Last night, Tayler Saucedo—activated off the IL on Monday—came in to pitch his first game in three weeks. His task: pitch the eighth inning, keeping the Mariners’ deficit at one run while facing the lefty-heavy and powerful top of the Astros lineup. In regular-job terms, this is the equivalent of walking in Monday morning after being off for two weeks and finding your voicemail full and your desk covered in paperwork.
To be fair, Saucedo has been finding his way into more and more high leverage situations this season. In 2023, Saucedo saw the bulk of his workload in low-leverage situations—about three times as many of his plate appearances were in low-leverage situation vs.