Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - How Will the Seattle Mariners' Bullpen RESPOND After Throwing Tons of Innings Last Year?!

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

Ty and Colby's 2026 season preview series is nearing its close as they dissect the Mariners' bullpen. Click to vote for Round 1 of our Top 50 Mariners Moments Tournament! Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Turbo Tax For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life.  Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Use your Profit Boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA Finals. Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started.    FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners bullpened through a lot of endings in 2025, and so did the biggest new addition to the group as well. So what could that mean for 2026? We'll discuss coming up here on the Lockdown Marers podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. And it's Thursday, February 26, 2026.

You're listening to the Locktime Marys podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast. part of the lockdown podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. My name is Tadding Azal. I'm joined as always by my host, Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Maris fans who have been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we're continuing our 2026 season preview with the look at the Marin's bullpen. Now, we're not going to be able to get to every single one of these guys individually. But we'll tackle the biggest names of the group. And then, you know, we'll talk about the unit as a whole and how the back end could shake out and all that. But we're going to start, Colby, with Matilda's dad. That's Andreas,

Munoz throws 62 and a third innings in the regular season in 2025, another 8.1 in the postseason. His regular season numbers shake out like this, 11.98Ks per 9, 404 walks per 9. That's a 173 ERA with a 243 FIP. He was essentially worth 2F4. It was 1.9. Second team, all MLB, gets his second All-Star selection. He's going off to the WBC here in a couple of days to pitch. for team Mexico.

I mean, what else can you say about Andreas Munoz? He's one of the best relievers in all of baseball. He is. I mean, there's really not much else to add. I mean, you just, you know who this guy is. You know what he's going to bring to the table. I mean, again, the caveat that we'll throw out at the beginning of the episode, injuries suck and they could happen to anybody.

And Munoz has battled some back issues in the past. And so, you know, could that affect his performance? Sure. It's certainly possible. But again, assuming health, Munoz is going to be good. He's going to be top five, top 10 reliever. He's going to strike out a ton of dudes. He's going to throw 98 to 100.

He's going to have that wicked slider. We'll see if he incorporates the kick change that he learned last year a little bit more into this year. And we saw some good results off of the kick change last year. Just, you know, needs to refine it. And we'll see if he decides to really add it to the arsenal or if it's just going to be kind of a show me pitch. to keep hitters off the fastball and whatnot. So we'll see how that goes. But, yeah, I mean, I think Munoz is going to have a high K-per-9.

He's probably going to walk a couple more guys than you would really like, and he'll blow some saves because, you know, every reliever does. But at the end of the year, he's going to, you know, be great. He's going to be an all-star quality reliever. He's probably going to be worth a win, a win and a half in F-4. And because Dan Wilson is obsessed with his innings-based roles instead of actual leverage-based roles, game seven, then, you know, Munoz will probably rack up quite a few saves, probably 35, 40 saves, maybe more, who knows, that's not really a individual stat that you can control.

That's kind of a team stat. But, yeah, well, I expect Munoz to be, you know, contending for an all-star spot. I don't know. They'll get it. Who knows with relievers. But he'll be one of the five best relievers in the American League, and he'll probably be in top five in saves, and he's going to strike out a lot of dudes, and he's going to be the guy you won in there with the game on the line.

You know, whether that's the seventh inning or the ninth. Right. Yeah. Well, speaking of that, we should probably talk about Advar Bizarro, right? Because, you know, the conversation around the smearer's bullpen is obviously dominated by the innings that all these guys or at least most of these guys threw. They threw a lot. And no one threw more in this bullpen than Edward Bizarro in 2025. Sixth innings thrown by any reliever and all of baseball in the regular season at 78 and two-thirds.

he added another 11 and 2 thirds on top of that in the postseason. 938Ks per 9 in the regular season with a 309 walks per 9. That's 252 ERA for him with a 364 FIP. Only half a win by fan graph standards, but he was definitely worth a whole lot more than that for the Mariners in reality. This guy was an absolute dog. No way around it. He was our unsung hero for 2025, even though we really sung his praises.

but just overall in the grand scheme of things. He was kind of the unsung hero for this club. And, you know, while the last memory, that sticks in our minds of Edvard Bizarro is one of utter and total heartbreak, thankfully, I feel like that memory is more associated to the decision to go to him instead of Andres Munoz, go into your second best guy instead of your best guy, rather than focusing on, oh, Edward Bizarro, that's the guy who gave up the home run and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, thankfully, I feel like the fan base isn't really like piling on Edward Bizarro and is recognizing Bizarro for who he ultimately was in 2025.

