Vince Grippi: Mariners enduring more than their share of injuries, especially on the mound

There are a lot of dangerous occupations out there.

Logger. Fisherman. Roofer. Seattle Mariners starting pitcher.

As they say on Sesame Street, which one of these things shouldn’t belong?

Honestly, being a major league starting pitcher is always stressful, both physically and mentally.

But no team should have to endure what the M’s have endured thus far this season.

The Mariners have played 38 games. They have used nine starting pitchers.

Nine.

Let that sink in.

Heading into spring training, the M’s had expected to have a five-man rotation that included 31-year-old Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, 36, Drew Smyly, 27, James Paxton, 28, and Yovani Gallardo, 31.

Of those, only Gallardo, an offseason addition from the Baltimore Orioles, is still available.

Smyly was lost before the season. Hernandez, Iwakuma and Paxton more recently. Only Paxton is expected back before the end of the month.

So Scott Servais and general manager Jerry Dipoto have been piecing together a starting staff with super glue and bungee cords.

As Servais told the Seattle media Saturday after a 7-2 loss to the Blue Jays, a game in which recalled-from-Tacoma starter Ryan Weber injured his shoulder in the fourth inning, “it’s been a wild year.”

How wild?

According to the M’s public relations department, as of Sunday morning, since setting its opening day roster, the team has made 64 transactions involving the 40-man roster. The season is just 42 days old.

That’s one transaction every 15 hours, 45 minutes.

During the just completed six-day road trip, the M’s made 11 moves. In the month of May, 39 transactions. The next most in the bigs? Miami and Baltimore have 27 each.

And, for the Mariners, it’s not just for starting pitchers. The bullpen has been hit with injuries as well. (And to be fair, some plain incompetence that has necessitated changes.)

Middle infielders Jean Segura and Robinson Cano have missed time, though Cano hasn’t made a trip to the disabled list yet.

Rookie outfielder Mitch Haniger was showing he belonged in the bigs and then got hurt.

OK, we get it. The M’s have been hit harder than usual by the injury beast. But isn’t that just part of the game? Doesn’t everyone have to deal with injuries?

Yes and yes.

Even so, the rash of early season pitching injuries is a little hard to take.

“It’s hard to imagine you could ever plan for anything like this,” Servais was quoted by Ryan Divish in the Seattle Times after Saturday’s loss. “As much depth as you create in the offseason, you never think you’re going to have to tap into it like this.

“But that’s where we are at.”

And where is that exactly? After battling for more than a month to overcome a 2-8 start and get back to the .500 mark, the Mariners went into Toronto on Thursday for a four-game series.

And were swept. Their starting pitchers in the series: Chase De Jong, Christian Bergman, Weber and Ariel Miranda.

Not exactly the 1998 Atlanta Braves, huh?

And not surprisingly, at 17-21, the Mariners are 8½ games behind Houston in the American League West.

For a team that harbored postseason hopes, this isn’t what Servais, Dipoto or any Mariners fan expected.

But everyone knew the M’s would need a little luck to compete in the West.

So far, all they’ve had is of the bad variety.