| 14 January 2012
No. 1 is still present and accounted for, but who takes over the No. 2 slot?
By now, you’ve probably heard that the Mariners agreed to trade Michael Pineda and Jose Campos to the New York Yankees for Miguel Montero and Hector Noesi, pending physicals.
So now the big question is: Who will take Pineda’s rotation spot? ANSWER AFTER THE JUMP!
The clear front-runner is Jason Vargas. He opened the year at the no. 2 spot, and did pretty decent in the early going. Through the first half (in 18 games), Vargas had a 3.49 ERA, a WHIP of 1.137, 6 K/9, and a 2.61 SO/BB. Though he struggled a bit in the second half (ERA rose to 5.42, WHIP to 1.582), if Vargas pitches the way he did through the first half, he can be a serviceable option at No. 2. (This is, however, considering the fact that the Mariners can be a .500 team or worse.)
What are our other options? Well, obviously Hisashi Iwakuma is going to be talked about. At 30 years old, we can safely say he’s reached his peak, so he’s about as good as he’s going to get. There’s definitely questions, more so than usual with a Japanese pitcher, about Iwakuma. Can he adjust to the MLB? If so, how quickly? What about his shoulder? Will it hold up thorugh 20+ starts? I’m not even going to try to break him down, since my guess is as good as any one's until we can see him play in the bigs.
To open the season though, the Mariners rotation still looks pretty scary featuring Felix/Vargas/Iwakuma as the top 3. But who takes the 4 and 5 spots? There are several names that immediately come to mind. Noesi, Blake Beaven, Charlie Furbush, Anthony Vasquez, Mauricio Robles, maybe even Danny Hultzen.
Beaven and Furbush had the most starts out of the group last year for the M’s, and both still have room to grow (Beaven, just 22 years old, has more). Hultzen, Robles and Vasquez are likely to be the ones having to fight an uphill battle during spring training to make the opening day roster. Hultzen is likely the furthest from the rotation, as he didn’t spend time in the Mariners organization last year, but tore it up in the Fall league. I just don’t see Robles or Vasquez making the rotation either, but wouldn’t be surprised to see all or any of these guys given a shot throughout the season.
