With so many pitching issues, Mariners no longer look like a playoff team
Jul 28, 2016, 10:59 AM | Updated: 11:00 am
(AP)
Someone sent me a tweet the other day that said I’ve made a career out of being perpetually pessimistic. He might be right, but he could be wrong, too.
There’s a fine line between pessimistic and realistic. In my opinion, there’s a wider gap between optimistic and realistic. Sometimes what we hope will happen doesn’t correlate with what we’re actually seeing on the ROOT Sports broadcasts of Mariner games.
Through 100 games, I see a team that is 51-49 and not quite good enough to make the playoffs. When they were 10 games over .500 in May, the Mariners had us believing their 14-year playoff drought would end this season. But can you see it happening now?
If you want to stay stubbornly optimistic, you can point out that the injury-ravaged and division-leading Rangers are not playing well. Texas is certainly catchable, and the Mariners are lurking, just six games back. But you’ve got to move past Houston, too, and the Astros appear to have a better overall team than the Mariners.
In the wild-card race, the Mariners are 4.5 games out, but do you really see them dislodging Boston, Toronto or Houston/Texas from one of those spots? A few weeks ago, I thought it was possible, but not anymore.
Their lineup is good enough to keep them on the fringe of playoff contention through the rest of the year. Their pitching is not.
Hisashi Iwakuma has become the most dependable starter. James Paxton has his brilliant moments but remains inconsistent. Felix Hernandez has been subpar since his return from a calf injury, allowing 19 hits and striking out only five batters in two July starts. You can expect him to improve, but not to the levels of his prime.
Then you’ve got Wade LeBlanc, a midseason acquisition who is OK at best; and Wade Miley, who has been better in his last two starts but has basically been a disappointment this season. I hope Miley will be traded in the next few days, and I don’t really care what the Mariners get in return. It will be a classic case of addition by subtraction. The Mariners have a greater chance to make the playoffs without Miley in the rotation, simple as that.
Optimists also point to the lift the Mariners will get from the return of Taijuan Walker, Charlie Furbush, Nick Vincent and Ketel Marte next month. I’ll give you Vincent and Marte, but I have my doubts about Walker and Furbush.
With Walker, who needs offseason foot surgery to correct his issue, I’m expecting so-so results with the pain returning and an announcement from general manager Jerry Dipoto at the end of August that the team has decided to shut him down for the season. I know that recent reports are encouraging – with Walker experiencing no pain in his simulated game Wednesday in Pittsburgh – but it’s hard to imagine him being pain-free the rest of the year.
And Furbush? Come on. He hasn’t pitched in more than a year and you think he’s going to be an immediate asset to the bullpen? I stand by my prediction that he will never pitch for the Mariners again.
I liked Dipoto’s trade of Joaquin Benoit for Drew Storen in spite of Storen’s shaky Mariners debut Wednesday. Benoit was terrible and painful to watch, the baseball version of a slow death, too deliberate on the mound in every appearance.
But I didn’t like Dipoto’s trade of Mike Montgomery for Dan Vogelbach in terms of 2016 impact. Maybe Vogelbach will be a first-base fixture in the future, but the loss of Montgomery is a negative for the bullpen this year. Now you’re down to Vidal Nuno and LeBlanc as your left-handed relievers with the gloomy possibility of Furbush somehow replacing one of them in August.
Aside from Edwin Diaz, the Mariners have a bunch of so-so pitchers at the moment, and that includes an aging Hernandez and a banged-up Walker. An above-average lineup can make up for it in some games but not enough to get the Mariners to the playoffs.
The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.