Color Scheme

Subscribe now
Seattle Mariners

Mariners mailbag: Chris Flexen over Marco Gonzales in bullpen, record vs. losing teams and more

Marco Gonzales of the Seattle Mariners delivers a pitch against the Minnesota Twins during the first inning at Target Field on Thursday, April 8, 2021, in Minneapolis. Gonzales helped the Mariners defeat the Toronto Blue Jays Thursday, July 7, 2022, in Seattle. (Getty Images)
Ryan Divish Seattle Times

The mailbag returns for a much-needed off day after a long road trip. When the Mariners return Tuesday to T-Mobile Park, they will start their final 40 games of the 2022 season with their best chance in at least a decade to snap a 21-year postseason drought.

They came into Monday with a 66-56 record and tied with the Blue Jays and Rays for the first wild-card spot.

In an odd coincidence, the Mariners also had a 66-56 record at this point in the 2021 season.

But there are differences. The 2021 Mariners were 2.5 games out of the second wild-card spot and exceeding all expectations with a lockdown bullpen, the hitting production of J.P. Crawford, Ty France, Mitch Haniger and Kyle Seager and ridiculous success in one-run games.

The 2022 Mariners came into the season with expectation of making the postseason and building on the success of last season. This team has more talent with the additions of Luis Castillo and Robbie Ray, a deeper bullpen that can strike out more hitters with the addition of Andres Munoz and Matt Brash and the potential for a better offense with a deeper lineup of hitters with some track record of success.

Oh, and there are three wild-card spots this year instead of two.

Seattle also has the easiest remaining schedule of any team in baseball with 25 games vs. teams with a losing record, including the last 20 games.

But as this last weekend proved, games against teams with losing records aren’t guaranteed victories.

These next six weeks certainly won’t be dull.

As always these are real questions submitted by the standings-watchers known as my Twitter followers:

Do the M’s play worse against bad teams?

This seems like the first question to answer since the Mariners are coming off a 5-4 road trip where they lost opening three-game series to the Rangers (55-66), swept a three-game series vs. the Angels (52-69) and lost a frustrating series to the A’s (45-77).

First of all, there is one good team that the Mariners don’t play well against — the Houston Astros. The Mariners are 7-12 vs. the perennial American League West champs this season, including losing six of their last seven. Seattle did have a bit of a breakthrough, winning a series at Minute Maid Park in early June.

But it hasn’t been a great matchup for the Mariners for the last four seasons. So much of baseball depends on when you play certain opponents. For example, the Mariners took 2 of 3 vs. the Yankees in New York and then won a three-game series over the Yankees at T-Mobile Park a week later.

Those were part of the Yankees’ current 10-19 stretch.

When the Mariners swept the Blue Jays in a four-game series at T-Mobile Park, Toronto had to make two bullpen starts with Yusei Kikuchi being terrible and Kevin Gausman still not 100% from an injury. It was the final four losses of a 9-17 stretch that led to the firing of manager Charlie Montoyo.

But here’s the cold hard data:

Record vs. teams with current winning records

  • Mets (79-44): 2-1
  • Astros (78-45): 7-12
  • Yankees (74-48): 4-2
  • Padres (68-56): 2-0
  • Phillies (66-55): 1-2
  • Rays (65-55): 2-5
  • Blue Jays (65-55): 5-2
  • Orioles (63-58): 4-2
  • Twins (62-57): 3-4
  • White Sox (62-59): 1-2
  • Overall: 31-32

Records vs. teams with losing records

  • Nationals (41-82): 2-0
  • A’s (45-77): 8-5
  • Royals (49-74): 3-0
  • Rangers (55-66): 12-4
  • Marlins (52-69): 1-2
  • Angels (52-69): 8-7
  • Red Sox (60-62): 1-6
  • Overall: 35-24

And remember, the Red Sox are not far from being considered a winning team. You could argue about whether the Mariners have a habit of playing down to lesser opponents. But really what we’ve seen from this team, and almost every team in baseball, they still have to perform at a commensurate level and execute in situations to win games. The Mariners’ inconsistency on offense puts a premium on playing mistake free in the field and on the base paths.

Is there anybody in the minors system who might be able to step in an help this team offensively right now?

Realistically if there was an impact offensive player in the minor leagues capable of stepping in and helping this team’s production in any sort of way, they would’ve been asked to step in a long time ago.

The one caveat being that if Jarred Kelenic was playing up to his potential or even at the level of his final 33 games of last season — .242/.321/.508 slash line with six doubles, a triple, 21 RBI and 20 runs scores — he could help the offense. Unfortunately that version of Kelenic has been absent in 2022. In his most recent call-up — a small sample size to be sure — he had two hits in 24 plate appearances with a homer, two RBI, no walks and nine strikeouts.

You could argue that based on Luis Torrens’ success last season mid-June to the end — .266/.326/.477 slash line with 11 doubles, two triples, 13 homers, 41 RBI — makes him a better offensive option than Curt Casali. But Torrens has looked nothing like that hitter this season and his defensive limitations handling the Mariners pitching staff filled with hard throwers and plus stuff makes any gain minimal.

Obviously, Kyle Lewis offers a power potential that would be beneficial. But due to injuries, he hasn’t been a consistent presence or performer since 2020. His limited availability and lack of positional flexibility is an issue. If he were hitting with the authority of July 2020, he’d still be on the roster.

What the Mariners need is for Ty France to break out of his current funk — .145/.203/.194 slash line with nine hits, a homer, five walks and 12 strikeouts in his last 15 games. He swears his left wrist isn’t an issue and he isn’t getting any extra pregame or postgame treatment on it. Admittedly, he’s been chasing hits and trying to swing his way out of his struggles, which rarely works.

Why isn’t Flexen in the rotation instead of Gonzales?

Per sources, Marco Gonzales went to the Mariners and said that he’d be willing to come out of the bullpen if needed and that he wasn’t going to be resistant to a change if it was what they felt was best for the team’s success.

However, the Mariners felt that Flexen would be a better option out of the bullpen based on past experience, pitch repertoire, versatility in usage and ability to bounce back from an appearance.

Flexen pitched out of the bullpen for the Mets earlier in his career and in the minor leagues. The hope was that the shorter bursts would allow his stuff to play up, including seeing a bump in his fastball velocity.

They also felt like Flexen could jump back into a spot start if needed much easier than Gonzales.

Gonzales made a handful of relief appearances for the Cardinals as a rookie, but he’s been predominantly a starter his entire career. Given his pitch repertoire and his reliance on command over stuff, they felt like bringing him in for one- and two-inning stints might not offer as much opportunity for success.

Why are there back-to-back weekday matinees this week?

The 1:10 p.m. start Wednesday is a getaway day for the Nationals. The 1:10 p.m. start Thursday is because The Weeknd is having a concert later that night at Lumen Field. Can’t have a night game on a weekday with The Weeknd performing.