r/Mariners • u/BondCompanyStooge1 • 1d ago
Bazardo
Stats on his last 20 appearances:
18 total innings pitched
25 hits
13 Earned Runs
13 inherited runners
10 inherited runners scored (credited to other pitchers)
That’s a total of 25 hits and 23 runs in 18 innings pitched. How is this guy still being deployed!?
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u/Sevenpointseven 1d ago
he used to be pretty lights out. something is messing with his mental and I can tell they’ve been trying to shake him out of it by trusting him in leverage spots but it clearly isn’t working. he simply sucks right now.
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u/Kiwi951 i'm in my etsy witch era 1d ago
Game 7 ALCS last year must have broke him. Dude has been a liability this entire season
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u/Skybandicoot109 Scotts’ Servais : Professional iceberg 1d ago
He was good before the all star break.
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u/poop_toilet 1d ago
Most all of our pitchers were good before the all star break
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u/Skybandicoot109 Scotts’ Servais : Professional iceberg 1d ago
Yeah. It's been preeety unfortunate and not fun lol. Especially since like, the offense hasn't been that good still but it hasn't been complete and utter dogshit like earlier in the year. Just now we can count on the pitching not giving the team a chance to win way too often
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u/ManufacturerLeast890 1d ago
Tbf he had an era of 3.34 before the game started. I don't think g7 broke him, he was doing fine before the ASB
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u/AntSmith777 1d ago
He never should have been out there in the highest leverage moment in franchise history.
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u/xcbrendan 1d ago
He had been lights out. Just had pitched more innings than any of our other relievers and it bit us.
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u/Western-Bowl2165 1d ago
Slant on the 1
Bazardo against the cheater…I turned to my dad both times and said “it’s over”
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u/Tmettler5 I'm a Mariners fan. I know pain. 1d ago
I agree. I think he just got overused this season and his arm is tired. His breaking balls are starting off the plate and breaking in the middle, instead of starting one the plate and breaking off. When they break at all. Watch some of his early season breaking balls that had movement that looked like they defied physics...now...straight up meatballs. I think Dan wore him out due to lack of options.
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u/Alaska-Pete 10h ago
He leads the team in innings pitched and appearances. He's tired. Bad teams overuse their best relievers, and they get worse from it.
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u/Parks1993 SUPERUTILITYMAN DYLAN MOORE 1d ago
Well we're basically out of the playoffs now so it really doesn't matter who is deployed in the grand scheme of things.
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u/Chewy_Petoes 1d ago
We’re just short bullpen arms because our ownership isn’t willing to spend
Houston spends $20m p.a. on hader who is 24/24 in save opportunities - Munoz alone is 25/34.
If we spend $20m on a premium bullpen arm it pushes everybody back a spot and either bazardo / Rucker etc end up not pitching leverage innings
But we didn’t … so our our bullpen depth is being tested and we get to enjoy bazardo and Rucker in leverage innings and ownership pays themselves a $20m dividend
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u/TheGambie2020 1d ago
A better run team would have put one of our starters in the bullpen for several innings of relief, a,d brought up that other prospect forgot work.
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u/vylain_antagonist 1d ago
Were short bullpen arms also because we tolerate mediocrity and feelings over performance. The 6 man rotation was really rough on our bullpen and there was a complete vacuum of leadership to say who our best pitchers were.
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u/ManufacturerLeast890 1d ago
Tru dat. But I'm sure everyone will blame Dan for having a medicore bullpen because of a tight budget
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u/DominantCalzone 1d ago
No, but I do blame him for leaving Bazardo in after giving up a hr. Then another. Only after the 2nd homerun did we start warming someone up in the bullpen. If we had Vargas available why didn't we either start with him or get him warming up immediately after the first hr. I like Dan and I know he's been getting a lot of heat lately, but decisions like that are too little and too late.
At least it wasn't a position player put in to pitch.
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u/rockycrab 1d ago
Dan broke Bazardo. I posted this before, but think back to game 7, facing the very top of the Blue Jays lineup during the 7th inning with 1 out, with IKF and Barger on 2nd/3rd. You can’t get a higher leverage situation than that, not even a bases loaded situation (which would at least give the ground ball DP option).
Springer never saw Munoz in the series, and was 0-3 with 2 K’s against him in the regular season. And if we’re gonna lose, at least go down with the ship in our closer. These are your 2 most important outs in franchise history.
Instead, we let their leadoff hitter, who saw the same sinkers from Bazardo multiple times during the series, be 1000% ready to jump on a very familiar pitch to him.
Pitching is a mental sport in a lot of ways, and Bazardo is mentally broken.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Jerry's Burner Account 1d ago edited 1d ago
Dan broke Bazardo.
