Huge Mike’s Revenge Rampage Involves Seattle

Over the weekend, I used to be distraught to be taught that Mike Baumann — my beautiful, mild-mannered, Fits-loving, pineapple-curious distant cousin — had been designated for project by the Baltimore Orioles. These no-good, rotten, perfidious, cold-hearted Baltimore Orioles. Do you know that Huge Mike and Austin Hays had been teammates courting again to varsity? All these years, misplaced like tears within the rain.

To say I’m livid can be an understatement of biblical proportions, and the Mike Baumanns of the world are coming collectively to go to disproportionate vengeance upon the Orioles. I’ve already jinxed John Means, and I’ll take one other pitcher each week till our thirst for retribution is sated. Which can in all probability be by no means. Francis Scott Key was a hack. The Wire is overrated. Neither I nor my descendants will ever eat crab once more.

Fortuitously, there are different groups that worth what Huge Mike can provide. (Meg gave me permission to name the youthful, harder-throwing Baumann “Huge Mike” all through this story, as a result of writing my very own title again and again was getting bizarre.)

It is a bodily, sturdy, hard-throwing reliever with a number of secondary pitches who performed a major (if low-leverage) function on a 100-win crew final yr. I’d’ve been shocked if he made it by means of waivers, however he didn’t even get that far.

The Mariners took curiosity in Huge Mike and labored out a commerce: Two Michaels for a Blake. Baumann and Michael Pérez to Baltimore in alternate for Triple-A catcher Blake Hunt. Pérez you may bear in mind from his temporary cameo on the Mets’ catcher carousel final summer time. (I completely forgot that Gary Sánchez was on the Mets briefly in 2023. They’d a wild yr.) Hunt is, presumably, a human man who has many attributes. I care not even a bit of what they’re. We’re right here to speak about what Huge Mike can do for Seattle.

Huge Mike acquired into his first sport in a Mariners uniform whereas I used to be scripting this, and in 2/3 of an inning he threw simply three strikes out of 12 pitches, walked two batters, and threw two wild pitches. Not an excellent first impression, however I’m keen to chalk it as much as speedy post-trade jitters. Don’t fear about it.

Let’s say nothing modifications about Huge Mike’s sport from Baltimore. Final season, he gained 10 video games out of the bullpen principally by being in the appropriate place on the proper time. Huge Mike appeared in 60 video games final yr and entered 32 of them in both the sixth or seventh inning. He entered with the Orioles both tied or trailing 36 instances, appeared in a number of innings 20 instances, and recorded 4 or extra outs 16 instances.

Final yr’s Orioles had an superior offense, an superior nearer (even after Félix Bautista acquired damage), and a rotation that’s finest understood by the quantity of effort that crew put into convincing us that, sure, we truly do assume we are able to win with Kyle Gibson and Dean Kremer pitching that many innings.

A crew like that’s going to have loads of video games determined within the sixth and seventh innings, and whichever pitcher is round at the moment goes to rack up loads of wins. Except you’re the 2022 Astros, the reliever who pitches these innings — or relievers, more than likely, given accidents and variances in type — might be going to be simply high-quality at finest. Huge Mike was a bit of higher than “simply high-quality” final yr; he walked 12.1% of opponents, which isn’t nice, however he had an ERA- of 90 and held opponents to a .218 batting common.

With that mentioned, when the Orioles acquired to the playoffs final yr, they left him off the postseason roster. And to not be the man who says, “After which what occurred?” — which is likely one of the web’s most annoying tics — however what occurred subsequent is the Orioles acquired their collective head caved in by the Rangers. Baltimore acquired swept within the ALDS and gave up roughly a billion runs within the course of.

Coincidence? I feel not.

However even on this hyperbolically optimistic analysis of Huge Mike, I concede that he was hardly a pivotal member of the pitching employees. He was out of choices, and the Orioles minimize him to make room for Grayson Rodriguez’s return from the IL. I’ll concede, reluctantly, that you just’d in all probability slightly have Rodriguez in your roster than Huge Mike.

