Once among the game’s elite pitchers, former Mariners ace Felix Hernandez has reached a point where he’s so ineffective that he may not continue to keep his spot in the team’s rotation. Hernandez allowed 11 runs (seven earned) on eight hits, including three home runs, in six innings in a loss to lowly Texas on Tuesday, and after the game, manager Scott Servais wasn’t willing to guarantee the 32-year-old would make his scheduled start Sunday in Houston. “We’ll see,” Servais said (via ESPN.com). “You have to take a look at where we’re at going forward here. The next time that spot [in the rotation] comes around, we’ll be over in Houston. They’ve also got a good club.” Hernandez, who’s in the penultimate guaranteed season of a seven-year, $175MM contract, has thrown 124 innings (23 starts) in 2018 and logged a career-worst ERA (5.73), FIP (5.03) and xFIP (4.71).
More from Seattle, which is two games out of a wild-card spot and trying to break a 16-year playoff drought…
- While the Mariners don’t seem sure if Hernandez will make his next start, it’s fair to say fellow righty Erasmo Ramirez won’t serve as an immediate replacement. Ramirez, who has missed most of the season with lat and shoulder injuries, isn’t quite ready to return, Servais told Greg Johns of MLB.com and other reporters. According to Servais, Ramirez “wasn’t that sharp” and “was off a little mechanically” in his latest Triple-A rehab outing Sunday, in which he gave up four runs (three earned) in as many innings. With Ramirez still not ready to rejoin the club, it could turn to Robert Whalen, Casey Lawrence or Christian Bergman if it doesn’t want to start Hernandez against the Astros, Johns notes.
- Reliever Sam Tuivailala left his outing Wednesday with a strained right Achilles tendon, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times was among those to tweet. There’s no word on how much time Tuivailala will miss, but it’s fair to expect a lengthy absence in this case. The Mariners just acquired the 25-year-old from the Cardinals on July 27, when they dealt minor league righty Seth Elledge to St. Louis in a one-for-one swap. Since then, Tuivailala has thrown 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball in Seattle, which – combined with his Cardinals numbers – gives him a 3.47 ERA with 7.2 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 32 frames this year. [Update: Tuivailala is in a walking boot and will require a DL stint, Divish tweets.]
- One more Mariners note: The club has laid off 10 scouts – five on the amateur side, five in the professional ranks – Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.
YAY Bart!
Seattle 2.0 GB of the final AL WC!?? Kinda rooting for them to end playoff drought from afar. What happened
mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/wildcard.jsp
Agreed but Oakland would be nice as well. I know JD isn’t fond of prospects but dumping scouts is never a good idea unless you are getting better ones
O’s fan here (for whatever that’s worth these days) but both Oak and Sea would be feel good stories.
Oakland happened, and a five week batting slump that rivaled their annual abysmal Aprils
Lot of miles on that arm from a young age.
I’ve been saying that for years. Another of a loooooong list of reasons the Mariners are simply the most disgusting organization in all of baseball. I do think Felix is to blame as well though, dude didn’t always keep himself in the best shape. Either way, it’s sad to see it end this way for him, he’s a really good dude and in his prime, was an absolute blast to watch.
Seattle: most disgusting org.
That’s a new one.
I had some other applicable choices but went with that. It seemed to fit perfectly at that moment…
Poster could mean they just have historically made some really, really bad deals and started off on the wrong path from the start when Toronto went the youth way and Seattle attempted to compete somewhat and it didn’t work out.
It’s no offense to the fan base. Have always liked them.
“Disgusting”?
At least the Mariners haven’t gone out and acquired guys with domestic violence records….
But they do have 3 admitted juicers!
BURN!
“Felix is to blame…but he’s a really good dude. Mariners are the most disgusting organization in baseball…but they are a blast to watch.”
This was the most disgusting comment on MLBTR…but it was really fun to read
Not that I have to justify my statement but it’s pretty clear you didn’t read what I said. I said that “Felix” was a blast to watch, not the Mariners. And yeah, dudes that don’t keep themselves in shape break down sooner physically more often than not.
It’s also sad to see Seattle waste the best years of Felix and Cano all for nothing. Wasted Ichiro’s best years too.
This team is so unbelievably poorly managed it’s a miracle that they’ve won the amount of games that they have. The upper management needs to seriously reconsider hiring a new manager regardless of the fact that they just extended their current manager Servais.
please elaborate how Scott servais is to blame
excellent question
Dee Gordon in the lead off has walked 6 times all year, Haniger is hitting something like .220 in the 3 hole. pulling leblanc after 2 hits and a walk on Monday to bring in a reliever who couldn’t throw a strike then leaves him in for 3 more hitters who all get in base. Servais had zero managerial experience before he got hired and it clearly shows.
Hire Joe Girardi. He’ll get everyone’s act together.
Yes please, I would be very pleased with that hire.
Man what’s up with Felix, I haven’t watched him in a long time. I always expected some regression but I didn’t expect him to get this bad.
Huge drop in velo, and his FB is getting destroyed. His curve is his only above avg pitch at this point.
He’ll need to add movement to his 89 mph fastball if he wants to survive.
Wrong! Great changeup
Teheran for hernandez and clase c prospect
All day just for the salary savings
Atlanta won’t ever do it. Too much money.
As Seattle sinks slowly in the west….
Hernandez does have a lot of mileage on his arm, but let’s keep in mind that many a pitcher has had their retirement article written up in their early 30s after some rough years before finding new ways to win. Verlander and Sabathia are two recent examples.
Except felix has yet to realize that a 2mph difference between his fastball and his change up won’t get the job done. Not to mention that more than half of his pitches are up in the zone and they just get crushed.
Most pitchers don’t initially. Guys like Sabathia, Verlander, and my favorite pitcher, Mike Mussina, go a few years trying to prove Father Time wrong until they realize they need to go to new methods.
Send him packing like they did Brett Boone
So eat $30m?
Yup
I wonder if DiPoto tried trading the scouts first lol.
The Pirates got Trevor Williams for an assistant pitching coach. It’s worth a shot.
#FireFelix
King Felix has given the Seattle Mariners every penny they paid him. Now, when having a down year they are talking about demoting the guy. Not necessarily the best approach but granted the team is fitting for a playoff berth…
His last 3 years have been down years.
Wow Felix is only 32. I didn’t think he’d have so much regression so fast. He should at least still be a 3-5 starter at that age
Longevity … it’s harder than it looks.
I’ll tell you how Seattle should fix this problem….. (Subcription Required)
What do you mean by “lowly Texas” the Rangers are top 5 in runs scored so their record is irrelevant to Felix facing “lowly Texas”.
good point