6:13PM: Sadler will undergo shoulder surgery and miss the entire season, Servais told Ryan Divish and other reporters.
4:40PM: Mariners right-hander Casey Sadler is dealing with soreness in his throwing shoulder and is “going to be down for quite some time,” manager Scott Servais told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jesse Borek and The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish). Sadler is apparently taking time to decide on what his next step will be, which could be an indication that surgery is being considered to address the issue.
Seattle’s lockdown bullpen was one of the main reasons the M’s recorded a surprising 90 wins in 2021, and Sadler was a major part of that relief corps. The righty had the lowest ERA of any pitcher in baseball with at least 40 innings pitched last season, as Sadler posted a tiny 0.67 number over 40 1/3 frames. After being charged with an earned run in an appearance against the Athletics on July 25, Sadler then held opponents scoreless over his next 29 appearances and 28 innings, a streak that is still ongoing.
Sadler is a grounder specialist, and thus obviously benefited from a .188 BABIP after generating a 62.9% groundball rate last year. Still, ERA predictors (3.06 SIERA, 3.25 xFIP) also liked his work, as Sadler posted a solid 25.5% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate, and his 0.22 HR/9 was also the third-lowest of any pitcher in the 40+ innings club. Sadler has also posted excellent spin rates on his fastball and curve in each of the last three years.
A veteran of six MLB seasons, Sadler’s performance has been inconsistent, which isn’t unexpected for a pitcher who relies so heavily on grounders. Of Sadler’s 125 2/3 innings, 86 2/3 of those frames have come in his two best seasons — last year with the Mariners, and his 2019 season when he had a 2.14 ERA over 46 1/3 combined IP with the Rays and Dodgers.
The 31-year-old reached arbitration eligibility for the first time this winter, and agreed to a $1.025MM salary for the 2022 season. Unfortunately for both Sadler and the M’s, it now seems as though it will be some time before he can continue his scoreless-innings streak or perhaps even get back onto a mound. Sadler also missed over two and a half months on the injured list last season due to shoulder inflammation, and he also had a major injury setback earlier in his career as a member of the Pirates organization, when Tommy John surgery cost Sadler the entire 2016 season.
Most of the Mariners’ 2021 bullpen is returning, though they’ll now have Ken Giles in the mix, after Giles missed all of 2021 recovering from his own Tommy John procedure. Left-hander Ryan Buchter was also signed to a minor league deal earlier today, adding another veteran arm to the mix.
And so it begins
Wow so he debut in the majors in 2014 but pitched almost half of his total career games last year lol. Doesn’t really have a track record
Take of the day right here, folks.
How this guy isn’t working in a front office is beyond me.
What was wrong with what I said ? His seasonal logs are all online. He’s only pitched 40 or more games in a season once
First, he has over 125 career innings in 101 games which includes brief call-ups to fill BP needs in Pittsburgh in the 2014 & 2015 seasons, though he was a starter prospect. He missed 2016 due to TJ surgery, then continued to rehab and transition into a relief role in 2017 without a MLB call up until late 2018. You’re exaggerating the timeline.
Second, once he got out of Pittsburgh, he was solid with Tampa, then LAD. That was 2019.
Third, he was solid with Seattle in 2020 and absolutely dominated in 2021 after an adjustment, leading all MLB relievers with 40+ innings pitched with a 0.67 ERA.
This is a huge blow for Seattle. You can ‘lol’ over his games played all you want and suggest his loss means nothing, but the fact is that he is an excellent pitcher who has been successful over the last 3 years despite TJS and a substantial recovery.
Yeah, and just generally, “lol” is overused anyway – often in bizarre contexts. It’s a lazy, tired, copy-cat meme.
Couldn’t agree more.
Out for the season per Servais just now.
There goes their stranglehold on the Pacific Northwest…
would love to see this guy pitch a fill season but I’m not sure that will ever happen.
Hopefully he finds the fountain of health eventually. Some guys seem to find it when they are a little older
It’s a tough break, but they’ll be arms out there if Jerry is willing.
And Jerry is willing.
He was incredible last year. Imho this is a big loss
Tough loss. We have an incredibly deep bullpen so we should be okay, but hopefully we can get some outside pitching help soon.
Seattle doesn’t have a deep bullpen, though.
Giles hasn’t pitched since 2020. Munoz hadn’t pitched since 2019 before a brief .0.2 inning appearance late last season.
Castillo didn’t dominate with Seattle as he had with Tampa and Misiewicz struggled heavily down the stretch.
There is a lot of uncertainty. Giles and Munoz will probably be fine. Castillo shouldn’t be a train wreck, but there are now 2-3 spots that are up for grabs.
