2025 is a bit of an anomaly for the Seattle Mariners, in that their pitching isn’t what it has been. By and large, historically, the Mariners have been able to keep their stellar pitchers healthy, from the top end of the rotation to the back end of the bullpen. But they haven’t got that in 2025, and when they have, their big names have been underwhelming. Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, and Bryce Miller have all missed time. But the real lack of pitching support for the Mariners comes from their bullpen. The Gregory Santos trade hasn’t worked out the way everyone thought it would, with significant time spent on the injured list in both of his two seasons with Seattle. Matt Brash is still recovering from Tommy John surgery, but has looked mostly spectacular.

However, Andres Muñoz remains the Mariners’ main high-leverage innings eater. The Mariners need some back-end support in the bullpen. Here are five arms to get them across the line.

Five Deadline Targets to Bolster the Mariners Bullpen
5. Ronny Henriquez, Miami Marlins

Ronny Henriquez has played a large role in a sneaky good Marlins bullpen in 2025. Although they’re surprisingly not in last place in the National League East, it comes as no surprise that the Marlins are expected to sell at the deadline yet again.

Jul 10, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Ronny Henriquez (32) pitches against the Cincinnati Reds in the sixth inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

While his time has been limited, Henriquez has put up impressive numbers in parts of three big league seasons. 2025 is his first time playing more than 20 games, but the extra workload hasn’t bothered him one bit. Appearing in 45 games out of the ‘pen, Henriquez has pitched to a 3.00 ERA in 48 innings. He’s in the top 10 percent of all MLB pitchers in xBA with .208. He’s also in the 95th percentile in Chase% (35), 97th percentile in Whiff% (36), and 94th percentile in K% (32.8). His 32.8 K% is in the top six percent of all MLB pitchers.

Henriquez has a five-pitch arsenal, relying primarily on his sweeper, which he follows up with a fastball that averages 96 MPH. Putting up these numbers in the eighth-most hitter-friendly ballpark per Savant would translate nicely to the “pitcher friendliest” T-Mobile Park.

Henriquez would be a rental, but the icing on the cake is that he’s making the league minimum for the rest of the season. With a limited budget, don’t underestimate a good cheap option.

4. Justin Wilson, Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox find themselves in one of the most peculiar positions in baseball. They’re only six games back in the American League East, but find themselves behind the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. They currently sit in the third Wild Card spot, behind Seattle.

What makes it weird is the future of the team. There’s a lot of uncertainty around their stance at the deadline. Will they add? Will they sell? ESPN’s Jeff Passan said on the Seattle Sports network earlier today that he can very easily see a world in which the Red Sox do absolutely nothing at the deadline.

.@JeffPassan on the Red Sox:

“At this moment, the Red Sox are not inclined to engage in any large-scale deadline moves.”

“Boston is an organization that deeply values operating efficiently, and a market like this is the epitome of inefficient.”

“Maybe they pony up to get (Joe)… pic.twitter.com/SMA5uQCAW3

— Gordo (@BOSSportsGordo) July 23, 2025

With that being said, Justin Wilson is a more “attainable” name out of the Boston bullpen. He hasn’t shared the workload (2.48 ERA/29 IP) of Aroldis Chapman (1.15 ERA/39 IP), Garrett Whitlock (3.23 ERA/47 1/3 IP), Greg Weissert (3.16 ERA/42 2/3 IP), or even former Mariner Brennan Bernardino (3.24 ERA/41 2/3 IP). This still leaves the Sox ‘pen in good shape, while allowing Seattle to get better.

Wilson is in his age-37 season and would be a little pricier than Henriquez. But, not too much, sitting at $2.2 million for the year.

Wilson primarily relies on his four-seam fastball, which averages 94 MPH. He’s striking out batters at an above-average clip of 27.4%, but walks them around 11%. A big part of his game is getting the chase on his split-finger and slider. Fenway is a lot easier to hit in than T-Mobile as well. Expect those numbers to improve in the Mariners’ pitching lab.

3. Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians

An overall disappointing 2025 sees the Guardians currently 2 1/2 games behind the third Wild Card spot, and nine games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers.