And that is, again, an absolute dog. But you have to be concerned about all the endings that he threw last year, you know, how his body responds to that in 2026. And obviously he's another guy that's going to the WBC here in a couple of days. he's going to be pitching. He's going to be one of the better relievers for a team that, you know, a Venezuela team that could make a fairly deep run. Yeah. You know, you have to be a little bit concerned. And, you know, myself being the founder of the Edward Bissardo fan club, right, when a lot of people wanted to DFA him,

I took great pride in seeing him, you know, kind of break out last year. But that, That doesn't mean I'm not concerned about this year because, well, A, you know, as a reliever, he's kind of only done it once. And we know that relievers sometimes have these jump years and they fall back down to earth. But for me, the bigger concern is the workload that he had last year. And the number of times he pitched, you know, three days and three games and four days. I think he appeared in what, nine of the 12 postseason games last year. Like he just got, for lack of a better term, his arm got abused. And, you know, whenever they needed a guy, they're like, yeah,

Bizarro said he's good. Let's throw him in there. And he kind of was the guy that had to eat innings and eat up appearances, which, you know, the last time the Mariners kind of treated an arm like that, it was Matt Brash. And he had to get Tommy John as a result now. Different, you know, different arms, different bodies, all that. I get it. But, like, it's still a bit concerning. Like, that is a lot of wear and tear, a lot of usage on a reliever.

And by the way, he got one less month to, you know, kind of recover because the Mariners made their deep playoff run. and he's also going to get, you know, a couple weeks less of low impact, low importance, you know, essentially glorified bullpen sessions because he's going to go to the WBC. He's probably going to pitch in a lot of high leverage situations for that Venezuelan team. So I am concerned, but it's mostly because of the health and how he holds up after being just, you know, thrown to the wolves over and over again last year. And coming through more times than we can remember, you know, kind of lost and a lot like a lot of things. things in that 15 inning game, Bizarro came in and gave you huge outs in that matchup as well to keep the game where it was. And so, yeah, I mean, it's nice to see that nobody, like,

I haven't heard a single person or seen a single person. I know they're out there. I'm not naive enough to think they don't exist, but I haven't seen a single person be like, yeah, Bizarro blew it. Bizarro is the one who lost us, blah, blah, blah. It's been, you know, we blew it, Dan blew it. Like, oh, man, we got so close. And now I think the, the script is just kind flipped to total excitement about 2026. So it's nice that he's been spared that. That was the way that things could have gone. But, you know, I hope a big part of that is the recognition that this dude was an

absolute dog, D-A-W-G dog, who is, you know, with another good year working his way up to daddy status. So he's right on the cuss. We're bringing that back today, huh? Yep. It's the bullpen talk. Of course we're bringing it back. Of course.

So, yeah. So, yeah. So, Bizarro could be that. again, it's a reliever, so you want to see him do it more than once before you buy in. We all remember the Drew Steckin riders and the Colin Snyders, what have you. So we'll see. But my concern with him is less about the stuff falling away or the command and control, taking a half step back.

It's really more about can his arm like bounce back after the insane amount of work he got last year. Yeah, look, the reality of the situation is, you know, we talk about. this every year with all bullpins that relievers are incredibly volatile even the best ones you just you know you don't know what you're going to get for the most part on a year to year basis with guys you know regression or injuries are bound to come for someone and unfortunately bizardo kind of seems like the prime candidate for that just because of the workload that was placed on him and again you know we've only seen him do this once now he hasn't really gotten the opportunity to do it more than once.

