With the World Series about to wrap up, I thought it would be a good time to reintroduce the MaiLLbag to answer your burning questions about the Mariners and the wider world of baseball. We got a pretty good response from the initial call for questions so I\u2019m hoping to make this a regular feature through the offseason.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve picked three questions to tackle this week (with an assist from Max), so if you asked a question in the site comments or on BlueSky and don\u2019t see it below, don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll get to it soon. If you have a question, feel free to leave it in the comments, send it to me on BlueSky<\/a>, or email me at jake.mailhot[at]gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do the Mariners approach their bullpen this offseason? It seems like it\u2019s the easiest place to strengthen the team for next year with trades or free agency.\u201d<\/p>\n You could make the argument that the Mariners were one good reliever away from advancing to the World Series \u2014 I won\u2019t make that argument because it\u2019s pretty reductive and Eduard Bazardo was put into an impossible situation in Game 7 of the ALCS with no good alternative options. Bazardo\u2019s breakout<\/a> does give the Mariners a bit more bullpen depth to work with in 2026. Andr\u00e9s Mu\u00f1oz, Matt Brash, Gabe Speier, and Bazardo should form a pretty potent quartet at the back of the bullpen, and as it stands, the relief corps looks seven or eight arms strong right now.<\/p>\n I think the Mariners will approach upgrading the bullpen like they have over the last few offseasons: smaller moves for overlooked veterans or projects the development team can lean into. In other words, I don\u2019t think Devin Williams is going to be a Mariner in 2026. There is one glaring concern with the bullpen that could be tricky to solve: there really isn\u2019t much depth in Triple-A or Double-A and six of the eight projected arms in the bullpen don\u2019t have any minor league options remaining \u2014 and you might as well call it seven because even though Brash has options remaining, if he\u2019s sent to the minors next year, things will have gone really wrong. If there\u2019s an opportunity to move one of their established relievers in a trade, the Mariners might be inclined to pursue it if they can get an optionable reliever in return or in another deal. That roster flexibility is incredibly important to be able to cycle through relievers during the regular season, though the Mariners reliance on their deep starting pitching gives them some leeway in this regard.<\/p>\n \u201cIn your estimation, how sustainable is Bazardo\u2019s \u2018no whiffs; all called strikes\u2019 approach? I know his peripherals improved some by the end of the season, but the swinging strike% still wasn\u2019t great, and it certainly wasn\u2019t on par with his actual results.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ll admit, this is a legitimate concern for Bazardo. From June 15 through the end of the year \u2014 encompassing the period when he ditched his four-seamer in favor of his sinker \u2014 his 8.5% swinging strike rate was the 15th lowest among 171 qualified relievers. His called strike rate was the second highest during that same period thanks to the second highest zone rate and the 25th lowest swing rate. Paired with his sweeping slider, the sinker appears to be a legitimately deceptive pitch that he can command on the edges of the strike zone to both left- and right-handed batters. But you can bet that batters will make an adjustment if he continues to pound the zone with his pitches.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a reason for optimism, it\u2019s that his slider has been a swing-and-miss weapon in the past. In 2024, he earned a 33% whiff rate with his breaking ball but that rate fell to 21.4% this year. The pitch has outstanding horizontal and vertical movement but he increased its zone rate from 40.8% last year to 53.1% in \u201825. Bazardo doesn\u2019t need to live in the zone so much, especially with a slider that\u2019s run chase rates over 40% in the past. If opposing batters start aggressively swinging at his pitches over the plate, he\u2019ll need to make an adjustment to pitch off the plate more often. Luckily, his slider gives him the perfect tool to earn more swings and misses on the edges of the strike zone.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich of Kade Anderson\/Ryan Sloan\/Jurrangelo Cijntje do you think is most like to make the major league roster at some point next season? Conversely, which of those three do you think is most likely to be included in a trade this offseason?\u201d<\/p>\n Of the \u201cBig Three\u201d pitching prospects you\u2019ve mentioned here, I\u2019d have to say Jurrangelo would be the most likely to see big league time in 2026, although I\u2019m not necessarily banking on any of the three to actually realize that reality. Cijntje has the most \u201cstuffy\u201d arsenal of the three and could reasonably fill in as some sort of leverageable bullpen arm if they needed someone down the stretch, but I think they\u2019ll want to take their time with him as much as they can to make sure we don\u2019t get another 2024 Logan Evans scenario that winds up derailing half a year of development. There\u2019s a world where Anderson winds up pitching as a starter late next season, but there\u2019s a long chain of events that would have to happen for that to come to fruition. Sloan is just too far down the organizational ladder for it to make any sense at all.<\/p>\n As for the potential of an offseason trade, I\u2019d be floored if they let go of Anderson before he threw a pitch in the organization. It seems like they covet Sloan just a bit more than they do Jurrangelo, and Cijntje\u2019s proximity to the majors should make him attractive to prospective trade partners. I\u2019ll go with him. \u2014Max<\/p>\n 1. Who was the winner of the mustache sweepstakes? Who wore it best?<\/p>\n The originator of the mustache trend, Cal Raleigh, obviously.<\/p>\n 2. Who is the most stat-focused player in the clubhouse? Who knows when to use xWOBACON?<\/p>\n With absolutely no insider knowledge, I\u2019m gonna go with Ben Williamson.<\/p>\n 3. Does Dan have a pet rock?<\/p>\n He used to, but it died a few years ago and he buried it in his backyard.<\/p>\n 4. Have you been forced by your last name to maintain a Hotmail address?<\/p>\n Funny story, back when Hotmail was first introduced (I\u2019m dating myself here), I tried creating an account with my first and last name as the account name. That account name was denied because it was \u201cinfringing on Microsoft\u2019s copyrighted properties.\u201d But my friends all called me \u201cHotmail\u201d in high school.<\/p>\n 5. Does Luke Raley know that when he runs he looks like Luke Raley running?<\/p>\n Absolutely, and at this point, he leans into it for effect.<\/p>\n 6. Have the Mariners re-signed Josh Naylor yet?<\/p>\n No, and I think it\u2019ll be December or January before Naylor makes a decision about his future.<\/p>\n Do you have any questions about the Mariners you want answered? Or any questions about the wider baseball world? Ask away!<\/p>\n Leave a comment belowFind me on BlueSky<\/a>Send me an email<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the World Series about to wrap up, I thought it would be a good time to reintroduce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,43335],"class_list":{"0":"post-409910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-seattle-mariners-regular-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115472330031378530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}