It wasn’t unanimous, but it was close. The voters say it was the right time for King Felix to get the hook.
This week’s Seattle Sidelines poll concerned longtime Seattle Mariners ace pitcher Felix Hernandez. For 14 years Hernandez was the lynchpin of the Mariners’ starting rotation. However, his effectiveness has dissipated the past three years, and after a start on Aug. 7 in which he surrendered 11 runs in six innings to see his ERA jump to 5.73, Seattle manager Scott Servais made the difficult decision to banish Hernandez to the bullpen.
Therefore, this week the readers were asked whether the decision to remove the franchise icon from the rotation for the first time in Hernandez’s major-league career was the right one. Here’s how you voted:
POLL: Did the Mariners make the right call in sending Felix Hernandez to the bullpen? Full context, including a look at Hernandez’s Mariners career, here: https://t.co/cvj7pIlbN9
— Nick Patterson (@NickHPatterson) August 13, 2018
Add the two together and a whopping 91 percent of the voters agreed that it was time to remove Hernandez from the rotation, with just 9 percent believing he should stay.
I can’t say this is a surprising result. Anyone who’s been paying close attention the past three years has seen Hernandez’s decline and subsequent passing by James Paxton as the rotation stopper. A quick perusal of Hernandez’s page on FanGraphs.com shows a steady decline in his fastball velocity since making his debut in 2005, along with sudden drops in FIP, Wins Above Replacement and strikeout rate since 2015. One can make the argument that Hernandez was given an extra long leash by the Mariners specifically because of his historical contributions to the team. Just about everyone I talked to about the subject agreed that it was time for Hernandez be pulled from the rotation.
But that doesn’t make the move any less jarring. Hernandez holds a special place in the hearts of Mariner fans because during this 16-year playoff drought he was often the only thing worth celebrating about the M’s. Seattle would be in the dog days of August, far out of playoff contention, yet fans would still get jazzed on the days Felix started. The King’s Court at Safeco Field would still be jam packed with fans wearing yellow t-shirts and waving “K” cards. It’s tough seeing a franchise icon break down, and no one I talked to felt good about saying Hernandez should be yanked from the rotation.
However, Hernandez’s stint in the bullpen may not last long. Paxton had to be placed on the 10-day disabled list after being smacked on the forearm by a line drive in the first inning of Tuesday’s start at Oakland. Hernandez, making his first career relief appearance, replaced Paxton and pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up just two runs in the process. Paxton will be unavailable for at least one start, and Servais has yet to announce who will fill in. But it seems there’s a good chance Hernandez will get the call. So Felix’s stint in the bullpen may prove a short one.
If that happens, I suspect Mariner fans are more likely to be sitting nervously on tenterhooks rather than jumping excitedly in anticipation when Hernandez gets two strikes on a batter. Based on this poll, they’d rather not see Hernandez in the rotation at this stage of his career.
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