Wilson visits the mound
I wrote yesterday that Dan Wilson makes me feel uneasy.
While there haven't been any indefensible bullpen moves, the levers he's pulled haven't filled me with confidence.
It's relevant again, not 24 hours later, after Monday night's win over the Astros.
If you didn't see the game, the Mariners were up 2-1 in the top of the 8th. Wilson called on Gregory Santos, who gave up a single, a sac bunt, a wild pitch, a walk, and a stolen base. Santos didnât seem to have it. He then gave up a lineout to Julio in center, who made an exceptional throw home to keep the runner at third.
Two outs. Second and third. One run game. Wilson leaves the dugout.
Now, on the broadcast, they'd been showing Gabe Speier warming up for a while. And with Yordan Alvarez coming to the plate, it seemed Wilson was going for the left-on-left matchup. ROOT showed Speier entering the field as they cut to commercial. I didn't think twice about it.
But we came out of commercial with Santos still on the mound, Alvarez on first, and an indignant Aaron Goldsmith trying to describe what happened. They showed Wilson come out of the dugout, not signal anything to the bullpen, talk to his congregate, and go back to the dugout. And then they showed a clip of Speier running back to the bullpen, past an incredulous bullpen gate attendant.
Here's a little super cut of the event (the shots are not in order as they appeared on ROOT, but in chronological order):
I didn't get the audio, but one subplot here is Goldsmith was really quite emphatic in expressing his confusion with the ordeal. The broadcast has been unusually comfortable criticizing Wilson this year, which doesn't move me in any way, other than it's a dynamic I don't fully understand.
Regardless, Wilson set up Santos to face Christian Walker with the bases loaded. He got Walker to groundout, but Dylan Moore errored and the Astros took the lead. Santos ended the inning for real by getting Jeremy Peña to groundout (to Moore, of course).
It was an awkward moment, but I don't know if it was indefensible decision. The options that appeared to exist were:
- Do nothing (Santos vs Alvarez)
- Intentional walk (Santos vs Walker w/ bases loaded)
- Left-on-left (Speier vs Alvarez)
- Left-on-right (Speier vs Walker w/ bases loaded)
I think option 1 is the worst by far, but the others are each arguably defensible. While I didn't second guess option 3 when it seemed to be happening, I also won't ever blame the Mariners for not pitching to Alvarez. I'd probably lean in favor of what Wilson did in the moment, given the options that seemed to exist, but I also see why you wouldn't want to load the bases with Santos struggling with command.
Here's how MLB.com described the event after the game:
Speier said in passing that he was told to âbe ready for Yordan,â while Wilson said that the decision wasnât fully made until a roughly 15-second mound visit with Santos, catcher Cal Raleigh and the entire infield.
âWe were thinking about it, and when we went out there and thought about it a little bit more, I think the decision was pretty clear,â Wilson said. âAnd [Santos] gets the ball on the ground, and that's what he does. And that's what we were hoping for.
"I think with Alvarez there, the thinking was we had first base open. Let's put him on and go after Walker. And again, Santos made a good pitch, got the ground ball and that's all you can ask in that situation. And unfortunately, we didn't get the out."
Again, I think that's fine.
Of course, the actual correct decision evaded me until hours after the game when I was no longer transfixed on the chaos as described by Goldsmith -- bring in Andrés Muñoz to face whoever he damn well pleases. Not only did they not do this, it didn't appear to be a choice. It was the highest leverage plate appearance of the game, and one of the most important spots of the year thus far. It's THE spot for your best reliever when available.
But as I wrote the other day, Muñoz wasn't available because he isn't a reliever -- he's a closer now. I'm not sure why, as Muñoz has proven exceedingly effective in the exact situation presented in Monday's game, and Wilson didn't limit Muñoz to the ninth after taking over last year. But that's apparently the plan for now.
So it's a weird situation where I actually think Wilson deserves a bit of credit for executing his game plan correctly, even if it was made awkward by some level of miscommunication or indecisiveness (which maybe I wouldn't have noticed at all had Goldsmith not spent 10 minutes talking excitedly about it).
But I also think it should be noted that Wilson's game plan is wrong.
None of it ultimately mattered as the Mariners came back in the bottom half of the inning. But even that was nearly frustrated by J.P. Crawford giving away an out with a sac bunt, presumably at the direction of Wilson. Crawford has one of the best eyes in baseball, a nearly 25% walk rate, and was in a 2-0 count. I can't imagine the odds of him getting a sac bunt down there were better than him drawing a walk or getting a hit or moving the runners over another way.
Still, it worked out. Crawford got the bunt down, Jorge Polanco came through with a big hit, and Wilson brought Muñoz in the for the save. Mariners win.
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