After nearly a month of inactivity, the Seattle Mariners made a move to shore up the starting rotation on Friday morning.
The Mariners dealt corner outfielder Seth Smith to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo, according to the team’s official PR account on Twitter.
The #Mariners have acquired RHP Yovani Gallardo and cash from Baltimore in exchange for OF Seth Smith.
Read: https://t.co/NduZ3zayKY pic.twitter.com/BVJTY9ECBg
— MarinersPR (@MarinersPR) January 6, 2017
Smith came over to Seattle in a trade with the San Diego Padres prior to the 2015 season and has been a serviceable platoon outfielder in the two years since. The 34-year-old slumped in the second-half and only put up 0.5 wins above replacement and a 110 wRC+ last season, although he was still effective enough against left-handed pitching.
Gallardo has been a solid mid-rotation starter for much of his 10-year career, and was a big part of the Texas Rangers‘ run to the AL West title in 2015 with a 3.42 earned run average (4.00 FIP) in 184.1 innings. However, the 30-year-old is coming off a career-worst season in Baltimore, as he put up a 5.42 ERA (5.04 FIP) with a walk rate of 11.6 percent.
Losing Smith shouldn’t hurt the Mariners too much on the surface, as he had been on the trade block since the MLB Winter Meetings. Smith has some value offensively, but the Mariners are planning to give significant playing time to rookies Mitch Haniger and Ben Gamel, both of whom have some upside and will be defensive upgrades.
Still, it’s worth questioning if this is the move that will make Seattle’s rotation good enough to compete in the AL West. While Baltimore is a difficult place to pitch, Gallardo had plenty of other red flags in 2016, which should be a concern for the Mariners.
Injuries were a huge factor in Gallardo’s down year, as he was limited to 118 innings with a shoulder issue and suffered a significant velocity drop. Gallardo shouldn’t allow as many home runs in Seattle, but his declining strikeout numbers and huge walk rate could be a major issues.
There’s a hope that Gallardo has fully recovered from his shoulder injury, and he would certainly be an upgrade for Seattle if he can match his 2015 numbers. The Orioles are also forking over some money to make up the salary difference, and Gallardo has a reasonable $13 million option for 2018 if he can bounce back.
This is a risky move for the Mariners, as they lost some value in the trade and Gallardo doesn’t seem like enough to make the rotation a plus. Signing Jason Hammel and trading Smith for a reliever could have been a more effective strategy, but Jerry Dipoto did what he could given the massive cost of starting pitching this offseason.
Nathaniel Reeves is a writer at Outside Pitch MLB. Follow him on Twitter @njr3701.
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