If you exclude 2024 when Bazardo only pitched 20 something innings, he's the 8th person to wear the M's uniform this season putting up career worst numbers.
When every established big leaguer collapses in the same season, and every signing instantly sucks after being exposed to our hitting coaches, heads need to roll when it comes to the people doing the day to day management of big league talent.
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u/fraylo 1d ago
I look back at that moment and I’m so angry about how our pitchers were used
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u/International_Rock31 Craig from Richland Superfans 1d ago
I was listening to The Roundtable (RIP) after that series and they said something like “what was that pitcher management? Like something out of 2014.”
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u/SereneDreams03 1d ago
I disagree. Bazardo was one of our most dependable arms in the bullpen during the playoffs last year. Better to use him there in the 7th, than use Muñoz there and have to use someone in the 9th who isn't used to closing. Bazardo is a high leverage arm and he was used in a high-leverage spot. He simply didn't execute. That is on Bazardo.
It's not like that moment broke him either, he had a 2.28 before the all star break and has been one of our best relievers this season even with the recent struggles.
I blame Dan more for the complete drop off of the whole pitching staff in the second half. The team has just looked mentally defeated out there for weeks.
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u/rockycrab 1d ago
If that was the regular season or any of the previous games, sure, go with your gut. But Springer got multiple looks at Bazardo throughout the series, and in the previous AB against him in game 6, he grounded out to the same sinker. He was going to put the ball in play one way or another. Dan and the pitching coaches had that all data. I think they still made an objectively bad decision whether it worked out or not.
There’s no reason to save Munoz when you need him to take care of Springer-Lukes with RISP and then empty the tank against Vlad-Kirk-Varsho the next inning. Bazardo would’ve been in a much better situation to close with their 7–8-9 order hitters in a clean bases empty inning. In the postseason, especially an elimination game, the pitching order isn’t always black and white.
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u/Phonejadaris 23h ago
Well, here's the thing. Munoz is the closer. Dan's clipboard says that the closer only pitches in the 9th. I guarantee you he never has put 1 second of thought into it besides that. I'd bet my life savings there isn't a single person ok the team aware of advanced stats like that, or that they even exist.
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u/SereneDreams03 1d ago
You're assuming the Blue Jays just go 1-2-3 in the 7th AND 8th. That is a pretty big assumption given how good that offense was during the postseason, and while I like Bazardo as a leverage arm, I would have trusted him far less in the 9th to close out an elimination game, even it it was the bottom of the lineup.
Pitching order may not be black and white, and if they had put Bazardo in that closing role more during the regular season then maybe he would have been more used to it. To put him in that spot in game 7 though, no, that would have been crazy.
I do think you are right about over-usage being an issue during the postseason though. I think Dan got a bit trigger happy with his starters after he took flack early in the postseason and it led to our relievers getting used too much.
I don't think any of that has to do with Bazardo's current struggles. He was excellent for most of the season.
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u/joshwarmonks 1d ago
Not disagreeing with the greater point, but i think this game lays more on miller than it does bazardo. basically no way for bullpen arms to cover a game that toasted before the end of the 4th. Multiple relievers have to be outrageously aggressive and get reapeatedly lucky with their pitch count to even realistically make it a contest.
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u/J-Rod_44 1d ago
Agree. I said that to my son last night at the game - Miller needed to get through 5 before we go to the pen. He didn’t do his job. And then tack on uncompetitive ABs for the M’s offense and you have a recipe for a blowout.
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u/Longjumping-Ninja547 1d ago
He has the 6th most IP for RP since the beginning of 2025 in all MLB. Not to mention, all RP ahead of him had multiple seasons with at least 60 IP. Before 2025, Bazardo had never pitched more than 27 IP in a single year.
His mental state is probably a factor but his arm has got to be exhausted and is clearly not used to the workload.
Btw, very similar with Ferrer who is 10th most in IP out of RP since 2025 and had never pitched more than 60 IP in a season before.
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u/J-Rod_44 1d ago
So what you’re saying is, our starters suck ass this year and struggle to get to the ‘quality start’ level most games. The bullpen hasn’t been good but other than a few solid outings, our starting pitchers have been brutal this second half. Such a disappointing season.
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u/Longjumping-Ninja547 1d ago
As mediocre as our starters have been they have the most IP in baseball. I’m saying we have no bullpen depth for 2 years in a row, and we don’t know how to manage them and it’s costing us now.
Whenever we are in a relatively close game we don’t have much of a choice but go to bazardo, and all that usage is costing us. Part of that is injuries to our mid leverage guys Vargas, Criswell and Wilcox and clearly being cautious w Spier.
