One Big Thing Continues to Plague Mariners’ Pitching Staff

On paper, most consider the Seattle Mariners to have one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. Certainly, that is true of their starting rotation. They lead all of baseball in innings pitched by their starters, while ranking seventh in starter WAR and eighth in starter ERA.

In an age of baseball where it’s a “five and dive” approach for starters - or going five innings and turning things over to flamethrowing reliever after flamethrowing reliever - the Mariners’ rotation is a bit of a throwback.

The bullpen certainly has some bright spots as well. Gabe Speier, Jose Ferrer, and Andres Munoz make up a solid back end of the bullpen. Seattle has the sixth-best bullpen ERA in MLB. Yet, there is something missing. Over the last 30 days, the Mariners’ team ERA has trickled down to 21st in the league. Sure, some of that is due to the likes of Matt Brash, Cooper Criswell, and Carlos Vargas battling injuries. That affects the overall depth of the bullpen, which is getting more and more exposed as a result.