:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66272220/319462.jpg.0.jpg)
In the biggest Mariner news of the week, the team has locked up Marco Gonzales with a four-year contract extension. Gonzales will enter the 2020 season with 70 Mariner starts under his belt, and given a clean bill of health, should reach 90 by the end of the year. If he can do that, Gonzales will be the 23rd person to reach that number with Seattle.
A fun thing about being a pitcher is that you don’t necessarily have to be that good for them to let you keep doing it. As the old adage goes, “Someone’s gotta throw these innings”. Unlike the field positions, which can sometimes be plugged up by someone who’s horribly unqualified for the spot, pitchers possess a singular skill that the standard utility man does not. At any given time, there are only 150 MLB starting pitching jobs available, and like NFL quarterbacks, that is a higher number than the actual people who can do the job effectively.
This is the John Halama origin story, who just missed the cutoff by, mercifully, making just 81 starts in his Seattle career. See if you can pin down the 22 most frequent starters in a Mairner uniform.