Salk: How Mariners can fill concerning void left by Brash injury

Look, the Seattle Mariners have suffered a whole bunch of injuries this year, and none of them have really hit the panic meter for me too hard. Obviously, you don’t want to see Cal Raleigh hurt, and the core injury for Brendan Donovan is not great either. But this Matt Brash thing, it’s kind of got me.

Mariners put Brash on IL again amid flurry of roster moves

This one makes me a little nervous. Not so much for him – it’s a lat injury and I’m sure he’ll battle his way back and we may see him again this year before it’s all said and done, so I’m not panicking specifically about Matt Brash. But this bullpen right now needs as many leverage arms as it can get, and Matt Brash might have been the best one there.

As we all know, Andrés Muñoz has had his challenges over the last couple of weeks – and really throughout this season. There’s only so much you can rely on Eduardo Bazardo and José Ferrer, as much as those guys have been good and have rubber arms. And then you’re already a bullpen arm short because of either the six-man rotation or the piggyback.

So If you’re going to carry six starters, which they’re doing, you’re already down in the bullpen, and we’ve haven’t seen anybody take a leap and really start to establish themselves as another leverage arm. Cooper Criswell started to do that, but the poor guy got hurt.

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So I am a little concerned, and I do think that bullpen is so important for the fluidity of the games because it’s game in, game out. One loss like Brash, when coupled with Criswell going on the IL, or Muñoz struggling, or the lack of a reliever spot because of the six starters, it’s got a trickle-down effect all throughout the pitching staff.

So what do you do about it? Look, I’ve been beating the drum to have a really difficult conversation with Luis Castillo about trying to become a leverage arm in the bullpen. I do think they should increase the urgency to do that. And I also think it is worth having a conversation – a very serious one – about Kade Anderson, who is dominating the Double-A level. That level is clearly too easy for him.

If you need a leverage arm for the rest of this year and Castillo or Anderson are capable of fulfilling that, then I think the Mariners need to have those conversations sooner rather than later. Hopefully this works out quickly with Brash. But if not, those are two conversations I want to have, and with some great urgency.

This article is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity. Catch Mike Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

Seattle Mariners news and more

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• The problem with Seattle Mariners’ Muñoz this season

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