The Seattle Mariners are taking a significant step with top pitching prospect Logan Evans, who recently made the Baseball America Top 100 prospect list. Evans is being assigned to the bullpen at Double-A Arkansas, with the intention of promoting him to the major league bullpen soon.
Per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times: Logan Evans received an unexpected call last week from Jerry Dipoto, who laid out a plan to move the 2023 12th-round pick to the Mariners bullpen — possibly before the All-Star break. There’s a reasonable chance the Mariners’ bullpen will add Evans and Gregory Santos for a second-half push…
It’s been a quick and meteoric rise for Evans, who was just drafted last season as mentioned above.
Evans is 6-2 this year at Double-A with a 1.18 ERA. He’s struck out 48 batters in 53.1 innings.
A few things are at play here:
1) The Mariners need bullpen help: As the Mariners chase another playoff berth this year, and possibly the organization’s first World Series crown, they need more arms in the bullpen. With Matt Brash out for the season and Santos having not thrown yet this year for the team, the bullpen is a bit wobbly – and that’s before Andres Munoz’s troublesome back injury. If the team can upgrade the pen without having to spend money or prospect capital to do it, it makes sense.
2) It will limit Evans’s innings: This decision also will help keep Evans fresh in the long run. The 23-year-old only threw 15.0 professional innings in 2023 and has already thrown 53.1 this year. Going to the bullpen will allow him to pitch, while not running him completely into the ground.
3) The M’s have done this before: The team moved Matt Brash from the starting rotation to the bullpen in 2022 and before that, they moved Edwin Diaz from the rotation to the bullpen in the minor leagues. Jerry Dipoto and Co. have executed this playbook before. Brash and Diaz both became elite relievers once the switch was made – although Evans still likely profiles as a starter moving forward.
The following comes from a portion of Evans’s MLB.com prospect profile:
…as the Mariners have uncovered with much of their pitching pipeline, some of the underlying stuff stood out, particularly with elite extension that he leverages from his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame. Primarily a two-seam guy, Evans sits in the 93-94 mph range with his fastball. He pairs it with a slider that can consistently miss bats — particularly against lefties — and a cutter that’s been a weapon to righties.
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