So that's not really his fault, but it just is what it is. Right. So like there is that little bit of concern there is that voice in the back of my head that's going like, uh-oh. Hopefully, hopefully that is not the case. And again, Edward Bizarro, a huge part of the bullpen in 2024, 2025. They're going to need them in 2026. And this is something that's already been acknowledged by the Mariners front office at the

beginning of the offseason. This is a big reason that they went out to go get Jose Ferrer. Right. And why they probably need to go get another guy who's still floating around out there. We'll probably talk about that a little bit later. But, yeah, they need bodies. They need good arms because you got to take the pressure off of, you know, guys like Vizardo and Munoz when he can.

And also somebody will talk about in the next segment, I'm sure, Mr. Gabe Spire. So, yeah, it's big. It's a big year. And you can probably survive one reliever kind of falling back and not being what he was. So if it happens to be bizarre, that'll stink because, you know, we can point a direct line to what made it happen. But, yeah, again, it's really not a performance thing for me. If he's healthy, I think he'll perform pretty well. I just, I do have extra concerns about how he bounces back after the way he was used last year.

All right. We'll continue our bullpen preview in just a moment. But first reminder, this episode of the Locktime Maris podcast is brought to you by GameTime and the Space Needle. MLB opening day is almost here. And you can feel it. and fresh starts, big expectations, that first crack of the bat. Oh, we are so, so back. Whether it's a breakout rookie or a division race that goes down to the wire, there's nothing like being in the ballpark for it. The only problem, getting tickets can feel like a grind,

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your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things, Mariners. And also thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. Baseball is back. And you can lock in by joining the Everydayer Club, which gets you add free episodes and access to our group chat on Discord. For the next week or so, you can use the promo code spring. That's S-P-R-I-N-G for a free month. Go to Lockdown Mariners.

dot supercast.com or tap the link in the description to learn more. In the description, you can also find the link to vote for round one of our top 50 Mariners Moments tournament. That voting closes on Monday. But Colby, who boy, do we have some close races going on right now? Specifically one in particular. That is really, really, like unbelievably tight right now. Yeah.

We do have a couple of races that are semi-close and kind of trending in one way. So there's still enough time to tip the scales of a couple of these, but with over 500 votes cast, the exact number being, let's see, 537 votes cast. The matchup that we have been talking about is been the, it is the Victor Robles game-saving catch against the Astros versus Felix Hernandez's final start. And right now, the total vote separation is four. So I'm not going to tell you guys who's, I'm not going to tell you guys who's winning, but. Yeah. But how many voters is that again?

537. Right now, one of these has, there's four votes separating. Yes. That's unbelievable. One of these has 50.3% of the vote. The other one has 49.7. And by the way, who's been winning, like who's been leading by four votes has gone back and forth basically every time I check. So I check every couple of hours and the vote will flip.

Like it's hovered around 50-50 and sometimes Felix is winning and then I'll check a couple hours later and sometimes Robles is winning. I think the largest gap I've seen in the vote when I check has been like 51.8 to 48.2. and now it's essentially 50-50. We largely have a tie, you know, statistically speaking, this is a tie. And so, yeah, it's pretty crazy. So if you guys feel strongly about either one of those should win, you should probably get on your vote because that matchup's going to be decided by a handful of votes. It really does seem.

And we have decided that if it somehow does wind up in a tie, we have a special guest joining us next week. Long time in front of the show, you can probably guess who. But we're going to leave it up to them to determine who moves on if it winds up in a tie because Colby and I are also split

on who should win this matchup. I think it's the rubble sketch. Colby thinks it's Felix's last. Yeah. So we can't determine the tiebreaker. So we're going to have a third party, a fourth party. It shouldn't be a tie.

But 537 votes in. You figure things. would start to separate themselves and they have not. So this is the only matchup. I don't feel comfortable like declaring a winner already. But again, there are a couple other matchups that are slowly starting to shift in the other direction. But, you know, they need a lot more support from, you know, they need, they need a campaign. And they need somebody to go on a crusade for them.

But this matchup is far in a way, the closest. It is closer than I ever could have imagined. And I frankly, I thought we'd see a lot of what we are seeing, which is a lot of about 60-40 splits. this one is 50-50 and like I said the the winner of this one changes every couple of hours and the vote total has never gotten over like five or six for either side. So yeah, it really is not. I was not expecting that, but it's fun. It's fun to track.

