Mariners have reportedly reached an agreement with RHP Ken Giles on a multi-year deal

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Seattle really must be hell as it is currently frozen and the Mariners have spent some money this off season. Not so fast! It’s not money that will really make the team better this season, if that’s what you thought. Take a step back as we’ve entered a #ShannonScoop:

As staff member Zach pointed out, this is the ‘no, not so’ meme that comes to life as fans have been begging the Mariners to spend this off season, so they did … on someone who can’t pitch until 2022. For in case you forgot, here’s Ken Giles’ career path:

  • 2014: breaks into MLB with the Phillies, the team that drafted him;
  • 2015: Traded to the Astros for Vince Velazquez and a bag of old cell phone chargers;
  • 2016-17: First struggles before becoming fully Astro-ized in 2017. You will likely remember Giles for hits like “except for one game, don’t allow a single run to the Seattle Mariners in 2016” or “strikeouts 19 Mariners in 10 innings in 2017. “Coming up Ken Giles was the most unpleasant sight you could see watching the Mariners play the Astros – at least until 2018.
  • Sadly, Giles was pretty disastrous in the 2017 postseason and then struggled again in 2018, leading to the infamous face-punching incident. (The incident itself is pretty prosaic; what Patrick Dubuque wrote about it for Baseball Prospectus is poetry. Read it.)
  • That sparked a trade to the Blue Jays, when the Astros decided to lean in their heels entirely and trade for closer Roberto Osuna, no longer welcome to Toronto after being accused of domestic violence, but apparently more than welcome to Houston.
  • Giles was very good for the Blue Jays in 2019, and then less well in 2020, due to a nagging elbow infection that started in 2019 and continued into 2020, which eventually forced Tommy John surgery in late September.
  • And now he is a Mariner.

All this aside, this is actually a pretty nice signing, if you’re willing to be patient. When healthy, “Hundred Miles Giles” was just as horribly effective as a Neti pot, as any 2016-17 Mariners hitter could attest. Look at this spicy meatball from a Savant page and remember, that’s while pitching through arm discomfort in 2019:

Here’s Giles making Haniger smell like a three-digit cheddar:

Perhaps signing Giles is a way to convince Kyle Seager to stick around for another year in 2022, or at least not join an AL West rival, as Seager is responsible for at least four of Giles’ strikeouts against the Mariners all by themselves:

And despite being a member of the despicable Astros, Giles said the right things after leaving the organization, including offering to return his World Series ring if asked. After his trade for the Blue Jays, Giles told the Toronto Star:

I actually enjoy the game more than I have in my entire Houston tenure. It’s kind of strange to say that, because I won a World Series with that team. But it’s like I just felt trapped there. I didn’t feel like myself there. Overall, I felt out of place. “

So overall, there’s a ton of fun about this signing, even though this is a fun toy Mariners fans will have to wait a year to see. Also, the traditional caveats about TJ’s recovery apply as not all roads are smooth again and Giles is on the first part of a long and boring road. Perhaps the Mariners can connect him with fellow TJ warriors Andrés Muñoz and Matt Magill at the complex. In addition, it is encouraging that the team is already investing – if only minimally – in the team for 2022. However, it would be nice to see some more investment in the 2021 team, especially as reminders for buying season tickets in the inbox of people begin to appear.

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