Seattle Mariners Trade For Mike Kickham, Create LOOGY Logjam
The Seattle Mariners are going to have two left-handers in their bullpen. This much should be expected – that’s usually how they operate. There’s Charlie Furbush, and then there’s someone a little more flotsam-ish who only faces same-handed hitters. As far as that roster spot is concerned, they’ve got options.
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First there was Lucas Luetge, one-time rule five draftee and fringe major leaguer. Next came David Rollins, recent rule five draftee and the likeliest candidate for the role. But that was before the latest plot twist – the acquisition of Mike Kickham from the Chicago Cubs.
Kickham is a 26-year-old who’s spent most of his career with the San Francisco Giants. He made his way to Chicago as a waiver claim, then lost his roster spot because the Cubs liked our old friend Chris Denorfia and wanted him to be on their team. Kickham was DFA’d, then traded to Seattle for Lars Huijer.
Lars Who? Huijer, of course! The 21-year-old from the Netherlands had been a righty pitching in the low levels of the Seattle system. Did you know that, about Lars Huijer? I certainly didn’t. Anyways, he’s gone now, but before he was gone he was baaaaad, barely managing to strike out more batters than he walked. The Cubs want him because he’s young. The Mariners don’t want him because he’s bad. So you could say it worked out pretty easily.
Not that Kickham is much good, either. He’s got a lovely career WAR of -0.6 in 30.1 big league innings, coming in hot with a 10.98 career ERA. Must be significantly underperforming his FIP, right? Well, his FIP was 10.13 last year, but sits at 6.02 for his career. So that’s a pretty big gap! It’s also a terrible, horrible FIP and a worse ERA. But hey, small sample size.
That’s not why the Mariners wanted him, of course. What Seattle (presumably) likes is what he’s done at AAA, though even that hasn’t been particularly impressive. Again, he was acquired for some maybe-person who we’ve been instructed to call Lars Huijer. No kidding he’s not “particularly impressive.”
In 259 AAA innings, almost exclusively as a starter, Kickham has a 4.37 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9. ERA aside, those numbers aren’t bad, though they’re no eye-poppers. Squint and you can see a decent lefty-on-lefty reliever. Squint a lot harder and you can see a back-end starter, but that’s probably just because your excessive squinting has led to some kind of freak brain injury. He’s not going to start, and he probably isn’t even going to relieve in the big leagues. But he might.
One thing Kickham has always done in the minors is supress home runs. That’s a nice and useful thing to do! One thing Kickham has always done in the majors is cough up a lot of home runs. That’s a crappy and worthless thing to do! The Mariners really don’t like when MLB relievers give up home runs. They always, always get rid of those guys, no matter their strikeout numbers. Kickham has one path to success with the M’s: stop giving up bombs.
Another important thing about Kickham is that he has an option to burn. For this reason he should be considered a long shot to make the team, and is really no more than insurance in case Luetge and/or Rollins suck too much to stomach. Rollins is the favorite for an MLB job because of his rule five status. Kickham’s the biggest longshot because of Rollins’ rule five status and his option. He’ll be organizational depth until he isn’t, basically.
This is the second time in the past month the Mariners have gotten a potential big league piece from the Cubs in exchange for not-literally-but-almost nothing. First it was Justin Ruggiano, and now Kickham. Ruggiano’s better, probably, but it makes you wonder what the Cubs are up to. They’re win-now, just like everyone else it seems, and presumably could’ve used the organizational LOOGY depth just the same. But I guess they really like Lars Huijer. And Matt Brazis. Enjoy Chicago, guys.
And welcome to Seattle, Mike Kickham. Or rather, welcome to Tacoma, probably, via Peoria. There will be a LOOGY battle in spring training, and oooooh boy, nothing gets the crowds riled up like a good ol’ fashioned LOOGY battle. There are three obvious candidates, and Kickham’s the least likely of them. So root for him, if that’s what you’re into. Root for his unlikely success.