James Pazos

Quietly acquired from the Yankees last offseason, Pazos is a power lefty who averages over 95 mph with his fastball. That pitch gets good downward movement, resulting in a relatively high groundball rate (51.0 percent last season). The slider is Pazos' swing-and-miss pitch -- according to Brooks Baseball, opposing hitters came up empty nearly half the time they swung at his slider in 2017 (46.5 percent whiff rate on 280 sliders thrown). Overall, Pazos had a 27.1 strikeout percentage and 12.2 percent swinging-strike rate. The strikeouts and groundballs helped Pazos overcome his walk issues for the most part (4.0 BB/9). He held lefties to a .255 wOBA and enters 2018 as one of the team's top left-handed relief arms alongside Marc Rzepczynski. A specialist's role is conducive to compiling holds, but not so much for generating useful numbers in standard-scoring formats.

Pazos had a breakout 2015 season in the minors and impressed in a small sample size in the majors that year, but a poor spring training showing sent him back to the minors to open up 2016. The lefty was impressive at Triple-A yet again, striking out 41 over just 27.1 innings while posting a 2.63 ERA. Though he's always had high strikeout numbers in the minors, the 25-year-old continues to struggle somewhat with command, as he issued 20 free passes last season and averages just under four walks per nine innings in his minor league career. Pazos eventually got some action out of the Yankees' bullpen as a September call-up, though he yielded seven hits (two home runs) in just 3.1 innings. He was traded to the Mariners this offseason and will compete for one of the left-handed relief spots in their bullpen this spring, but is likely to open the year at Triple-A Tacoma.

Pazos wasn’t particularly high up on many prospect lists, but a dominant 2015 put him very clearly in the picture within the organization. The big lefty began his season at Double-A but spent most of the year at Triple-A, where he worked to a minuscule 1.09 ERA along with 37 strikeouts in 33 innings to earn his first promotion to the big leagues. He continued to impress there, working five shutout innings over the course of 11 appearances. The 24-year-old was especially tough on lefties, but he showed the ability to get righties out more than capably, holding them to a .222 average at Triple-A. The southpaw doesn’t possess an overpowering fastball, usually topping out at around 93 mph, but has a strong slider and a developing changeup. Pazos pitched well enough in 2015 to earn himself a legitimate tryout in spring training for a big league bullpen job, but it’s unlikely he would see too many high leverage situations even if he were able to crack camp with the team.