The Seattle Mariners bullpen was hit with injuries and inconsistency in 2024, leading to a lot of blown saves and leads.
The bullpen was able to get better as the season progressed despite the ailments. And that was due, in part, to the emergence of a rookie reliever.
Troy Taylor was called up from the Mariners’ Double-A team, the Arkansas Travelers, on Aug. 10 and made his major league debut on Aug. 11 during ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball against the New York Mets.
The rookie Seattle reliever made the most of his opportunity and became a high leverage reliever who often pitched in the seventh or eighth inning of close games. There was anticipation on what a healthy bullpen featuring Taylor, Andres Munoz, Collin Snider, Gregory Santos and Matt Brash could look like.
Unfortunately, it will be a little longer before fans will be able to see those group of relievers together.
Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto was on a news conference via Zoom on Feb. 3. During that conference, Dipoto said that Taylor will miss at least the beginning of spring training and possibly part of the regular season with a lat strain.
“We are going to be without Troy Taylor for a little bit at the start of spring training,” Dipoto said in the Zoom conference. “He’s had a bit of a lat strain in his offseason workouts that popped up about a week ago. And we’re going to take it easy on him with the throwing when we get started. So he’s more TBD. And we would expect that there’s at least some potential that he’s going to have to start the season down in Arizona rather than with the club as he ramps into the throwing speed.”
Taylor finished his rookie season with a 3.72 ERA across 21 appearances with 25 strikeouts in 19.1 innings pitched.
If Taylor misses a portion of the season, it wouldn’t be good for a bullpen that’s already set to feature some pitchers who are coming off respective injuries.
But, if the rest of the relievers can maintain health until Taylor returns, he’ll be under less pressure to jump right back into high leverage situations.