And again, you guys can still vote until Monday morning. So feel free to do that. Use the link in the description. All right. So let's get back into our reliever preview here. You know, talked about guys that have thrown. a lot of innings, you know, like Bizarro, Munoz to a slightly lesser degree. One guy who's exempt from that, though, is Matt Brash, who obviously got a, you know, a later start to his season because of, you know, him returning from Tommy John surgery.

So that's a big reason why he didn't throw as many innings as some of his counterparts in this, in this unit. But 47 and the third innings pitched in the regular season for Brash. He added, let me, let me click this here. He added another nine, so 56 and a third. total between the regular season and the postseason. In the regular season, it was 11.03 case per nine, more or less right in line with his career norms, 342 walks per nine, 247 ERA, 305 FIPP was worth around 1F4. It's a really good season for Matt Brash coming off of Tommy John's surgery.

I think he kind of exceeded expectations in some ways. And now seems like he's ready to go for a full season. Yeah. You know, you still want to avoid overusing him. I think in general it would be great if nobody in this bullpen had to throw more than, you know, 70 innings. That would be a nice little number. I mean, heck, 65 even would be better. Again, some of that falls on the starters going deeper into games than they did last year.

But yeah, Brash is kind of the one guy who they kind of had to, not necessarily baby, but they had to be very careful with last year and now, you know, two full years removed from that surgery. You should be ready to go. And again, I don't think you want to throw him 80 innings again. But, you know, could he give him 65, 70? Could he give you 12, 13 more innings? And that would probably just mean he pitches in April.

Now, he has missed some time in camp already, but it's not arm related. He had a tooth problem that he didn't respond well to. So no concerns there. He's not going to fall behind or anything like that. So he'll be ready to go on opening day. And, yeah, I mean, Brash, we know who Brash is. he's filthy he's arguably the best stuff in the majors and he's going to strike out a lot of dudes going to walk a couple more guys than you're comfortable with there's going to be times where he's

his stuff is just in the middle of the plate and no matter how good it is if it's in the middle of the plate it's going to get hit so i don't think he's you know an elite reliever quite yet we know he's capable of being one but he hasn't put it together for an entire season of just pure dominance there's always going to be a hiccup or two and that just that just comes with brash's control i'm all his command to control he throws plenty of strike but the command is just never going to be what it is. And it's hard to command, you know, the filthiest sweeper in baseball. And now he's added this kick change.

And we'll see if the velocity kicks back up. Fastball was plenty effective at 95, 96 last year. But we know Brash can go 97, 98, maybe even 100 on occasion. So we'll see where the Velos at with the fastball. But yeah, Brash is one of those guys that, again, as long as he stays healthy, you trust entirely. He's kind of the fireman that you use out of the bullpen. And it is kind of, we'll see if Dan wants to use him that way or if he wants to stick with

it needs based roles for everybody. But we know that Brash is probably the best arm just in terms of pure stuff in the Mariners pen. And he would be the best arm in a lot of pens just based on pure stuff. So yeah, I think Brash is going to have a little bit more of a workload this year and that's good. You can help out on days, you know, Bizarro isn't available. and hopefully he performs, if he performs like he did last year, the Marriers are in great shape.

They don't need him to be any better than he was last year, but he could be. And that's part of what makes his bullpen scary. All right, so let's get into the lefties. And we're going to start with the guy who established himself as maybe the second best lefty reliever in all of baseball. This past year,

a huge bounceback season for him. That's Gabe Spire, of course, 62 innings pitched at the regular season for him, another seven and a third in the post season, which didn't go particularly well. for him, especially that Tiger series. We all remember game four, what happened to him in that game.

Yakes. But in the regular season, Spire was incredible. A big reason why he's going to be pitching for Team USA here in a couple of days in the WBC. 11.9 Ks per 9 in the regular season, a 160 walks per 9. That's a 261 ERA for him with a 231 FIP. It's worth 1.7 F4. Him and Mooney, that's a real, you know, two-headed monster there in the eighth and ninth inning's most nights in the Marin's bullpen. And obviously, you know, you throw on Brash and you throw in Bizarro and, you know, the guy that we're going to talk about after Spire here, like it's a really good bullpen.

