As announced by Mariners PR, the Mariners have swung their first deal of the July trade season, acquiring right-handed reliever Sam Tuivailala from the St. Louis Cardinals. Before you inevitably shout “Who?!?!” at me, let’s take a look at what “Tui” brings to the table.
At face-value, Tuivailala doesn’t look too impressive. A 3.69 ERA (4.36 xFIP) with a low K/9 (7.39) and a relatively high BB/9 (3.13) isn’t going to wow anyone. But when you look deeper, you’ll find that Tuivailala is somewhat of a righty specialist and those numbers have been inflated by his struggles against lefties.