Seattle Mariners’ Season Goes from Bad to Worse

In addition to losing their game on Tuesday by a score of 19-9, the Seattle Mariners may have lost Felix Hernandez and Mitch Haniger to injuries.

After losing eight of their first 10 games, the Seattle Mariners appeared to right the ship when they won five of their next six games. They were 7-9 and 3.5 games out of of first place as they embarked on a three-city, 10-game road trip. Then they lost three straight in Oakland before bouncing back on Sunday with a victory. Heading to Detroit for three games, they were 8-12 and 5.5 games out of first.

Then came Tuesday’s game. The Mariners scored two runs in the top of the first inning on singles by Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger, a sacrifice fly by Nelson Cruz, and an RBI-single by Taylor Motter. Segura, Haniger, and Motter were all offseason acquisitions by Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto. Haniger and Motter have been among the Mariners’ best hitters in the early going and Segura was just coming back from a DL stint. It was a nice start to a game that featured the longtime ace of the Mariners, Felix Hernandez. Things were looking up.

Then it all fell apart. Hernandez was knocked around for six hits and four runs in two innings and left the game after 48 pitches. In the top half of the third inning, Mitch Haniger singled to center. After diving back to first base on a pickoff throw, he came up wincing in pain and was replaced by Danny Valencia. This series of events could deal a big blow to the team’s already dwindling playoff hopes.

After the game, Jon Morosi tweeted about Felix Hernandez, saying, “He experienced shoulder tightness and ‘dead arm’ tonight, per Scott Servais.” Hernandez will be examined on Wednesday by team doctors. It was also revealed that Mitch Haniger was diagnosed with a strained right oblique. He will travel with Hernandez to Seattle to get checked out. To top off the trifecta of horrors, the Mariners were destroyed by the Tigers, 19-9, with their pitching staff allowing 24 hits and seven walks. In the fifth inning alone, the Mariners allowed nine runs as 13 batters came to the plate.

The blowout loss drops the Mariners to 8-13 and 6.5 games out of first in the AL West. It also makes them 2-10 away from home this season, with four games left on their current road trip. As bad as it was to lose 19-9, if the team is without Hernandez and Haniger for an extended stretch of time, their playoff hopes will be on life support.

Even before leaving Tuesday’s game, Hernandez hadn’t been himself for some time. The King Felix that Seattle fans have grown to love was a workhorse from 2007 to 2015, when he averaged 221 innings and 32 starts per year, with a 3.00 ERA and a 3.15 FIP (FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, which estimates a pitcher’s ERA based on his strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed, which are the three things a pitcher has the most control over).

Looking back, there were some warning signs that the 2,060 innings Hernandez pitched in his first 10 years were starting to take their toll by the 2015 season. He won 18 games that year, but his ERA jumped from 2.14 the previous season to 3.53 (and his FIP was 3.72). His strikeout rate dropped from 27.2 percent to 23.1 percent and he allowed more than a home run per nine innings for the first time since 2006. The three things a pitcher controls the most are strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed and Hernandez was getting a bit worse in two of the three.

Last year saw an even bigger decline. Hernandez was limited to 25 starts and 153 1/3 innings because of a strained calf. He saw his ERA rise to 3.82, with a 4.63 FIP. His strikeout rate dropped another 4.5 percent and he again allowed more than a home run per nine innings. It was evident that King Felix didn’t have the “stuff” he once had. The pitcher whose fastball used to average more than 95 mph was now averaging just over 90 mph. He was also striking out fewer batters than he ever had and allowing home runs at a higher rate than at any time since he was wet behind the years back in the mid-2000s.

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This year’s version of Felix Hernandez was still pitching with a diminished fastball and strikeout rate. He started the year by allowing just one walk in his first four starts before Tuesday’s game, but it came at the expense of allowing five home runs. He walked two hitters in two innings on Tuesday and allowed his sixth home run of the season. It really isn’t that surprising that Hernandez is having his shoulder examined. The warning signs have been there for a couple years now. He’s either injured or this is age-related decline. Neither option is going to bring back the old Felix Hernandez.

Mariner fans will have to wait and see what the team doctors say about Hernandez’ shoulder, but it doesn’t look good. Even if he’s cleared medically, which seems unlikely, he is no longer the ace he once was. If and when he is healthy, Hernandez will have to make some mid-career adjustments to continue to be an effective pitcher going forward. The Mariners are hoping he’ll make those adjustments because he’s still owed more than $75 million over the next three seasons.

Coming into Tuesday’s game, Mitch Haniger was one of the bright spots on a struggling team. The Mariners picked up Haniger in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The headliners in the deal were Jean Segura coming to Seattle and Taijuan Walker going to Arizona, but Haniger has been a key part of the deal for the Mariners. Through his first 20 games he was hitting .321/.430/.590 (batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage), with 19 runs scored and 16 RBI.

According to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, Haniger admitted after the game that his oblique has been sore the last few days. When he singled up the middle in the third inning, the pain was evident. After he dove back to first on a pickoff throw, he grabbed his side and the trainer went out and he was removed from the game. The Mariners are hoping it’s just a temporary setback but won’t know until he’s examined by team doctors in Seattle. Typically, oblique injuries can sideline a player for a month or two.

The timing of Haniger’s injury couldn’t be worse for the Mariners because the team recently designated outfielder Leonys Martin for assignment and are thin at the position. Ben Gamel was already coming up from the minor leagues as an extra bench player and will be with the team on Wednesday, but losing Haniger really weakens the team’s hitting production from the outfield positions. Fans have to wonder if Jerry DiPoto will look to the trade market to help the team if Haniger is out for a significant length of time.

The team’s playoff hopes have already taken a significant hit with their early struggles. Before the season began, the Mariners looked like strong Wild Card contenders. FanGraphs, for example, had the Mariners within a game of the second Wild Card spot and just eight games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West. Now, after starting the year 8-13, the Mariners are projected by FanGraphs to finish 13 games behind the Astros and eight teams are ahead of them in the hunt for the two Wild Card spots. That’s before the potential injuries to Felix Hernandez and Mitch Haniger are factored in.

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Tuesday was a rough day for the Mariners. They were blown out by the Tigers and lost two key players to injuries. They continued their season-long struggles on the road and dropped into last place in the AL West. On the bright side, they did bust out 16 hits and scored nine runs and there are still 141 games left in the season. Mariner fans have a long history of being hopeful that the team can turn things around and get back to the playoffs, where they haven’t been since 2001. It looks like 2017 is another one of those seasons where hope will have to be the prevailing emotion.