But Spire, like, there's an argument you can make that he's actually the best for labor in this bullpen. Or that he was last year at least. I think the thing that's going to hold him back a little bit. is that when he pitches at Team Mobile Park, he's a daddy. When he pitches on the road, he's kind of more of a dog. And so it's can he improve a little bit at home or sorry, on the road? We know he's going to dominate lefties. We know he's going to throw strikes.

I think he led baseball in first pitch strike percentage last year. So the league will probably be more aggressive with him this year. But the problem with that is he gets a ton of ground balls. So you can swing at the first pitch if you want, but it's probably going to be, you know, hit to the shortstop. So it's just a really good pitcher. He had a great year before, and then last year, or not last year, the year before, he was, you know, injured. He kind of, you know, had some issues getting on the field. And then last year, he kind of rebounded.

So we have seen Spire be like this dude for a couple of years now, which should give you a little more confidence. It did feel to me like you wore down last year. I know that he, you know, didn't throw as many innings as Bizarro or whatever. But every time he pitched it, the game was on the line. And he's facing some, you know, elite left-handed hitter. and it's not just the number of pitches you throw, the number of innings you throw, it's the stress level on them.

And he had a ton. And the marriage just kind of had to use them because they didn't have a second left year. They trusted. And this year they do. At least they plan on having that guy. And they went out and they got that guy. And hopefully that means Gabe is a little bit, you know,

more well rested at the end of the year. And he's got a little bit more, you know, a little bit more left in the tank because it really does feel like he emptied the tank in the regular season. And then by the time, got to the postseason. Just, you know, battled, but just wasn't quite right. The slider wasn't quite a sharp. The fastball command wasn't quite where it needed to be. It just felt like he had really emptied the tank in the regular season. And now the Mariners went out and they got him a left-handed

partner to go out and hopefully take some of those high leverage innings away from him so that he could be rested and not have to face, you know, Yordon Alvarez three games in a row because he's your only option with the game on the line. So the Mariners go into this, off season looking at all the innings that their relievers just through wanting to protect them a bit more go out and get another high leverage

is type of dude so what do they do they go add the guy that threw the ninth most in the ninth most innings of any reliever in all the baseball last year they didn't even make the playoffs and he still hit that mark yeah he threw 76 in the regular

season that would have been third most in the marries bullpen behind bizardo and Carlos Vargas who we'll probably talk about in a little bit here. But for rare, the Mariners are hoping to get a bit more swing and miss out of him, but he's been a ground ball god. And he has some of the nastiest stuff in all baseball. And so the marries are really just kind of hoping that they can tap into that a bit more,

you know, elevate that a little bit more. And if they're right, I mean, this bullpen could be disgusting. Sure. Ferrer should throw more force seamers. It's incredibly annoying that every Mariners reliever is a sinker-slider guy who throws us from the same arm slot. And it's like, yeah, no, we want ground balls. It's like, okay, but you know your infield defense is like the weakest part of your team, but whatever. Doesn't seem like they're in alignment there with the philosophy on pitching versus the philosophy of infield defense. But whatever. Ferrer does have very good stuff.

and he really, you know, exploded in the second half of last year, low ERA, high strikeouts. So it feels like he figured something out. And I guess the hope is that the Mariners, or the hope from the Mariners is that he can carry over his second half into the entirety of 2026. And we'll see. Again, he certainly has the talent to do it. He's young. He's, you know, he's got four years of club control left. You can understand why the mayor is really like this guy.

It's not hard to see. You don't have to squint. But when you look at like the ERA overall last year and just kind of the overall numbers, it doesn't scream high leverage. You really have to turn the page and look just a little bit beneath the surface to see why the Mariners probably correctly assume this guy can be a high leverage type of guy and be a guy who pitches in the eighth inning and the ninth inning sometimes if you need be. So, yeah, Ferrer is kind of one of those big X factors. He might qualify for the swing player list that we're going to do sometime down the road. Because if he is who he was in the second half of last year, I can't think of a bullpen.

