FINAL GRADES: Andres Munoz Cemented His Status As Seattle Mariners Premiere Reliever

The Seattle Mariners starting rotation was arguably the best in all of baseball.

The bullpen wasn't quite to that level.

The Mariners' relievers were already somewhat depleted entering the season. Matt Brash was out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Gregory Santos started the season on the 15-day injured list and was transferred to the 60-day IL with a right lat strain. He didn't make his season debut until July 8. He went on the IL for the second time last season on Aug. 1 and wasn't activated until Sept. 23.

The injuries weren't the bullpen's only problem.

The Seattle offense often times struggled to take decent leads in games where their starting pitchers put together quality starts.

This led to games either being tied or the Mariners leading by the thinnest of margins when it came time for relievers to take the mound.

That resulted in a lot of blown saves and losses attributed to the bullpen.

But one reliever that didn't seem to have too much of a problem was Andres Munoz.

The fifth-year hurler was named to his first All-Star Game in 2024 and recorded career-bests in ERA, strikeouts, opposing batting average and WHIP.

He also cemented his role as Seattle's undisputed closer. And based on how 2024 went, Munoz isn't stopping anytime soon.

Andres Munoz by the numbers

Pitching stats: 2.12 ERA, 60 appearances, 3-7 record, 59.1 innings pitched, 77 strikeouts, 0.96 WHIP, 22 saves, .153 opp. BA, 2.0 WAR

Advanced pitching stats: 2.92 xERA, .180 xBA, 33.2% Chase, 39.8% Whiff, 2.75 FIP, 12.38 K/9, 77.2% LOB

What I liked

Looking at Munoz's numbers on Baseball Savant, there's a whole lot of red. And when it comes to that page, that's a good thing.

Munoz ranked in the 90th percentile or better in 8-of-12 pitching statistics on the website. The only four categories he didn't rank in among the elite 10% of pitchers in was walk percentage, barrel percentage, hard-hit percentage and extension.

Munoz ranked in the 87th percentile of MLB pitchers in hard-hit rate.

There was no doubt over who the last line of defense was in the bullpen. And that was something that was desperately needed for the Mariners.

Aside from Collin Snider, who also had a career year, there wasn't much consistency when it came to who came out of the bullpen.

Trent Thornton, Austin Voth and Tayler Saucedo were often the go-to arms when starters received early pulls or the team was in low-leverage situations. Outside of those hurlers, Seattle tested several different arms before settling on rookie call-up Troy Taylor as the last high-leverage reliever with Snider and Munoz.

Munoz's consistency in the closer role gave the Mariners one less thing to worry about while figuring out its bullpen.

Munoz has a three-pitch arsenal including a four-seam fastball that touches over 100 miles per hour. He also has a slider and a sinker that both generated at least a 45% whiff rate.

Munoz is capable of getting hitters to bite on his breaking throws or blow past a batter with his high-velocity hitter.

Even with just three pitches, he does everything you want a closer to do.