Seattle Mariners Sign Joe Saunders As Lefty-On-Lefty Reliever
We’ve spent the last couple days profiling a pair of former Seattle Mariners who have seen their free agent markets collapse and are now probably in line for cheap minor league deals. Chris Young and Joe Beimel contributed to the successes of the 2014 M’s, but have yet to find contracts. Today we have news that the Mariners have signed another pitcher who used to play in Seattle. That’s right, folks, Joe Saunders has re-entered the building.
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Wait, Joe Saunders? No Young, No Beimel, yes Joe Freaking Saunders? Saunders was last seen around these parts in 2013, when he and Aaron Harang spent a year as the Mariners’ utterly unwatchable fourth and fifth starters. 2013 was an underratedly awful year for baseball in Seattle, and Saunders’ 183 innings of 5.26 ERA ball were a big part of that.
He got big league opportunities last year with both Texas and Baltimore, posting a 6.70 ERA with more walks than strikeouts. He was below replacement level over 43 innings. Baltimore acquired him late in the year and used him as a reliever. Saunders was uninteresting to begin with, but now it appears that he’s past the point of being able to offer a MLB team anything in the way of value. Yet here he is, a Mariner again.
Saunders signed a minor league deal, of course, so there’s not really any downside here. And based on what we’ve heard about this signing, it’s actually pretty interesting. Maybe even exciting, if you insist on every little thing being exciting. The Mariners have brought Saunders in to join the crowded competition for their lefty-on-lefty reliever job. His starting days are over, as far as the team is concerned.
This is interesting because Saunders has been a starter for a long time. This is interesting because recently Saunders has been terrible. This is interesting because the Mariners already have Lucas Luetge, Mike Kickham, David Rollins, and Rafael Perez. Saunders’ signing, coupled with this, almost certainly means no Beimel. Especially since there’s reason to believe Saunders could be pretty good as a LOOGY.
Saunders has been pretty bad for the last two years. Nobody’s going to argue that. .230/.270/.308 is a pretty bad batting line. Nobody’s arguing against that fact, either. That’s the line lefty hitters have put up against Saunders over his two recent crappy seasons. So while he’s been bad on the whole, he’s been good against the guys the M’s want to use him against.
Consider that he’s held lefties to a .241/.288/.329 line across his career and this just continues to making sense. As Saunders’ other skills have eroded, he’s continued to find ways to get lefties out. That’s going to be his sole focus from now on, and one can’t help but remember what happened the last time the Mariners did this: they took a broken Oliver Perez and turned him into a stud reliever. That’s the goal here.
In order to get a shot at being the next Perez, Saunders is going to have to beat out at least four other arms. They’ve all got their strengths, but don’t be surprised if Saunders wins this competition. If not, he might show up midseason. The M’s have done this before, to great success. I bet they’re pretty confident in what they’re doing here.
Welcome back, Joe Saunders. Do that thing you do and maybe things will work out this time around. It sure would be a neat story if that happened.