to go with the veterans that are on the ball club too. Go M’s.