Mariners hitters wanted team to acquire their new reliever

In the eighth inning of a May 17 game against the Baltimore Orioles, the Seattle Mariners faced relief pitcher Mike Baumann.

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Six days later, it was the Mariners who Baumann was pitching for, and apparently Seattle’s hitters were plenty happy to know the 28-year-old right-hander was now on their side.

Baumann pitched a scoreless inning when he faced the Mariners, but he ended up being the odd man out a day later, designated for assignment by Baltimore when starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez returned to the Orioles from the injured list. The Mariners were still in Baltimore at the time, and according to Seattle pitching coach Pete Woodworth, the team’s hitters immediately took interest when they heard Baumann was suddenly available.

“As soon as he got DFA’d… all of our hitters were like, ‘We need to get that guy. That guy is disgusting. That was one of my least favorite at-bats of the season off that guy,'” Woodworth told Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Tuesday during The Dugout. “And sure enough, like 24 hours later we got the message that we had acquired Mike Baumann. So dreams do come true.”

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Baumann was a somewhat surprising name to be DFA’d. He has a 3.32 ERA this season, and he was a solid contributor for the Orioles in 2023, posting a 3.76 ERA with six holds and 61 strikeouts over 60 appearances (64 2/3 innings).

It turns out Woodworth was familiar with Baumann long ago. When Woodworth was the pitching coach in 2015 and 2016 for his alma mater, Florida Gulf Coast, Baumann was starring for the rival Jacksonville University.

“I don’t think we ever got a hit off him,” Woodworth quipped.

Woodworth, who is in his fifth season as M’s pitching coach, likes the combination of Baumann in Seattle’s bullpen with Ryne Stanek, another hard-throwing, veteran righty who is new to the team this year.

“Big, physical, intimidating dude, and the stuff that’s coming out of his hand is primo,” Woodworth said of Baumann. “So between him and Stanek throwing in the upper 90s, Stanek touching 100 mph, and some nasty secondary stuff that’s coming out of their hand, there’s the making of of some pretty good back-end bullpen stuff.”

Catch The Dugout, a full hour of baseball talk that features multiple Mariners guests, from 1-2 p.m. each Tuesday during Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. Hear the full conversation with Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth at this link or in the player near the top of this post.

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