The Mariners might use a gradual hand on the wheel within the center innings, however they wouldn’t have given up a… effectively, prospect might be too robust a phrase for Hunt, a 25-year-old who wanted three tries to get out of Double-A. However he’s hitting .293/.372/.533 in 24 video games in Triple-A this yr, so he’s not nothing. Anyway, the Mariners wouldn’t have given him up in the event that they didn’t assume there was at the very least the potential for extra from Huge Mike.

On reflection, a Baumann-Mariners partnership makes a lot sense I really feel a bit of silly for not predicting it earlier than it occurred. See, Huge Mike is about energy. His fastball averages 96.2 mph, and his two breaking balls are a slider that averages 92.1 mph and a knuckle curve that is available in at 87.2. That’s, in keeping with Baseball Savant, the best common slider velocity and the second-highest common curveball velocity in all of baseball this yr. Since 2020, there have been 45 sliders thrown within the majors at 95 mph or extra; Huge Mike has thrown 9 of them. The one one that’s thrown greater than that’s Jacob deGrom; the one different pitcher who’s thrown greater than 5 is Emmanuel Clase.

You realize who loves a tough thrower? Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners.

The Mariners, as a employees, are not any. 1 within the league this yr in common fastball velocity at 94.6 mph throughout all fastball sorts. That leads the league by greater than half a mile per hour. They usually love a hard-throwing fastball-slider man out of the bullpen. Final offseason, Seattle signed free agent reliever Ryne Stanek (fastball velocity 98.6 mph, slider velocity 88.3 mph) to complement a bullpen anchored by nearer Andrés Muñoz (fastball velocity 98.9 mph, slider velocity 88.1 mph).

Once I talked to Huge Mike final summer time, I posed a query I like asking pitchers: When you had the flexibility to steal one pitch from anybody in baseball, which one would you choose? Huge Mike gave me two solutions: First, his then-teammate Shintaro Fujinami’s splitter. Second, Matt Brash’s slider.

Now he’s Brash’s teammate. Certain, Brash is presently on the IL whereas recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure, however I’m certain he’d be joyful to offer Huge Mike a name and discuss him by means of the finer factors of throwing a slider.

With that mentioned, if studying Brash’s slider had been so simple as following a guidelines, certainly each pitcher who’s come by means of Seattle up to now three years would’ve picked it up. I’m unsure it’s inside Huge Mike’s capacity to repeat Brash, if solely as a result of he’s by no means spun something as quick as Brash spins his slider.

Brash’s slider is way more east-west, whereas Huge Mike’s has extra vertical break. However when Muñoz was getting his slider into the decrease 90s, which he did fairly routinely in 2022 — when the pitch was top-of-the-line breaking balls in baseball — his motion profile was a bit of extra attainable for Huge Mike. It’d nonetheless require an overhaul in an effort to generate extra horizontal motion, however the spin charges and velocity are fairly comparable, and each pitchers throw from a three-quarters arm slot.

And one factor Huge Mike has going for him: He’s all the way down to attempt stuff. Over components of 4 seasons within the majors, he’s adjusted his curveball, gaining three miles an hour from 2021 to 2022, and one other three from 2022 to 2023. He additionally modified his set place this yr. In 2023, he pitched from a reasonably conventional stretch.

However this yr, he’s began from an open stance, along with his left leg cocked out towards the first-base dugout.

He additionally let the lettuce develop out over the winter. I feel it’s a great look that’s well-suited to the cooler, air-conditioned environs of T-Cell Park. (And one other factor Huge Mike has in widespread with Muñoz, for what it’s price.) Anyway, if the Mariners assume they will unlock one thing the Orioles couldn’t, I think about Huge Mike has proven a willingness to experiment.

Saying {that a} man who simply acquired DFA’d is doubtlessly the subsequent Brash or Muñoz is clearly huge discuss. Nevertheless it wasn’t too way back that these guys had been simply nameless arduous throwers who had their potential unlocked by a visit to Seattle. And if you wish to develop the set from hard-throwing fastball-slider guys to right-handed relievers extra usually, you would say the identical about Paul Sewald and Erik Swanson earlier than they had been traded away.

The Mariners have had their ups and downs — and greater than a bit of generational trauma stemming from trades involving Orioles pitchers — however this strikes me as a great place to kick off Huge Mike’s Revenge Rampage. I hope he makes Baltimore remorse this commerce for years to come back.