that has a better one through five than the Mariners. Again, obvious caveat, go back to the caveat at the beginning of the episode there. But, you know, if he's not, if he's just kind of this,

what he was last year, it's kind of hit or miss. And sometimes he's great. Sometimes he's not. Did the Mariners really improve their bullpen? Yeah. I mean, still, yeah,

probably. I mean, if that's your fifth guy, you're still in a really, really good spot. Sure. But if he's just Caleb Ferguson again, like if that's in,

you know, overall numbers suggest that Caleb Ferguson was better last year than Ferrer. So, you know, you need him to be that high because we said the Marers needed a high leverage guy. I don't know if I would call Ferrer high leverage guy yet because he hasn't done it over the course of an entire season. Now he's going to get those opportunities and the mayors are going to treat him as such. And I understand for relievers, you know, small sample sizes is the only sample size.

Like, that's just kind of a rule. You only throw 70 in a year. That's a small sample size. But I'm not quite ready to buy into Ferreira as like this guy is the daddy that they needed, but he can certainly get there. And I wouldn't be shocked at all if we see it right away. I know his first out in the spring didn't go well, but who cares? And you're listening to the lockdown Mariner's podcast, part of the Locktime Podcast Network,

your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. And on there we talk Mariners, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com, forward slash control the zone. link in the description of this episode. So here in the end of our bullpen preview, we've talked about the big five guys.

We'll wrap up here by talking about the other guy that I feel is locked into the bullpen. I know there's some out there that think like he might still be in a competition. I don't think that's the case though. They really, really like Carlos Vargas, Colby. They do. They use some time. Relative to the other schlop they're trying to get through, sure. I mean, they used them for 77 innings in 2025.

Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, like at times it was pretty ugly. At times it actually went pretty well. You know, and I talked about this, I don't know, a month or so ago. There are some underlying numbers from Vargas's second half in particular. That actually makes me feel kind of hopeful about him going into 2026. I feel like there might be something there He's just a confusing dude

Because he has like really good stuff That you feel like should lead to more strikeouts and all that But he only put up a 6-3-1 case per nine Last year He was a ground ball heavy pitcher Which like cool, that's great that he's keeping the ball On the ground a ton You know, but he was also prone to some mistakes

Leaving pitches over the heart of the plate You know the Grand Slam against the grand slam against the ashr of course is something that sticks in my mind another out of that he shouldn't have been in the game for yeah yeah that was the that was the game that Robles made that catch on of course but they really like him

they use him a ton he's going to be part of this bullpen and again I do think there is reason to feel like maybe there's another gear here but he's your six guy you know yeah and he's a fine six guy sure he's the guy

you go to out of the bullpen first when you're up like four to one in the sixth or whatever. He's the pivot guy, you know, who's like, hey, our starter went five and two thirds. We're up by three. There's a run around second. Go get Vargas to go get this last out, and then we'll get to the back end of our bullpen. And, you know, the Mariners at times used them in some leverage spots last year. Pretty hit or miss there, but they've also used them as a long reliever type and a mop-up guy.

So there's some versatility there. And sure, the stuff is good. But at some point, you know, you are who you are. And I know Vargas has only been in the big leagues for one full season, but like he's never been a huge strikeout guy. And that's just kind of one of those things where it's like, like, you mean, you throw as hard as you want, but if you have no deception, if you have no, you know, movement or there's nothing special about your fastball.

Fastball value is not just about velocity, right? I mean, there's still other things. There's spin rate. There's carry. There's, you know, the ride and the rise and all that. So, yeah, I mean, Vargas solely averaged a strikeout per inning or more in the minors twice, once in a rookie ball in 2018. And then again, in 2022 in the Guardian system in 34 innings. I just don't think he has the stuff.

There's something about it where I just don't think he's ever going to be a big strikeout guy. And again, not that he needs to be. We saw Bizarro go from, you know, fringe strikeout guy to pretty decent strike. out guy over the course of a couple of months. So, you know, you don't want to give up hope on him, but he's going to make this roster. He's going to make the team. And he's a useful piece out of the bullpen. I'm not trying to say he's not.

