Mariners seeing early payoff from Jose Ferrer trade

Left-hander Jose A. Ferrer has started to provide the Seattle Mariners with the impact they were hoping when they acquired the left-hander in a trade for catching prospect Harry Ford over the offseason.

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After a bit of a rocky start through the first four outings of his Mariners tenure, Ferrer has been stellar for a three-week stretch. And he’s coming off perhaps his most impressive set outings.

Ferrer showed he’s capable of manning multiple innings last week, a big need for the Mariners’ bullpen since Carlos Vargas is on the 60-day injured list with a right lat strain. He pitched two scoreless innings in Seattle’s 5-4 win over the Athletics last Wednesday and tossed two more scoreless innings in Saturday’s 11-9 victory over the Cardinals. The Mariners were trailing when Ferrer came in both times, and they tied the game by the time they had a new pitcher on the mound during both occasions as well.

Ferrer then followed his two-inning outing on Saturday with his first save as a Mariner on Sunday. Despite covering two innings and throwing 29 pitches the day prior, Ferrer shut the door with a clean ninth inning to seal a 3-2 victory and three-game sweep in St. Louis.

“He wants the ball and to have the ball in that situation and really be aggressive in the strike zone,” manager Dan Wilson said following Ferrer’s save. “I thought there was no question what he was going in there to do, which was throw strikes and get outs.

“To see that from him today after two innings yesterday, that shows you what’s in here,” Wilson added gesturing towards his heart. “… You want your guys to want the ball in those situations.”

Since allowing three runs in his first four appearances with the Mariners, Ferrer has surrendered only one over his past 11 outings. During that stretch, the left-hander has pitched a team-high 11 innings of relief while posting a 0.82 ERA and seven strikeouts.

Ferrer’s 1.93 ERA on the season entering Monday was the third-lowest among M’s relievers, trailing Eduard Bazardo and Matt Brash.

Ferrer has been able to put up strong numbers early this season despite being the victim of some tough batted-ball luck.

With the help of an unsustainable .380 BABIP, opponents are hitting .328 against Ferrer this year. They’ve been able to do that despite the fact Ferrer has allowed the least hard contact (16%) and generated the highest outside-the-zone swing rate (40.2%) among Mariners pitchers.

According to Baseball Savant, Ferrer ranks in the 96th percentile in MLB with an 84.4 mph average exit velocity by opposing batters and the 85th percentile with a 35.2% chase rate.

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