As expected, the Mariners have called up lefty pitching prospect Justus Sheffield, per a club announcement. He’ll take the roster spot that the team opened by dropping Cory Gearrin.
Sheffield, 23, has seen brief MLB action in each of the past two seasons. But he hasn’t yet made his first start — a milestone he’ll reach this evening when he takes the ball against the Blue Jays.
While Sheffield’s early appearances in the bigs haven’t been laden with promise, he has long been considered a significant talent. Drafted in the first round back in 2014, he has since headlined a pair of major trades (from the Indians to the Yankees and then on to the Mariners).
At the same time, the lefty hasn’t quite sustained the top-100 prospect hype he carried for the past four seasons. He just doesn’t seem to be showing quite the upside that had once been posited, with some command issues and stagnant K/BB rates over multiple seasons in the upper minors.
The consensus still seems to be that Sheffield will turn into a solid MLB starter, which would work just fine for the M’s. He struggled quite a bit at Triple-A to open the year, allowing a dozen home runs with a middling 48:41 K/BB ratio in 55 innings there. But Sheffield has turned it up since in a dozen Double-A starts, over which he carries a 2.19 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9.
If all goes well, it’s possible Sheffield will position himself for a spot in the 2020 Seattle rotation. It remains to be seen how many innings he’ll be allowed to accumulate down the stretch. Sheffield is already at a career-high 133 in the present campaign, though he’s probably in position to build up further after averaging more than 120 frames per season in the prior three campaigns.
Justus Sheffield is 23, looks about 36. A hard 36.
Your being kind that guy for sure knows someone who makes fake birth certificates. I’m guessing early 40’s
The Mariners traded Paxton for a negative WAR
Paxton is not doing much better either
This is a terrible take. Sheffield has pitched 3 innings in the majors, how can you possibly decide who won this trade?
@24thekid How is he making a judgement? He simply said Paxton isn’t performing well, which is true,
I was not responding to him chief.
Paxton has won his last 5 straight.
As opposed to winning his last 5 crooked I suppose.
Incorrect. *The Yankees* have won the last 5 games coincidentally started by Paxton. Given that the Yankees scored 10, 6, 8, 14, and 4 runs in those games, there is a much-more-than reasonable chance that almost any starting pitcher good enough to get those 5 starts would have “won” those games. Heck, any MLB team except the Marlins and Tigers would have a significantly greater than 50% chance of winning even the least supportive contest.
That *the Yankees* won those 5 games says absolutely very little about Paxton’s relevant quality. If you wish to proclaim the quality of his performance, how about you use some kind of measurement that’s not dependent on his team’s offensive production? Even ERA would be better (though only nominally).
I have a feeling justus is going to be a very decent pitcher for the m’s. Also that kid Dunn they got from my mets hes going to be a real good one… its only a matter of time before Seattle is in the thick of things.
I say next year they are knocking on the wild card
They will be there when the Astros fall back to take the west
middling?
No control except for the last handful of starts.
Given his 11.4 K/9 vs 3.3 BB/9 (much better than league average and about league average respectively), he’s had control. Rather, it’s been his gopheritis (1.58 HR/9 — significantly worse than league average)) that’s been killing him this year relative to past seasons.
Interesting that the Mariners moved him from the offense-centered AAA to the more normalized AA and then to MLB from there.
What’s the point of the PCL right now, seriously??? Teams can’t gage how any hitter or pitcher is ready for MLB or not, both are so comically extreme in both directions maybe AA is the more stable league?
Triple A is using the same juiced balls as the majors.
It’s still a much more talent-deep league than any AA league and has a lot more fringe-MLB players who can’t quite crack an MLB lineup permanently because of exploitable (even if narrow) weaknesses.
In addition, Cheney Stadium — by virtue of being an open-air stadium on the water and cavernous dimensions — doesn’t follow PCL norms.
Were I to guess the reasoning for his AAA (regardless of it being PCL or IL)-to-AA-and-then-Mariners route, I would say it was because he had horrible control — a 6.71(!) BB/9 — in AAA and they demoted him to work on things against weaker competition. The promotion from there was more because of organizational necessity (they’ve been running 4 starters + BP day since the deadline) and just getting the kid’s feet a little wet for hopeful better success in the future.
Paxton was unbelievable last night vs Dodgers!