Dipoto: Mariners Will Be “Aggressive” In Search For High-End Relief Help

The Mariners kicked off deadline season by trading for Diamondbacks first baseman Josh Naylor, but it appears the club is far from done adding to its roster this summer. They remain closely tied to Arizona third baseman Eugenio Suarez in the rumor mill, and beyond that GM Jerry Dipoto himself spoke about the club’s needs in a recent interview on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio. Dipoto made clear that a priority for the club is adding a high-leverage reliever to the bullpen and went on to note that he expects the club to be “as aggressive as anyone” in that corner of the market.

That may seem like something of a surprise at first glance, given that Seattle boasts an impressive back-of-the-bullpen duo of Andres Munoz (1.35 ERA) and Matt Brash (1.04 ERA). While that pair is arguably the best one-two punch in all of baseball, the rest of the Mariners’ relief corps has been really quite pedestrian this season. As a whole, Seattle’s bullpen has a 3.81 ERA, good for 12th-best in the majors. Their FIP has been even less impressive, with a 4.06 figure that places then 17th among all big league clubs. Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo are arguably the club’s only trustworthy relief arms behind Munoz and Brash, so adding another leverage option to the bullpen who can push those two into middle relief would make plenty of sense.

As is to be expected, Dipoto did not mention any specific targets. There are plenty of interesting high-leverage arms who could make sense for Seattle to take a look at this summer. If the club is still intent on adding a player like Suarez to their offense in addition to bolstering their bullpen, perhaps adding a rental arm could be less taxing on their farm system. Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley is surely the best rental reliever available, but Twins lefty Danny Coulombe or perhaps even Braves closer Raisel Iglesias could also be intriguing candidates.

On the other hand, a controllable addition to the bullpen to join Munoz and Brash would be beneficial given that the Mariners surely hope to keep their current window of contention open for quite some time, and budgetary constraints left them unable to pursue high-priced additions this offseason. Someone like Pirates right-hander David Bednar, either Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax of the Twins, or perhaps Pete Fairbanks of the Rays would come with mutliple seasons of control (two in the case of Bednar and Fairbanks, three in the case of Jax and Duran).

Regardless of whether the club’s relief addition is a controllable piece or somewhat who will reach free agency this year, another reliever would be a major asset to the club’s hopes to winning in the postseason this year. Having a third shut-down relief arm to pair with Munoz and Brash could give the Mariners a three-headed monster their starter scan reliably pass the baton to during the playoffs to shut down the opposing offense, and given the vaunted crop of starters the Mariners have developed rival batters would be hard pressed to score runs off that sort of elite run prevention in a short series.