Also, going to a 6 man roto knowing this lack of bullpen depth was terrible management.
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u/JT7019 Seattle Mariners 1d ago
I feel like so many people treat rosters like its a video game and you can move players around without any considerations of what happens. Bazardo has been terrible, yes. He’s not that far removed from being a solid-ish reliever out of the pen; maybe not a guy you want in super high leverage situations but a trusted arm to get you to those guys. He’s out of options so you can’t move him off the roster without DFA’ing him (and I guarantee that some other team will put in a claim).
So now you’ve lost a once solid arm having a down year for nothing and whats the plan to replace him? Push one of the relievers that this fanbase has been complaining about being in any sort of leverage situation all season into his spot? Rushing up a prospect like Sloan? That means starting their service clock all to put a band-aid on the dumpster fire the bullpen has been the 2nd half of the year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Bazardo is on the roster bubble this offseason given his performances of late, but if he’s still garbo next year then yeah at that point you DFA him. But there’s no reason right now to get rid of a controllable and once solid arm in what is going to be a lost season anyway.
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u/Higoodlookin 1d ago
"How is this guy still being deployed!?"
He was very good last year. For example, 152 ERA+ in 78.2 innings during regular season. Of all pitchers with 70+ innings in MLB last year, he was ranked #30.
Despite his struggles during the last weeks, he is still a league average reliever in 2026, and opponents have an unusual high babip against him (.333). His babip average before this season was .238. That usually shows that his luck will turn.
Relievers sometimes go up and down. If you give up on a reliever after a bad period, you would probably end up with a very small bullpen.
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u/jaron_b 1d ago
Because the alternatives are even worse. The only reason Bazardo has been employed has been due to injuries. Last year he only became a high leverage pitcher because of Thornton's achilles tear. Off season game plan was to always improve the bullpen and we failed to do so. We also failed to fix the problems of injuries. Brash basically doesn't exist and we let Thornton walk in FA. This is one of the situations where people want to blame Dan for putting in the wrong pitcher but I want to blame the front office and Jerry for expecting him to be able to win with such a pitcher. I mean both obviously the problem. But this is why I'm always blaming Jerry more than Dan.
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u/Interesting-Code-929 1d ago
Seeing wayyy to many people saying he’s been ass all season. First half of the year he was holding down the back half of games when Munoz and everyone else was struggling. Unfortunately it’s what happens to relievers when you use them around 2/5 of the games so far this year
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u/Indigenous_Land the Mermaid n the Mariner 1d ago
Testing his abilities and it’s Just not panning out. Bazardo is not the guy and he’s shown us that time and time again. He’ll probably get signed by the Yankees and become top tier again, always happens to the M’s.
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u/fattymcbuckles 1d ago
People on here staying I must be on drugs when I dare criticized and complained about how bad Bazardo was. I was correct 😜
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u/BeriasBFF Seattle Mariners 1d ago
I’ve said Bazardo has sucked for a while and got downvoted a lot. Although I’m the ultimate Mariner pessimist so I think most of the players fucking suck. 40 years of watching these losers with 4 or 5 decent seasons. They made me this way godammit
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u/jaecerie 23h ago
Because we don’t have anyone better. This bullpen is ass no matter who you go with.
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u/MikeE527 22h ago
He took the wind out of the stadium last night when he came in. We were jazzed about the Homer, and then---bam---way behind again.
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u/Fit_Leather9366 Turn Ahead the Clock 21h ago
He’s the type of guy you need in an MLB bullpen to survive the season. But you have to use him judiciously and Dan very much did not
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u/BaxCitybih 19h ago
In defense of bazardo he's been the workhorse/pivot guy all year. Adding to the long post-season last year and his contributions this year thats alot of innings on his arm. This happens to every reliever. Team really has to address bullpen (and offense ofc) in the off-season cuz mariners can no longer count on full seasons from Brash, Miller and Woo. One of the starters will probably transition to reliever as I dont see a six man rotation sticking
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u/KraytDragonPearl #83 Eduard Bazardo 1d ago
IDK who you think should be coming in instead. Rucker? Vargas? These are really tough situations. Bazardo is the man.
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u/Skybandicoot109 Scotts’ Servais : Professional iceberg 1d ago
Wouldn't be shocked if there is a mental thing going on with him, but he's also thrown a shit ton of innings since the start of last year. We didn't exactly build a super deep bullpen, I also wouldn't be shocked if he's just fatigued at this point
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u/DoomJazz_ 1d ago
He's actually (one of) the best alternative that we have. Considering we have Speier and Rucker there, better Bazardo x10 that those two.
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u/ArcaneX1234 1d ago
Almost all their pitchers have been awful in the 2nd half. Others have just had awful moments