The Mariners are no longer pacing the playoff race, but they’re just one behind the Yankees for the league lead in players on the injured list with 12, per MLB.com’s Sarah Wexler, who provides updates on a number of injured Mariners. The bullpen trio of Austin Adams, Chasen Bradford, and Dan Altavilla are all in a similar boat in that they shouldn’t require surgery, but none are throwing yet so their return dates remain nebulous. Adams, in particular, was having a fine season out of the Mariners pen after he was inexplicably traded to Seattle by the pen-starved Nationals. Adams has appeared in 21 games for Seattle with a 3.47 ERA and even better 2.21 FIP. His strikeout rates dazzled throughout his minor league career, and he’s kept it up in Seattle with an eye-catching 41 strikeouts in 23 ⅓ innings (15.8 K/9). Let’s check in on a couple other injured Mariners…
- Felix Hernandez may return sooner than most, as he’s schedule to throw a bullpen on Monday, per Wexler. King Felix has been out since May 12. Health will be a necessary precursor for a King Felix return, as he struggled at the outset of the season with a 6.52 ERA across eight starts. He’ll have a role on the Mariners when he returns, but it’s been a steep decline for the Mariners legend, who’s pulling down just under $28MM this season and likely headed towards free agency at season’s end.
- Just as Shed Long was given an opportunity to get his season back on track, the music stopped again for the well-traveled prospect. Long came off the injured list for Thursday’s game in Tacoma only to injure his hand while playing second base, tweets the Rainiers’ broadcaster Mike Curto. Long will return to the injured list. When he’s been healthy, Long has fared better with Tacoma than with the big league club, though he showed promise at the ML level as well. As a Rainier, he’s slashing .279/.343/.466, versus .232/.329/.377 in 19 games as a Mariner. It’s been a tumultuous calendar year for long, who no doubt would appreciate a stretch of stability if he can get healthy. The Seattle roster should be able to accommodate giving him another crack at it if/when he sustains a measure of good health.
The King will be back to anchor a young Mariners rotation…
In a video game?
Calling him King now seems like a cheap shot.
His pitching has sunk faster than an anchor
Remember when posters on here were crying about the Yankees being out of it and the Mariners destined to win the west? You people need to relax. It’s a very long season and there’s still plenty of baseball to be played. If your team is over 10 games out now, then you might start worrying, but right now, these divisions are still fairly open. See how quickly the Indians closed the gap. Now they have the second wild card. Indian fans were giving up. Don’t give up yet. There’s lots of games to be played.
The Ms are 14 back from the wildcard and 19.5 of the division. What are you talking about
Not even Mariner fans thought we were winning the division when we started 13-2. That’s just false
Exactly some were playing into the wailing of others and acting like we would run away with it. OOPS I said we of course I meant they as in Seattle. I never thought we could sustain the run but like I said many times might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Dang said it again sorry to all the true fans that say we can’t say we. I am just a bandwagon fan. I think I got on in 1976 and stayed because of all our success. Back to the original post. Making Yankee fans miserable and upsetting them was also an added bonus. Just kidding I love Yankee fans. They are so even keeled and never overreact. LOL
HA! Wow.
Strange that there was no mention of Tui.
King Felix has over 41,000 MLB pitches on his arm – 101 per start for 411 starts. Not sure how many he has left.
411 starts is the limit? Verlander is at 438. Sabathia is at 552 and he’s at least been playable for the last few years.
Hernandez seems to have mailed it in starting a few years ago.
Right, all arms are equal and 411 is common.
Honestly, the Mariners should just cut Hernandez. I wonder how the fans feel about him anymore? Would the PR hit even be real?
Is it like the unending love for Tim Lincecum in SF or have the Mariners fans had enough of the perceived lack of effort and terrible performances while his contract hamstrings the team year after year after year?
It’s a rebuilding year. They’re going to pay him anyway, so what does it hurt to see if he can get healthy and eat a few innings?
What happened to Felix Hernandez? I mean I get the general gist of things that he lost velocity on his FB and what not… but usually pitchers THAT good don’t just go from being one of the best in the game to absolute garbage… it’s weird to me that he hasn’t even found an ounce of consistency or reinvented himself in the slightest. I wish him the best and really hope he can find some way to be at least mildly productive – it’s sad to see a pitcher who was once so great just wither away to nothing like he has recently.
My hypothesis is that he was just so good, especially in his prime, that he didn’t have to try very hard. He was just blessed with the talent. So he never really had to work at it and thus didn’t understand himself very well. Once he hit the wall, that lack of understanding and his own ego didn’t allow him to go down that ‘reinvent’ road. Simply put, he thought he could pitch his way out of it by pitching as he always did. I’ve always thought FH would have benefited by having a Schmoltz or Glavine type guy on staff to mentor him but obviously that never happened. Now he’s enough of a folk hero of sorts in this town that the front office doesn’t want the PR nightmare that would come along with cutting him. Plus he’s in his final year of his contract, so the conventional wisdom is that they won’t resign him and he’ll be someone else’s problem next season.
I remember just 4 years ago BoSox were offering their ENTIRE Farm System to land Felix. Even though I loved Felix, I was one of few ppl wanting to move him. If I recall right BoSox was offering like 6-7 of their Top Ranked Prospects for Felix…it was crazy. THEN the following year Felix started his decline, and it’s been the same every year since. UGH. That was Pre-Dipoto & Z was adding Cano & Co to our roster.
Our Farm in 2018 was ranked #28. After the offseason trades BP ranked our Mariners Farm System as #10. Then, after the 2019 draft in June it’s now up to #5. Then we just had the July International Draft, so I’m curious to see where our Farm ranks now.
It’s hard to keep saying “maybe next year’. But after analyzing these top prospects Seattle has acquired, I have to say I’m pretty excited to see which ones step up:
Offense: Kelenic,Juilio Rodriguez, Haniger, Mallex Smith, Vogelbach, Evan White, Shed Long, JP Crawford,
SP: Sheffield, Dunn, Kirby, Gilbert
2021’s gonna be VERY interesting! With Kelenic & Julio Rodriguez & Kyle Lewis ready in 2021…I can see Seattle trading Haniger for a hefty return some time next year by trading deadline.
Stop with the he hasn’t tried to reinvent himself. Look at his starts this year he was real bad or fairly good. Verlander and others didn’t go from a power pitcher to a finesse one overnight it took time.
Felix was stubborn at first but now has tried the finesse route. He has had good outings and awful ones. The real problem was he was FB change up and those pitches got real close in velocity.
When one of the young guys is ready to come up and Felix is still up and down I am not against replacing him. If he comes back and is good keep him to teach the young kids. They will have openings when they trade pitchers anyway.
I am still convinced this IL stint was to get him more time with the new style. I also hope if he struggles he will retire no reason to keep embarrassing himself.
There have been multiple times over the last few yrs where I’ve thought Felix has shown signs of improvement only to see him lose command of the K-zone. It must be so frustrating for him- his off speed stuff is still filthy, he just can’t use them properly because his FB velo is too close to that of his curve and circle change. Add in the fact that he’s been in the league so long hitters know to lay off his changeup it’s going to be an uphill climb to stay in any rotation next yr.