The news broke shortly before noon on Monday, that “Kuma the Bear” would be coming back to Spring Training with the Seattle Mariners. Seattle recently declined a $10 million option on Iwakuma, after an injury riddled 2017, that saw the former Cy Young contender start just 6 games.
Iwakuma has shown to be a league average starter as recently as 2016. That year, he made all 33 starts, giving the Mariners 199 innings of 4.27 FIP quality innings. No longer a solid #2 he once was, Kuma is still capable of providing quality innings in the back half of the rotation.