The Mariners will have one big advantage at the trade deadline

The Seattle Mariners have been lauded for their pitching for years now, but they’ve never had quite as big and talented of a collection of starting pitching as they have now.

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In recent weeks, the Mariners have been navigating having six starting pitchers on their 26-man roster. They’ve done so with a combination of using a six-man rotation and piggyback starts.

There have been some challenges with the situation. However, it’s a position any MLB team would like to be in.

In addition to what the Mariners have at the big league level right now, they have two of baseball’s brightest pitching prospects coming up through their organization in left-hander Kade Anderson and right-hander Ryan Sloan.

Anderson already looks the part of a big league pitcher. Baseball America’s No. 7 prospect has dominated his first year of pro baseball thus far while pitching in Double-A, posting a sparking 1.43 ERA over 44 innings in nine starts. There’s an expectation that he will be up with the big league club at some point this season.

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And while there have been some struggles for the 20-year-old Sloan in Double-A this year, he’s been pitching better of late, including spinning six perfect innings in his latest start Saturday.

Because of the talented group of starters at the big league level and potential reinforcements in the form of Anderson and Sloan, the Mariners will have an advantage over many teams at this year’s trade deadline, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

“We know the vagaries of pitching, and we know what looks good right now, you might be missing one or two or, heaven forbid, more of those guys (with injuries) by the time (the trade deadline) comes around,” Passan told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday. “But what the Mariners do have is depth now, and what that depth allows them is to not overpay at the trade deadline for pitching like so many other teams are bound to do.

“The Mariners, they might go out and get a reliever and probably should, frankly. But in terms of starting depth, they are not only set, but they have to figure out between now and then which of these arms is gonna play as a power arm out of the bullpen, and which of them are more likely to be in the rotation.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player above. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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