Seattle Mariners Make Major Decision with Top Pitching Prospect

The Seattle Mariners are not going to be bringing top pitching prospect Logan Evans up to help the major league bullpen. Evans is currently pitching at Double-A Arkansas.

Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports 710 reports that the M’s are ending that experiment and will be allowing Evans to transition back into a starter. They had hoped utilizing him as a reliever would help the big league club and would accelerate his timeline for a major league debut.

Per Drayer:

Of his 10 relief outings, seven were scoreless. His performance out of the bullpen was satisfactory, but the Mariners did not see the uptick in stuff they thought they might. Placing a high value on his arm, the decision was made to end the experiment.

“When we did get it (the uptick), it came at the expense of command,” said assistant general manager Andy McKay. “This kid’s telling us he’s a starter. It’s just who he is.”

The Mariners have made this move before with rousing success, so there was optimism that it would work with Evans. The team previously turned Edwin Diaz into an All-Star closer and also turned Matt Brash into a dynamite reliever. They also turned Prelander Berroa into a reliever, but he was traded to the Chicago White Sox this past offseason.

Evans is the highest-ranked prospect in the organization and is a Top 100 prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America.

He’s 8-2 for the season with a 2.17 ERA. He’s worked 62.1 innings on the year so at the very least, the relief experiment has helped keep his overall workload down for the year. He threw only 15.0 innings a season ago.

The Mariners are 47-41 at the major league level and lead the American League West by 2.0 games over the Houston Astros. They’ll play the Orioles one last time on Thursday at T-Mobile Park. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. PT.

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