Revisiting the Jarrod Washburn trade

On July 31, 2009, The Mariners traded lefthanded pitcher, Jarrod Washburn to the Detroit Tigers for two young leftys. The Mariners received Luke French and Mauricio Robles in the deal. Prior to the trade, Washburn held an 8-6 record with a 2.64 ERA in 133.0 innings pitched.

Why, might you ask, am I revisiting this trade? We are in prospect season and I have been seeing Mauricio Robles’ name appearing high on a lot of peoples Mariners’ prospect lists. I want to show just how good this deal has worked out for the Mariners.



Washburn



Prior to the trade, Washburn was in the middle of a breakout year for the Mariners. He was posting fantastic numbers and was amongst the league leaders in ERA. This all changed once he arrived in Detroit. He was rocked in his first start with the Tigers, giving up 6 earned runs in 5.1 innings. This trend would continue through out the rest of the season. Washburn’s stats with the Tigers that year were a totally different story compared to what he did with Seattle earlier in the year. His 7.33 ERA and 1.558 WHIP while pitching for Detroit raised a lot of eyebrows in regards to the deal in Detroit. The Mariners sure traded him at a good time. They got rid of him before things started going downhill and they received two young pitchers in return.

French

The first guy that has made an impact thus far from the trade was Luke French. Many people think French is pretty similar to Washburn. A lefthanded pitcher with a high hr/9, doesn’t strikeout a lot of guys, and has pretty good command which is the key to him being an average pitcher. When French first came over in the trade, he went 3-3 with a 6.63 ERA in 38 IP. Those aren’t impressive numbers at all, but they were still better than that of Washburn’s. In 2010 he really settled down. He tore up AAA Tacoma with a few decent appearances mixed in at the big league level in the first half of the season. He found a permanent spot in the rotation in August. His ERA from last year was 4.83 in 87.2 IP. French has proved he can be a pretty decent back of the rotation starter and he is still young at the age of 25. The 6’4” 220lb lefty has posted stats very similar to those of Washburn early in his career. The Mariners very potentially received a younger and very cheaper Jarrod Washburn. Not to mention Seattle has 4 more years of team control over French!

Robles

The other guy in the deal, Mauricio Robles really sweetened the deal. When he first came over in the deal, he was at the age of 20 and was assigned to High A. In the hitter friendly league, he had an ERA of 2.78 with 34 strikeouts in 32.1 innings pitched. Robles has continued posting good stats over the course of his career and he finished 2010 in Tacoma. Last year he played a majority of time in AA West Tennessee but was called up to AAA towards the end of the season. His 9.47 K/9 at AA ranked second in the Southern League behind Alex Cobb of the Rays. His overall stats from last year were a 3.99 ERA with a 9.8 K/9 in 143.0 IP. At the time, the Mariners didn’t know too much as to what they were getting in Robles due to his little experience and he was still so young. He has emerged as one of the team’s top prospects and has a fantastic changeup which is the best in the system. His potential is higher than that of Luke French and he could find himself in the middle of Seattle’s rotation soon. Look for him to make his debut very soon as he will be starting the year at AAA and is on Seattle’s 40 man roster.