Troy Taylor, Matt Brash near return for Mariners to join high-octane bullpen

Bullpen reinforcements are on on-track for an April arrival

The Mariners managed a split in their series with Oakland, eking out a pair of wins thanks to some late home run heroics and two lockdown saves from Andrés Muñoz. Muñoz was the team’s horse last year, converting 22 of his 27 save opportunities and appearing in 60 games, taking on the mantle of closer after injuries to other leverage arms in the ‘pen. One series into the season, Muñoz is already doing a lot of the heavy lifting again for the Mariners, but he should have reinforcements soon to handle other high-leverage innings, as Matt Brash and Troy Taylor near returns from injuries that held them out of spring training. Both were at the ballpark today, working out with team trainers in preparation for the next step in their rehab processes: facing opposing hitters.

Muñoz has already seen his load lightened some with late-inning power arm Gregory Santos finally healthy after struggling with a lat issue last season, but Santos merely takes the place of Troy Taylor, who ascended from Double-A to take on high-leverage innings last season and impressed with his powerful sinker-sweeper arsenal. But Taylor, who had about 30 innings at Double-A before coming up to the bigs, suffered a lat strain towards the end of the season and missed all of spring training. Thankfully, Taylor made a smooth recovery, throwing nearly full-effort bullpens and facing live hitters by the end of the spring; he’ll now head out on a rehab assignment to one of the local affiliates in the next few weeks.

Matt Brash, who missed all of last season, has had a longer road recovering from Tommy John surgery, but he too is nearing a return. Brash threw bullpens and live BP in Arizona, and was even able to get into a game at the very end of spring training.

“He was just tickled to be out there,” said manager Dan Wilson. “And it was great to go take the ball from him and see him smile as big as he did. You can’t underestimate the amount of work and patience it takes when you come back from an injury like that.”

One person who definitely doesn’t underestimate the grind of rehab: Andrés Muñoz, who had a long (two-year) return from Tommy John surgery himself.

“I was hurt before. I know how that feels,” said Muñoz. “I try to support them, because I know how that feels and it doesn’t feel good at all. So obviously, I always talk to them and tell them, hey, if you have any questions, this already happened to me, so like, any weird things you’re going to feel, just talk to me. And that is going to feel good, too, for them.”

Both Brash and Taylor seemed delighted to be out of Arizona and back at the park, exchanging hellos, hugs and high-fives with their teammates, along with a bit of good-natured ribbing.

“It’s always good to have members of your family back in the fold here for a little bit,” said Wilson. “Good to see their faces, good to see the progress they’ve made.”

“To be able to be around here and stay with the team is really good, especially with helping you keep the right mentality. That is really important,” said Muñoz.

As exciting as it is to imagine the Mariners bullpen at full strength, manager Dan Wilson says the organization will make sure each player is fully healthy before they’re activated.

“We’re not trying to rush them,” said Wilson. “We definitely want them to be ready to go when they get back, and we’ll just assess as we go, how it all looks at the time. We want to give these guys the opportunity to get healthy and be ready to go when they get back here.”

And for Muñoz, always one to share credit, he’s quick to point out the bullpen as a unit has been doing just fine so far.

“The people who are here now are here for a reason. Everybody is important for the bullpen. Obviously with Brash and Taylor coming back, that would be a huge help for us. It’s good that they are coming back, but we have a really good group.”