But, you know, he's just clearly the sixth guy. There's a huge difference between him and the top five. And, yeah, he's almost certainly going to make the team. Is there a possibility he doesn't finish the year on the team? Yeah, absolutely. He could definitely, I could see him definitely imploding and the Mariners having to move on. But right now, yeah, he's definitely the sixth guy. There's really no debate about it.

Not for me, at least. Yeah. I mean, his stuff plus ranks, you know, fairly above average. His location, his location plus got a lot better in the second half. But yeah, where are the whiffs? I mean, you know, Bizarro is a guy that doesn't get a lot of whiffs, but he dots up the corners very well. I think that would be the hope with Vargas is that he just, the command gets a lot better.

And he's able to hit those corners with more consistency. And he makes less mistakes over the heart of the plate. So we'll see if he's able to do that this year. control i'm not i'm not necessarily sure like how long or how short his leashes you know so we'll have to see on that but like he's he's going to be a guy that like if i can guarantee you anything at least to start the year like he's going to make the club and they are going to go to him often at the start of the year and we'll see you know what happens from that point forward sounds like vargas might end up on ties flag player list i don't know he's drinking the kool-aid a little bit

relax relax the ryan bless kool-aid except for now it's it's Carlos Vargas yeah another former diamond back so let's just quickly talk about how the

you know rest of this bullpen could shake out seems like chewish spots are up for grabs feel pretty good about Cooper Chriswell getting one of those so they can keep them I mean they might try and

risk it and put them out on waivers just when everyone else gets put out on waivers. But yeah, I have a hard time imagine it. They really like him and they really want to keep him to potentially be part of the starting rotation depth, but he's out of options. So they kind of have to stash him in the bullpen and then try and stretch him out on the fly if they need him to make spot starts. So we'll see.

There's some interesting stuff there on Christwell too. I mean, he throws from that kind of low arm angle that they like and it's got a pretty good change up, which is a little bit different. And, you know, he's, he really impressed the Mariners and camp so far. He's pitching today after Miller. So yeah, I mean, I think the Mariners actually do like him. They think he might actually be able to help them as just a reliever, but they certainly, big part of the value there is that he's a true number five starter. And that's something the Mariners don't really have right now. And, you know, for at least the first couple months,

you know, if somebody gets hurt, then Chris Will is probably the guy they want to go to. So I think he definitely has an inside track to make this team. I'm at the point now where, you know, a month before opening day, by the way, you know, 28 days technically from opening day, that I would be surprised if Chris Well didn't make the team. But again, it's also February 26. So how surprised could you really be? And we were also very sure that Carlos Vargas was getting DFA last year. And sure enough, he made the team and he stuck with the team all year long. So you just, you never know, you never know where the mayor's heads are at, you know, and you never know what they're specifically. seen in camp that we're not seeing, right?

Because it's definitely not based off of just what's happening in the games. So, yeah. So other than Chriswell, though, at the very least, there's one spot up for grabs. Casey Legamina feels like the guy that might get the first crack just because he's out of options

and he's on the 40 men. And you know, like I mean, obviously it was very inconsistent year for him just in terms of being on the roster and, you know, protection and all that. And, you know, he wasn't all that impressive. But there's some underlying numbers.

It's a lot of strikeouts, that's for sure. Yeah, there's some underlying numbers that are pretty interesting. He got a lot of strikeouts. So maybe they want to take one more shot on him before moving on. Other than that, though, Emerson Hancock will see if they view him as a reliever still or if he's part of the starting pitching depth. It may or may not be worth noting.

But Kate Anderson is getting the start on Saturday. And Emerson Hancock is pitching in relief in that game. So maybe that's nothing, but maybe it's something. Maybe it's a tell that, you know, Hancock's going to go to the bullpen. If he does, then I think Hancock probably gets that role because there's really not much of having him in AAA just to be a reliever. But yeah. Unless there's something else that they want to work on with him. Yeah, maybe.

I just, I'm not sure what. Like, we know what pitching in AAA, how difficult that is to work on things. So I don't see that. And like, I mean, it is a guy. that you could put out on waivers at the end of camp and any might slip through. There's a pretty decent chance he does. We'll see what they want to do with it. But yeah, I mean, I haven't been impressed with the Ryan Lutose and the Alex Hoppe and, you know,

kind of the whole, all the pile guys that we brought in that were pretty interesting. You know, they've had rough starts to the spring. It's not the end of the world. Most of those guys have options left. So it's not like you have to have them. I think Zool-Lu-Lu-D actually. It feels like most Mariners, relievers have had a rough, you know, starts in spring. Zuluetta had a pretty decent outing the other day.

