Yusei Kikuchi came to the Seattle Mariners from NPB’s Seibu Lions, where he had posted a 2.85 ERA and 1.180 WHIP in nine seasons covering 1,168u2153 innings.
Kikuchi struggled through two mediocre seasons in 2019 and 2020 and then had a very good first half in 2021: 3.48 ERA, 1.088 WHIP in 16 starts. It was good enough to get him an All-Star nod — he was, in fact, the Mariners’ lone All-Star representative this year.
Then his second half was just bad. His ERA ballooned to 5.98 in 13 starts and his WHIP jumped to 1.