What about Steckenrider and Sewald? Those two, Castillo, Giles, Munoz, Misiewicz. Then they pick two guys out of Kirby, Brash, Sheffield and Margevicius for the two long relief spots. It’s not super deep after that but that’s a pretty strong group of 8. I don’t think Sadlers loss hurts all that much in the long run, plus his performance last year wasn’t repeatable
The truly interesting thing to watch will be whether the pitching dev group can continue to turn randos like Sewald and Steckenrider into late-inning studs. Was easily the most impressive part of last season, process-wise.
Seattle’s bullpen right now is Sewald, Giles, Castillo, Steckenrider, Munoz, Misiewicz, Ramirez, and Swanson.
Ramirez and Swanson should be reserves, and they could benefit from an upgrade for Misiewicz. That’s 2-3 spots.
The other guys are needed for rotation depth (Sheff, Brash, and Marge). After trading Williamson and Dunn, they’re suddenly thin without bringing in another starter as Brash might be the current number 5. Kirby and Stoudt will eventually factor in, but the preference as I understand it is to get them a little more time in the minors. They’re seen as starters.
We’ll probably see a few minor-league deals for relievers and maybe a trade, but I would be surprised if they used starters in relief roles. Marge might be an exception if they are able to get another starter. He’s coming back from surgery., so they probably won’t lean on him too heavily.
I’ve never understood the M’s love affair with Yohan Ramirez. Swanson, on the other hand, still has a lot of upside and a decent track record, he should break camp with the team. He pitched well last year.
I’m surprised they didn’t resign Tyler Anderson or otherwise bring in another free agent arm.
I’m not sure why they’d be hesitant to use future starters out of the pen, seems like that’s something that every team does, including the teams with good pitching dev reputations.
Rotation depth is more important than relief depth and Seattle simply doesn’t have the kind of depth LAD does, for example. It’s one or the other for the moment, though I do think they’ll figure out a way to add before opening day.
I dunno, I actually like keeping rotation depth in the bullpen as opposed to AAA. No reason those kids can’t be swingmen this year. I agree though, they will add one more starter before April.
Craig Kimbrel looking good about now.
Not many relievers look good at 16 million. Kimbrel isn’t one of them.
They still have half a dozen good relievers. They can replace him from within or by a cheap dfa trade.
Perhaps during his time off he will be able to perform with the vocal group:
THE SADLER BROTHERS
Nothing humbles the Seattle fan. More than two decades without so much as sniffing the playoffs, and yet they will tell you how it is a certainty that they are favorites in the division. And why wouldn’t they be confident with DiPoto’s track record?
Literally, none of the commenters, nor the author, suggested Seattle is the favorite to win the division.
This is an extremely goofy take. Most Mariners fans aren’t claiming to be division title contenders, but hoping the playoffs will be made via wild card.
And Dipoto’s track record is pretty good when you look at the big picture and realize how many of his moves in Anaheim were forced by Moreno. When allowed free reign he’s creative and great at drafting and developing.
You guys are funny, and apparently quite literal. Yes, no one here is saying Seattle will be division champs in this thread, but they typically do, and they do so every year. Every year is the year. Every year Seattle fans have reasons why they missed and next year will be the year it all comes together.
Where do you get your info? I am in many Mariner groups and literally nobody is saying division Champs. More like hopefully this year we get into the playoffs.
He’s just making crap up.
OMG… okay, guy. You’re right– no Mariner fans give Angels fans a hard time, or explain why the Mariners haven’t made the playoffs in more than 20-years. They don’t explain what a genius DiPoto is, or how incredible their pipeline of players is, or how it was just bad luck that they missed out on the playoffs yet again last year. Mariner fans have not gone crazy over signing Robbie Ray– he’s what puts you over the top. I’ve fabricated this notion. My apologies. Mariner fans are humble.
Thank you for taking the time to come here and crap on us. Have a nice night!
Hahahahaha you’re so butt hurt about M’s fans trashing you in the past that now you think it’s your time to put them in their place? Your so bad at trash talking and sarcasm that you had to write 3 more posts explaining your logic!?!? MUST BE AN ANGELS FAN FOR SURE!
Everything you said is true. And throw in talking smack about Houston and Texas because that’s what fans do to there division rivals. And yes M’s fans believe Jerry Dipito has done a fantastic job building the roster and the minor leagues. But again nobody that I know of is saying division Champs.
Wonder if he altered his motion in such a way that the success lead to a sore shoulder. Guys like Donnie Moore, Alex Cobb and Kirby Yates fell in love with the success of the splitter. Tough to stay healthy when you’re torqued up like so