SEATTLE -- Emerson Hancock's move to the bullpen at Triple-A Tacoma has featured a scheduled regiment deliberately outlined to reduce his days of rest between each outing, in an effort to get him acclimated to a role he’s never held before. So, the right-hander knew that he would pitch again on Wednesday.
Yet, with the Mariners needing a bullpen reinforcement -- and one they hope can miss bats -- the club opted to continue Hancock’s transition at the big league level.
After just two relief appearances for Tacoma, Hancock was recalled before Wednesday’s series finale vs. the Padres at T-Mobile Park and inserted among Seattle’s relief corps. In a corresponding move, low-leverage reliever Sauryn Lao was optioned to Tacoma.
“When you think about it, you're doing the same thing, it's just a different way of getting there,” Hancock said. “And so it's like, what do I need to figure out in terms of a daily workload? How many [pitches] do I need to get hot? And when I go in there, it's just throw it as hard as we can and see what happens.”
Hancock made his first relief outing last Wednesday, then his second appearance four days later on Sunday. Seattle’s series finale vs. San Diego landed three days after that, a by-design effort to truncate the time in between -- and a hint to how his usage could be used in the coming days before the club embarks on another three-city, East Coast road trip.
And because Hancock was stretched out to four innings as recently as Aug. 15, it’s possible that he could be an option to pitch more than just one inning.
“You're not afraid to do that, for sure,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “But also, we want to get him acclimated, as that is his role here, in the bullpen and we don't want to confuse it. But we can definitely get some length out of him when needed.”
Hancock pitched one inning apiece out of the bullpen at Tacoma, in the seventh inning his first time out, when he surrendered one run on two hits with one strikeout and one walk. His four-seam fastball topped out at 97.8 mph and averaged 97.4 mph, a sizable 2.7 mph uptick from his season average.
Hancock then pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning on Sunday with one strikeout and saw an even greater uptick, topping out at 99.1 mph and averaging 98.5 mph on the four-seamer. He obviously uses his sinker more regularly, and that pitch also climbed mightily.
“It felt good,” Hancock said. “I mean, just everything, it feels like it's kind of peaking at the right time. And the body feels good. It's bouncing back quick.”
Though he won’t necessarily need to lean on his secondaries as much in relief, Hancock still intends to.
“I know what my strengths are,” Hancock said, “and we're going to use those as much as possible. But I think having any extra pitch that you can have in the bag can certainly help.”
The Mariners could use another effective arm, as their bullpen entered Wednesday with a 4.45 ERA since the July 31 Trade Deadline. Seattle had hoped to add at least another leverage reliever at that time, but came up short in the sweepstakes for the biggest names moved, in large part due to the high asking prices.
Hancock has been at Tacoma since July 2, after making 14 straight starts within the Mariners’ rotation, over which he compiled a 4.81 ERA with a 16.3% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate and a .777 OPS against. He’d shown flashes of consistency, with five quality starts, but also was susceptible to uneven outings. And as the rotation got healthier, he became the odd man out.
“It's so good to be back with the team,” Hancock said. “It's so good to be back with this club, and just, whatever role I've got, I just want to do the best that I can and do everything I can to help us win.”