Commentary: With injuries and departures, the Mariners’ bullpen faces major question marks this season

PEORIA, Ariz. – It’s only March, the injuries aren’t devastating, but Scott Servais’ thoughts are swirling.

There are an innumerable amount of details for a big-league manager to attend to in spring training, but the Mariners’ skipper’s mind tends to gravitate to one area on the roster.

Seattle’s bullpen was among MLB’s best last season, when it finished fourth in ERA among relievers at 3.48. In fact, the lights-out late innings are a major reason why the M’s have averaged more than 89 wins over the past three seasons.

But what was once a source of might has become one of mystery. Gone are Paul Sewald and Justin Topa, who combined for 112 innings and posted sub-3 ERAs last season. Injured are Matt Brash (70⅔ innings, 3.06 ERA) and Gregory Santos (66⅓ innings, 3.39 ERA with the White Sox) – neither of whom will be on the opening-day roster.

At some point, each should return. And yet-to-be-established youngsters abound. But it’s fair to wonder if the former kings of the one-run win will start coughing up the narrower contests if the ‘pen is not on point.

“It’s probably where I’m spending most of my bandwidth when I look at my board, is looking at the bullpen, and not just who breaks with us, but what do the top three or four guys out of the bullpen at the Triple-A level look like when we break?” Servais said. “Because last year those guys were (Gabe) Speier, Topa – guys who ended up pitching for us a lot. So it’s not just the guys you break with, but the guys who didn’t make the team, and how can they fit in with us at some point early in the season? I’ve spent a lot of time looking at it.”

Perhaps one of those guys would have been right-hander Jackson Kowar, who has struggled in his three MLB seasons but was sharp during the spring before a torn UCL ended his season.

But his absence pales to someone such as Brash, whose right elbow inflammation has him looking at a mid-April return. It pales to Santos as well, whose right lat strain has halted any hard timetable on him suiting up for the M’s.

Factor all this with the late-season trading of Sewald last year and offseason departure of Topa, and you really only have one returning Mariners reliever who has repeatedly proven himself in high-leverage situations: Andrés Muñoz – the 25-year-old, triple-digit-velocity-throwing “veteran” reliever.

The word is in quotes because Servais didn’t quite ascribe him that label Wednesday. He called him “the most veteran guy we have down there” (in addition to Ryne Stanek – more on him later). But he’s young. And clutch as he was at times last season, his 13 saves in 2023 don’t amount to a proven track record.

He is, however, much further along now than he was in March of last year. The 100-mph-plus fastball he was hurling in Wednesday’s 8-1 win over the Dodgers said as much.

Muñoz said he has no preference on whether he closes out a game or comes in against the top of the order in the seventh or eighth – just that he gets his three outs.

Any lessons from last year?

“One of the things that I learned was that I put too much attention of what inning it is, instead of just go there and attack,” said Muñoz, a native Spanish speaker. “And that is one of the learned things that I have of last year – I was too much worried about, ‘Oh, it’s the ninth inning, you going to close a game,’ and it’s the same thing. You have to go there and attack.”

As for the aforementioned Stanek – who the M’s signed to a one-year deal last week – he’s an unknown as well. The 32-year-old had a 4.09 ERA in 50⅔ innings with the Astros last season. He had a 1.15 ERA in 54⅔ innings in Houston the season before.

His career history suggests he’s closer to the 2023 version of himself, but who knows?

And that’s really the question surrounding the Mariners’ bullpen: Who knows?

Servais acknowledged Wednesday that he’s going to have to be more of a thinker when it comes to properly deploying his bullpen when the season begins. He added: “If we ever get fully healthy, watch out.”

But they aren’t fully healthy right now. They’re fully mysterious. Lots of possibilities for that part of the roster next season – some of which are better than others.