Seattle Mariners Bullpen Elevating Itself in Season's Final Stretch
For most of the season, the Seattle Mariners bullpen was thought to be one of the weakest parts of the team.
Aside from the offense, which was at a near historically-bad pace at several points in the year, the bullpen was thought to be the weakest part of the team.
And a lot of the struggles have been to no fault of its own. Injuries to relievers like Matt Brash, Gregory Santos and Yimi Garcia have forced Seattle to try and find a consistent roles for most of the bullpen. The Mariners tried to find that in trades for relievers Garcia and JT Chargois. They also traded away pitchers Ryne Stanek and Mike Baumann. They tried finding answers in the minor leagues with several recalls, call-ups and options featuring hurlers Eduard Bazardo, Jhonathan Diaz, Gabe Speier, Troy Taylor and Jonathan Hernandez among others.
Amidst that smorgasbord of roster moves, the Seattle bullpen has finally found its footing. And it couldn't come at a more crucial time in the season.
The Mariners have settled on a consistent back-end of the bullpen with Taylor, Collin Snider and Andres Munoz. And pitchers Bazardo, Trent Thornton and Chargois have put up some season-best appearances over the last two weeks.
Amped Cam™ : Troy Taylor
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) September 19, 2024
He works around a one-out walk to Juan Soto by inducing a deep flyout to Aaron Judge then striking out Jazz Chisholm Jr. to escape the 7th inning. pic.twitter.com/gQylxExAeB
And that's starting to pay dividends.
According to Mariners PR, Seattle's relievers have a combined 1.50 ERA in the last seven games entering Saturday (Sept. 13-20). The bullpen has struck out 24 batters while walking eight and has held opponents to a .120 batting average and just a .342 OPS.
The Mariners entered Saturday 5.0 games out of first place in the American League West and 2.0 games out of the AL Wild Card.
And the bullpen will need to keep this pace of Seattle hopes to make it to October.
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