I hate to say I told you so, because I’m not sure I actually told you so, and also because people who say I told you so are really obnoxious and being obnoxious will only cost me valuable Twitter followers.
So instead I’ll just say that if I were the sort of person who says I told you so, I probably would say I told you so about Chris Young. Two weeks ago, the Mariners’ veteran righty was 12-6 with a 3.07 ERA and might have been the most surprising player in the American League. In his next two starts, though, he gave up eight runs in just 4⅓ innings. With most guys, that would have been considered a blip. But apparently the Mariners don’t trust Young much. As Bob Dutton writes, though, they’ve decided to stick with him:
Young is coming off two poor starts that suggested he might be showing fatigue from a workload that already exceeds what he’s done in every year since 2007.
McClendon made the decision after observing Young’s between-starts bullpen workout Wednesday in Oakland.
”The ball came out good,” McClendon said. “He’s healthy. We had a conversation today, and he’s ready to go. It was a combination of what I saw and what we talked about.”
Young might pitch three straight shutouts to finish his Comeback Player of the Year campaign and propel the Mariners to the postseason. That would be a tremendous story, and one can hardly blame management for sticking with him. After all, Young is 12-7 with a 3.46 ERA.
But his first five months have been something of a mirage, no? Based purely on his strikeouts and walks and home runs allowed, we would expect an ERA right around 5. Granted, Young might be a special sort of pitcher. You might look at his .236 BABiP allowed and assume that he’s been ridiculously lucky ... except his career mark is just .251 over more than a thousand innings, so maybe it’s not all luck.
Gotta be some luck, though. There’s just no great reason to think that Chris Young completely breaks the model.
But what else are they going to do? Chris Young, when healthy, is a perfectly decent No. 5 starter, especially if you believe in his magical BABiP. The Mariners’ other options are Erasmo Ramirez and Taijuan Walker, and neither has done anything in the majors to earn a rotation slot down the stretch.