But like, you know, have we seen Robinson Ortiz? Have we seen Robinson Ortiz? I don't know if he's pitched on a televised game. I believe he's made an appearance, but I don't think he's pitching on a televised game. Cole Wilcox also pitching today. And he is kind of a guy who might be in the mix there as well.

So that last spot is up for grabs. I'm just going to throw this out there. Danny Kulom is still a free agent. And I know that he's, you know, a lefty and did the mayor want to carry three lefties? listen to the names we just listed battling for the last spot in this bullpen Danny Coulomb is better than all of them and he's probably going to be available

for a couple million bucks right now and he was really good last year and you know what he was really good in 24 and he was really good in 23 and he was really good in 22 you know different sample sizes in each of those years obviously but yeah he's a couple million bucks

he's a third lefty so what who cares again if it comes down to you really would rather have Casey Legamina on this roster than Kulom just because Legamine is a Ritey? Also, he was better against Ritey's last year than he was lefties. Righty's said

188, 296, 318 I guess. Maybe Kulom just doesn't want to sign like he's 35, 36, maybe he's thinking about retirement. Maybe everybody right now is just like you want a minor league deal and he's like, no, I want a major league deal. We don't know, right? Those are all possible. He was also dealing with a shoulder

thing towards the end of the year. So, right. Yeah, maybe that's fact of the year. I don't know. Right. We don't know. So again, I'm not I'm not upset. It just feels like, you know, hey, this guy's out there. He's practically free in terms of what he should be making out there. He's been very good for the last three years. He helps you against Rides and lefties. And we're seriously sitting here debating, you know, Cole Wilcox or Casey Legamina or Zulueta or Robinson Ortiz. It's like, just go get that guy. He's good. He's cheap and he helps you. And he helps you win the World Series, which is kind of what you're trying to do here. And the only thing that cost you, by the way, is you'd have to DFA Legamina, who probably clears anyways. And then everybody else who doesn't win that job, they still have options left. So you can send them down. To me, it just makes way too much sense.

Go get Coulomb. And just, you know, there's your eight bullpen guys. And, you know, Chris Well's kind of the long relief slash, you know, maybe he builds into some kind of middle relief role. but he's your insurance policy and so you stash him in the bullpen. So I think that's the way to go. But yeah, short of who's in house,

that eighth spot, because I think Chris Wells is close to a lock, it's a real group of like, who cares? We'll see which one pops, you know, and all that. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it just feels like it's right there. Go get them. Go get them. Three million bucks. I still kind of feel like a trade might happen before the end of camp,

like a Nick Vincent. type of thing, you know. Definitely possible. Now that's not based on anything that I've heard or anything like that. That's just, I mean, like we did hear the day, I was told the day that they got Donovan, that they were still looking at reliever trade. So, I mean, there is that. But for the most part, this is just based off of vibes.

And trust me, vibes have definitely betrayed me many a times in the past. So, but yeah, I don't know. I kind of, yeah, don't give me that face. I kind of feel like maybe a trade could happen before they break camp. Always possible. You know, I don't, a nice little tool that usually gets put out sometime in March is the MLB trade rumors out of options tracker. And you can go through and see like, hey, this guy's probably not going to make his club. Maybe you can make a small trade there.

And so that's not out yet. So I'm not going to go through and look at everybody's roster resource for you guys. I don't like you that much. So, but yeah, there are always guys who are out of options or, you know, guys who, hey, this guy surprised us. We want him to be on the roster. What do we do with this guy? Let's see if we can get, you know, some international slot money or 25 grand or whatever. And you just go out and you get that guy.

And that makes sense too. So I do think something like that is very possible. But in the meantime, I'm just saying, Danny Kulam's right there and he's really good. Go get him. I don't care of he's your third lefty. All right. Well, that's going to do it for a show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marriss Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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