Browse entire “40-man, Player by Player” series here.
Previous entry: Ian Snell.  Next up, Jason Vargas.

Last season the Seattle Mariners’ big league Rule 5 pickups didn’t work out as hoped.  Middle infielder Reegie Corona ended up getting shipped back to the New York Yankees and lefty reliever Jose Lugo went back to the Minnesota Twins.  Both did their best in making the 25-man roster and made good enough impressions that GM Jack Zduriencik tried to trade for both of them, but to no avail.

This year they went again with a reliever and again with a Yankee, getting righty Kanekoa Texiera with the 14th pick.

The 24 year old started out his career with three seasons in the Chicago White Sox organization before being traded along with Nick Swisher to the Yankees last offseason.  He spent last year in AA Trenton and put up nice numbers.

Texeira primarily works off of a sinking fastball and a good two-plane slider out of a low 3/4 arm slot.  As you might imagine, he makes his living on inducing groundballs.  For his career he has a groundball percentage of 60.8%.

This obviously appeals to the Mariners as they don’t have that Sean Green-esque groundballer in the ‘pen right now.  Sean White is the closest thing they had last season (after Roy Corcoran imploded, anyway), though his groundball profile is often overstated and his health is in question.

What intrigues me most about Texiera is his split numbers against righties and lefties.  Sidearming sinkerballers are often only good against hitters of the same handedness.  Green, for example, could get grounders against both sides, but couldn’t miss bats against lefties to save his life.  For his big league career he has 7.84 K/9 against the righties but only 4.55 K/9 versus lefties (and he hasn’t been sent out there against good lefties often).  His AAA numbers (going back to 2005) show the same split: 8.04 K/9 versus right, 3.96 K/9 versus left.

But Texeira may be more than a ROOGY.  For his minor league career he has induced 65.6% grounders and produced 9 K/9 against lefties, both marks better than what he’s done against right handers (57.4%/7.64).  As you may expect based on those numbers, his FIP against both sides is about the same (3.20 versus right, 3.23 versus left).

But he’s not a true sidearmer, so maybe his success to date against lefties isn’t that surprising.  Before looking at the numbers I was certainly under the impression that he was basically Sean Green 2.0 and more or less useless against lefties.  Jeff at Lookout Landing was also a little surprised when he wrote about Texiera a few weeks ago, but made sure to note his skepticism when it came to his success against lefties given that he doesn’t have much of a changeup as far as we know (he was said to be trying to add one) and that low minors numbers can be unreliable in terms of projecting at higher levels.

Indeed, having no AAA data makes it tougher, but in 123.2 innings at AA (ie high minors) he has K/9 of 8.2 and a groundball percentage somewhere around (eyeballing) 66% against lefties. For now, I’ve got to think he’ll be okay against both sides of the plate at the big league level.  That isn’t to say the M’s should send him up there against elite lefty sluggers (he is a rookie, afterall).  I’m skeptical until I see exactly how he’s attacking lefties, but I wouldn’t write him off by any means.

The biggest blemish on Texeira’s resume is his walk rate, though it’s not debilitatingly (I don’t know if that’s a word but I’m sticking with it) bad at 3.4 BB/9 for his career (3.8 last year).  For a guy that would be pitching middle innings, that is acceptable even if it’s not ideal, even after adding a few more walks to account for any nibbling taking place against higher level hitters.

Texeira is no sure thing to make the bullpen, but he has a few things going for him.  For one, the M’s could be looking for a groundballer replacement for White in that “we really need a double play” role if he can’t be depended on early in the season for health reasons.  Two, with the recent talk that the Mariners may not be using the long relief bullpen spot for the fifth starter runner up– that is, they may prefer to have guys like Doug Fister, Jason Vargas, Garrett Olson and Luke French starting on a regular schedule for Tacoma rather than getting mop up duty here and there at the big league level– that spot could be open for Texeira, who was a multi-inning reliever and spot starter last season.

Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t make the team, but I think he has a decent chance.  I can’t speak to how Don Wakamatsu and Jack Zdruriencik see him, but on paper he is about as good as any of the other candidates as far as I can tell.  If he doesn’t make it I hope the M’s can work out a trade for him, though I wouldn’t count on it happening.  A guy that can keep the ball on the ground against lefties and righties both is an invaluable asset in New Yankee Stadium.

And, hey.  It would be cool to have two Hawaiians in the bullpen (Brandon League was raised there).  The gladiator helmets were nice, but tiki torches and a pig on a spit would be kind of fun to see out there.