Elias has excelled in Mariners’ jack-of-all-trades role. So he’ll start Sunday’s season finale

Remember when Roenis Elias was last with the Seattle Mariners? Back when he made 20 starts in back-to-back seasons in 2014-15 and made his big-league debut as a hard-throwing 25-year-old out of Cuba?

Nowadays he’s a bit older, more chiseled and appearing out of the bullpen, not the starting rotation.

But maybe he’s found a role that sticks. This has been his most productive season in terms of ERA (2.93) as a jack-of-all-trades lefty.

Mariners manager Scott Servais said they’ll give him his fourth start of the season in the finale on Sunday at Safeco Field, going with Elias instead of giving right-handers Mike Leake or Erasmo Ramirez one more start.

And, maybe, the Mariners rethink a bigger role for Elias next year. Servais didn’t balk at the idea.

“His role hasn’t been determined and I don’t know if too many have at this point,” Servais said. “He’s got good stuff and you haven’t seen him try to do too much here recently. You haven’t seen him drop down as much and he’s been more consistent with his release point.

“I think he’s done a good job for us. He’s played a lot of roles –he can go out and throw 75 pitches at the drop of a dime and be good to go out of the bullpen two days later.”

Elias will go a day after left-hander James Paxton gets his final start of the season on Saturday.

Leake threw just 43 pitches in his shortest start of his career (11/3 innings) on Tuesday against the Athletics, but he said afterward that he didn’t feel he needed another outing heading into the offseason.

Still, Leake combined with Paxton, Wade LeBlanc, Marco Gonzales and Felix Hernandez to give the Mariners five pitchers who all surpassed 27 starts. Leake leads that group with 31 starts and 185 innings pitched.

The Mariners are the only team in the major leagues with five pitchers making at least 25 starts each. The three of the four teams that had four starters accomplish that are all preparing for the playoffs – Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies.

“We stayed healthy,” Servais said. “Going through what we did in 2017 (when the Mariners used a record number of pitchers, 40, because of an onslaught of injuries), that was a goal. I didn’t think it would ever be as bad as it was in 2017, and it certainly wasn’t. We had guys take the ball and make their starts and that was instrumental in going out and putting up good numbers on the mound, and we got big contributions from guys like Wade and Marco (Gonzales)and guys that we didn’t quite know going into the season what we were going to get.”

BBWAA Awards

The Seattle chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America honored three Mariners before Friday’s game.

Outfielder Mitch Haniger was the top vote-getter for Mariners’ player of the year, while closer Edwin Diaz was selected for pitcher of the year.

Infielder/outfielder Dee Gordon earned Unsung Hero award, which is given to the player not just for on-field performance, but also how he is in the clubhouse and how he handles himself around staffers, media and fans.

Haniger entered Friday with a slash line of .283/.364/.492 and his wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference, of 6.0. That’s tied for eighth-highest among all players in the AL.

“From a coaching standpoint, you want to know what you are getting from guys – not how many hits they are going to get or how many strikeouts, but what kind of effort they are going to bring and are they going to come prepared,” Servais said. “And with that, check all the boxes with Mitch Haniger. You never have to worry about him.”

Diaz entered Friday one save behind Bobby Thigpen’s 57 for second-most in a single season in MLB history. Francisco Rodriguez holds the season record with 62 in 2008 with the Angels. Diaz, who had converted 56 of 58 saves (96.6 percent), has the highest save percentage since saves became an official stat in 1969 of pitchers who saved at least 50 games in a season.

Tacoma native

Left-hander Brandon Mann, who lives in Tacoma and graduated from Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, on Friday was added to the Texas Rangers’ 40-man roster for the final three games of their season at Safeco Field. The 34-year-old made his major-league debut with the Rangers earlier this year.

In six appearances, Mann has a 6.14 ERA this season.

You might also remember his chance encounter on a minor-league field this past spring against his childhood idol Ichiro Suzuki, when Mann then hit Ichiro in the head with an errant pitch.

On tap

Paxton (11-6, 3.85 ERA) starts for the final time this season for the Mariners at 6:10 p.m. Saturday at Safeco Field against the Rangers, who will start Skyline High School graduate and former Mariners right-hander Adrian Sampson (0-2, 4.96 ERA). The game will broadcast on Root Sports and 710-AM radio.

This story was originally published September 28, 2018 at 6:43 PM.