2022 Seattle Mariners Regular Season Grades - Pitchers

The 2022 regular season is almost at a close, and now it's time for me to grade the Mariners pitchers for 2022.  I've already done the hitters, and you can check my previous post to see that.  But how did the pitchers do?  Again, this does factor in expectations for each pitcher.

Starters

Robbie Ray: B-
I can't give Robbie higher than a B.  Has he been good for the most part?  Yes.  But he's had stretches where he gives up a lot of home runs, namely at the beginning and end of the season.  I don't think he's pitched quite well enough to earn his salary, but he has been better than the average #1/2 pitcher.

Luis Castillo: B+
Castillo was a much-needed addition for our playoff push.  He has been mostly great, but he did show a few signs of struggle.  No pitcher is perfect, but I'd have to say Castillo has been about as good as we could hope.  He' just a few bad starts away from a grade in the A's.

Logan Gilbert: A-
Logan had an amazing start, winning pitcher of the month for April.  He cooled off but never had any massive struggles.  He picked it back up late in the season and earned a spot as one of the Top 3 in the rotation for the playoffs.  Logan's first full season in the bigs went about as well as we could've hoped.

Marco Gonzalez: C+
Marco definitely had his ups and downs, which is just a kind way of saying he struggled too much for most people's liking.  Shows how much our rotation has come when Marco, our former #1 starter, is now #5.  I'll give Marco credit: he battled all season and never wavered or caved into pressure.  

George Kirby: A
Kirby's first season went better than we could've even hoped.  He showed impeccable control and went a long stretch without giving up a home run.  George proved he can be a top of the line starter for us, and the future is incredibly bright with him.

Chris Flexen: B-
Flexen pitched as well as a #4 starter could be expected to.  He had his ups and downs, just like Marco.  He handled his "demotion" to the bullpen extremely well and did everything that was asked of him.

Relievers

Diego Castillo: B-
Castillo had an extremely rough start to his season but turned it around.  He still had a hiccup or two after, as almost every reliever does.  But that rough start cannot be ignored.  Hopefully, if he's used in the playoffs, we won't see that side of him again.

Matt Brash: B+
Brash started as the starter instead of George Kirby, which was the wrong choice.  Fortunately, Brash seems to have found his spot in the bullpen.  Brash has some of the nastiest pitches I have ever seen.  And his performance in the 13-inning game was amazing, especially that double play he helped induce.  

Matt Festa: C+
Festa has been pretty good.  We just never know which Festa we'll get daily.  He's either been really good or awful, with no in-between.  I wouldn't want him in a high leverage situation in the playoffs.

Paul Sewald: A-
Sewald has been as good as we could hope, although there have been a few games where he gave up some costly home runs.  But he's still one of Scott's most trusted arms in the pen and rightfully so.

Andres Munoz: A
Munoz has become one of the best relievers in baseball, and that is no exaggeration.  He routinely hits over 100 MPH and has a wicked slider.  He could be an extremely dominant closer in our future.  Munoz's struggles have been few and far between as well.

Penn Murfee: B
Is there a more aptly named reliever in baseball?  Anyway, Murfee wasn't expected to be much this season but has been a very solid reliever.  He has had struggles every now and then, but he's still exceeded expectations.  

Erik Swanson: A-
Swanson, like Brash, is a converted starter that has thrived in the pen.  Swanson's ERA for a large part of the year was UNDER 1.00.  That's insane.  He wasn't perfect and was a bit wild at times, but he did become one of Scott's more trusted relievers.

Ryan Borucki, Matthew Boyd, Drew Steckenrider, Anthony Misiewicz: Incomplete
Not enough from these guys, but Steckenrider and Misiewicz were moved on from due to their struggles.  Boyd has been a solid lefty/long relief out of the pen and Borucki was fairly good out of the pen until his injury.  Borucki's best was definitely pitching multiple innings of relief in an extra inning game against the Blue Jays that resulted in a win.  

That's all I have for grades!  I'll likely do one more post on the Mariners, recapping the season and talking about their performance in the playoffs.  Hopefully it'll be longer than 2 or 3 games in the wild card round.  Go Mariners!

My Idea for Fixing the DH Rule

For years, Major League Baseball has dealt with having the designated hitter in the American League and the pitchers hitting in the National League.  There has been some talk of abolishing the DH, some talk of enacting the DH in the National League, but nothing too serious.  Many people want a change, but no one can agree on one. 

My proposal (or compromise, if you want to call it) is to have the DH in the first 3-5 innings of a game.  I'll go with 3, because the game of baseball likes to do things in multiples of 3.  What this would mean is that any team, whether they be a National League or American League team, would have a DH for the first 3 innings of a game.  Then, with the start of the 4th inning, the DH position becomes the pitcher's spot and the player who was the designated hitter gets sent to the bench, but can be used again, but only one more time, such as pinch-hitting for the pitcher when the pitcher's turn comes up in the order.

This would be good for multiple reasons. 

1) It would keep the DH and allow hitting numbers to go up, which is good for baseball, having high-scoring games.
2) It would keep the chess game that the National League currently has.  Managers would have to decide whether to use up their DH to pinch-hit for the pitcher, or to have their starting pitcher take one or two at-bats. 
3) Players on the bench would appear in a lot more games.  Some bench players I've seen can go weeks at a time without any playing time. 
4) Players who become too old to field (Think Jason Giambi, Jim Thome, Frank Thomas) don't have to go to an American League team, they can DH on the team they're currently on.  They also wouldn't have to play a full game ever, slightly prolonging the careers of some players.

I'm not completely set at the 3rd/4th inning as the time to make the switch from DH to pitcher, but I do believe the DH should be in the first part of the game and not the end.  The DH being used early means that starting pitchers usually wouldn't have to worry about hitting, unless they're going the distance.  No one really wants to see starting pitchers hit, and with this rule in place it would mean the average 6 inning starter would only get a plate appearance once every couple starts, on average. 

I also think baseball rosters should expand to 27 players (keeping with the rule of 3) because of the rash of injuries happening, and if they enforce this DH rule I am proposing.  There would be more possibilities for each manager, with a bench of 5, not counting the DH.

This is quite a radical change, but it's something to consider.  Obviously, the time in which the designated hitter would stop being used is debatable.  But if you let the DH come back into the game, then the switch-over can be made early.  If you don't let the DH come back into the game, the switch-over should probably be made later, such as the 6th or 7th inning.  I'm usually not a huge fan of rule changes when it comes to my favorite sports leagues, but this one I would certainly be in favor of.