A Tribute to Ariel Miranda

We're sad to see the Nerman go, but his departure is actually a good sign for the current Mariners.

In the brief history of the Mariner Muse, Ariel Miranda was easily our collective favorite player.

That says a lot about us as baseball fans: that we tend to gravitate to the smaller, less expected successful players than the obvious producing stars. In turn, it also speaks to the achievement that Miranda’s success was, growing from a little known throw-in prospect to the most consistent starter on the 2017 Ners.

More than anything though, Miranda’s release and subsequent departure to Japan shows the progress the Mariners have made as an organization. Last season, the Mariners needed a resilient starter who struggles occasionally but does his best with what he’s got. This season, Miranda isn’t needed – he’s simply not consistent enough to break into what has suddenly become a strong rotation.

When Miranda first came to the Mariners in 2016, he was an afterthought. Wade Miley (left) had underperformed, but put in a late charge to get some sort of return in a trade to the Orioles. That return was Ariel. The weird part about Miranda was he had such limited American professional experience when he was acquired, logging just 19 appearances at AAA and just one season before that in the lower minor leagues. (To put it in perspective: when we made the Miley/Miranda trade, Lookout Landing’s corresponding article was titled “Who the Heck is Ariel Miranda?”).

Still, Miranda went right to the 25-man roster and was shockingly effective down the stretch of that 2016 season, going 5-2 with a 3.54 ERA and somehow garnering a 0.8 WAR (wins above replacement) in just 10 starts. All of a sudden, the Mariners had a potentially prosperous piece of their future plan from seemingly nowhere. (We at MM then answered that “Who the heck is this guy?” question with an article outlining the subtly incredible impact Ariel made).

Miranda then showed flashes of potential throughout last year with the Mariners, where he was basically their only healthy pitcher during the pitching plague of 2017, even sliding into the #1 spot for a month or so. But eventually, it became clear why he was such an old prospect that didn’t reach the majors full time until age 27. He started 2017 season fairly well, getting his ERA down to mid-3.00 by early June, but then the cracks began to show. By late August, his ERA was 4.85 and he was taken out of the rotation entirely in September.

Miranda had a chance to make the Mariners rotation this year – and may have seen this 2018 season go entirely differently for him if it wasn’t for the emergence of Wade Leblanc, who has owned the role of the team’s fifth starter and is now locked up for another year. Could that role, and that extension, have been Miranda’s had things gone somewhat differently? It’s entirely possible, although Leblanc has showed more MLB level success over more time.

So that brings us to last week, when Miranda decided that at age 29, it was time to get out of Tacoma and try to extend his career by taking his chances in Japan. As a 29-year-old starting pitcher who just saw his team trade for his veritable clone in Roenis Elias – only to promote Roenis and give him decent bullpen work – the path to a role on this playoff-caliber team just might not have been there for Miranda.

But Ariel has been a key part of the last two Mariners teams, for better and occasionally for worse. He became an important role player who could provide a strong start in a pinch or get your team through an injury-riddled month (or year) and turn some heads doing so. For crying out loud, he threw the Ners’ only complete game shutout last year (below). In the end, it’s a bummer to see our favorite player go. He may be off to Japan now, but he’ll always the Nerman in our hearts.

However, Miranda’s lack of a future with the Mariners isn’t just a tale of sadness – because it also shows that the team is moving upward. While the Nerman was incredibly helpful for our struggling teams of the past couple seasons, we suddenly find ourselves with a squad that has 5 solid starters and does not need a professional spot-starter like Miranda. So while we will all miss Ariel and wish him the best, we’ll also take a solid, healthy rotation any day.

#NerNostalgia #Pitching