PEORIA, Ariz. — It wasn’t until the last few weeks of spring training in 2017 where the premise of the projected starting rotation was thrown into chaos by the “soggy” left arm of Drew Smyly.
And that expected group of five starters were never once together during the regular season. Heck, at times, the Mariners only had one of the five not injured — Yovani Gallardo — and he was their worst performer.
The Mariners made it exactly three days into camp before their expected rotation needed editing when Erasmo Ramirez started feeling tightness in his latissimus dorsi (lat muscle) and was shut down from throwing for two weeks.