One could also argue for having Kolby Allard in this spot, but if you’re the Mariners, why not make a splash and make a Wild Card rival weaker?

As of Monday, Jeff Passan has Emmanuel Clase at a 20% chance of getting traded, but crazier things have happened. While it’s true that Clase has regressed in 2025, it’s hard not to after the year he had in 2024. As it stands, he would instantly become the second-best, but he has a real case for the best pitcher in the Mariners bullpen. His acquisition would take a major workload off of current All-Star closer Andres Muñoz and set-up man Matt Brash. Doesn’t a 1-2-3 punch of Brash, Clase, and Munoz just scream too good to be true?

What would need to happen for the Mariners to swing an Emmanuel Clase trade from Cleveland?

A good starting point would be the Edwin Diaz trade from 2018, where the Mariners acquired then-top 100 prospects Jarred Kelenic & Justin Dunn

What’s your take? pic.twitter.com/cb0liqczwD

— Marine Layer Podcast (@MarineLayerPod) July 23, 2025

Clase is making good money for a reliever, having signed a five-year/$20 million contract, with a $4 million annual salary. Spotrac has him earning a base salary of  $4.5 million in 2025. He is set to make $6.4 million in 2026 and $10 million in 2027, which is way out of Seattle’s price range. It’s really a win-win for Seattle. Get him in for 2025 to make a run and move him on for more offense down the line. Or, get out the pocketbook and have one of the best relievers in the game’s long-term future secured.

If you still need convincing, Clase’s pitched to a 2.80 ERA in 45 games with a 33.2% Whiff%, .333 xSLG (top 9%), .274 xWOBA (top 7%), 5.3% BB% (top 10%), and a 2.84 xERA (top 8%). Yeah, he’s pretty good.

2. Louis Varland, Minnesota Twins

Back down to Earth for a second, the improvement Louis Varland has made from ’24 to ’25 is insane. Per Savant, Varland is better in almost every single stat while taking on a career-high workload.

Making the switch to the Mariners bullpen would leave him in an incredibly similar position, with Jhoan Duran (Andres Muñoz) and Griffin Jax (Matt Brash) sandwiching him out of the pen. But that’s not to say Varland can’t hold his own. He’s pitched in 46 1/3 innings so far this year to a 2.14 ERA.

Louis Varland, Vicious 89mph Knuckle Curve. 😤 pic.twitter.com/JqMvU5F8Q4

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 1, 2025

Varland primarily uses his four-seam, which averages 98 MPH. He has a career high, or low for that matter, xERA of 3.56, while striking out batters at a 24.9% rate. He’s also walking batters below the MLB average of 7% at 6.2%. He’s finding more barrels, but the contact is worse (89.2 average exit velocity).

Sitting three games below .500, the Twins find themselves four games behind the last Wild Card spot, and 10 1/2 games behind the Tigers in the American League Central. Varland would be a rental, but a cheap one at that. He signed a one-year/$768,150 deal entering 2025.

1. Felix Bautista, Baltimore Orioles

Back to the stratosphere. With the Orioles sitting dead last in the East, and only above the Athletics and Chicago White Sox in the Wild Card, it may be time to move on and get what you can.

The #Orioles are listening to trade offers on RHP Felix Bautista, per @Ken_Rosenthal

Bautista, 30, is under team control through the 2027 season. pic.twitter.com/mHiwfz1QT8

— MLB Deadline News (@MLBDeadlineNews) July 17, 2025

The affectionately nicknamed ‘Mountain’ missed all of 2024 with Tommy John, but has looked like a real gem out of the Baltimore pen. It feels wrong to dive into Félix Bautista‘s numbers; you should really know how good he is already.

But if you don’t, he’s striking out batters at a 35.2% rate (top 3%), and currently has an xBA of .158 (top 1%), and xSLG of .283 (top 2%). What’s even crazier, those aren’t his career highs.

Bautista is 30 years old and signed a two-year/$2 million deal going into 2024, so he would be a rental. But, at that price, he’s well worth whatever it would take to get him.

 

Main Photo Credit: © Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images