The Mariners have a chance to have one of the nastiest bullpens in baseball. But in order for this to come to fruition, the dice have to roll correctly on multiple tosses.
Can Diego Castillo continue his domination? Will Paul Sewald find his strikeout pitch? What does Ken Giles look like coming off Tommy John surgery? How about Erik Swanson?
The sheer volume of question marks will shrink once we see these arms over the coming weeks. However, the Mariners still could use a reliever with serious upside.
Enter Chris Stratton.
Stratton, the 31-year old reliever for the Pirates, certainly qualifies as an arm that carries tremendous upside. His arsenal includes a low 90s fastball that produces more spin than any four-seamer in baseball. Stratton is elite at spinning the baseball, possessing a curveball that ranks in the 99th percentile in spin rate, as well as one of the best slider spin rates in the game.
In the past, walks have been a major issue for Stratton. But thus far in 2022, he's posting a career-best 5.9 percent walk rate, as well as a career-low in home run to flyball rate. He's avoiding walks and home runs like he never has, and yet his traditional numbers don't show much difference between this season and his career norms. This would seemingly indicate that he's been a bit unlucky, and a .355 BABIP would seemingly back that up.
Stratton isn't a rental, but he's making $2.7 million this season and will likely earn around $4 million in his final year of arbitration this winter. This may persuade the typically cheap Pirates to move on from Stratton, so he may be had for a bit of a bargain as a result.
But Stratton is an arm teams like the Astros and Yankees would traditionally take a chance on, and he'll likely have more than a few bidders. He won't cost a ton, but he's not going to be free and it only takes one team to blow the market out of the water.
Seattle shouldn't be that team. But if it can get Stratton for a player a year away from the big leagues or an older prospect without everyday upside, general manager Jerry Dipoto should be more than comfortable pulling the trigger. A name like utility prospect Kaden Polcovich or right-hander Andrew Moore could get it done.
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