The Seattle Mariners remained busy on Wednesday, as general manager Jerry Dipoto continued his wheeling and dealing. Not even an hour after he traded propsects Luiz Gohara and Thomas Burrows to the Atlanta Braves for center fielder Mallex Smith. Now Dipoto has flipped Smith to the Tampa Bay Rays along with Ryan Yarbrough and Carlos Vargas for lefty pitcher Drew Smyly.
The 27-year-old Smyly comes off a disappointing 2016 season where he had a 4.88 ERA and a 4.49 FIP across 30 starts. Smyly showed he could certainly miss bats last season with 167 strikeouts across 175 1/3 innings, but the greater problem for him was the long ball.
In those 30 starts, Smyly allowed 32 home runs, with an even split between home runs allowed on the road and at home. What makes it more concerning is that it was largely result of Smyly being a fly ball pitcher and had a significant number of balls coming off the bat being in the air with a near 50 percent fly ball percentage. So while his HR/FB rate of 12.7 percent may not be abnormally high, it was just an indicator of how many fly balls he allowed.
There's certainly reason for Seattle to make this move though. Smyly is a young left-handed pitcher under team control with arbitration for the next two seasons. His 3.41 K/BB ratio last season and career 3.43 rate would be amongst the top-25 amongst qualified pitchers from last season and we saw a very talented pitcher last season. In 2015, Smyly kept his ERA and FIP way down with a 3.11 ERA and 3.91 FIP, he also had 77 strikeouts across those 66 2/3 innings in limited action last year.
Smyly should certainly be on the fantasy radar as his home run problems will receive some support from Safeco Field. In addition, the Mariners have compiled a very fast outfield core that has demonstrated great range and defense in their careers.
The Mariners rotation seems set for now with Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, James Paxton, Smyly and Yovani Gallardo.