Since Dan Altavilla first came on everyone’s radar in 2016, he’s never been what you’d call a slouch. Drafted by the Mariners in the fifth round of the 2014 MLB Draft, Altavilla took a fairly quick path through the minors: he started in Everett, skipped straight to High-A Bakersfield in 2015, and reached Double-A Jackson by 2016.
That same year, the Mariners did with Dan what they’d just done with another promising starter in Jackson — they turned him into a reliever. The other promising former starter was, of course, Edwin Díaz. With a fastball that often touches the high 90’s Altavilla’s velocity has always rivaled that of Díaz, and the Mariners saw something in him that caused them to try the same experiment.