Margevicius ready for rotation audition

SEATTLE -- Nick Margevicius doesn’t know whether he was rushed too soon to the Majors in his initial foray as a starter with the Padres last year, but the 24-year-old does feel his time is right now as he readies for his first shot at a rotation berth with the Mariners on Saturday against the Rockies. The matchup can be seen live on MLB.TV at 6:10 p.m. PT.

The young lefty had pitched just one game above the Class A level before making the large leap to the big leagues as the Padres’ fifth starter at age 22. He got off to a fairly good start in his initial seven outings, going 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA.

But things went south from there, Margevicius wound up getting sent back to Double-A for a spell before returning and finishing 2-6 with a 6.79 ERA in 17 appearances (12 starts) with the Padres. San Diego ultimately released him, he was claimed by Seattle and after opening the season in the bullpen, he gets a chance to fill in for the injured Kendall Graveman on Saturday.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Margevicius said Friday before the series opener. “I’ve always been a starter, but whatever I’ve got to do this year, we’re just going with it. 2020 is a weird year, and I’m willing to do whatever we’ve got to do to help us win.”

Margevicius isn’t a flamethrower, and one of his weapons is a 70 mph curve, but the 2017 seventh-round Draft pick out of Rider University went home last offseason and set about with a weighted-ball program and workout regimen aimed toward increasing his velocity. A fastball that averaged 88.3 mph last year for the Padres has been ticking at 91.4 this season, per Statcast, and the Mariners are intrigued.

“Our analytical group grades out all our guys’ pitches on a scale, and his stuff is really pointing north,” manager Scott Servais said. “It’s getting better, the fastball, the quality of the breaking pitches. The thing I like about Marg is he’s very calm and has a very professional approach. He’s a pitch maker and knows how to execute pitches and sequence them together. It’s not just stuff coming at you. Even though he’s a young guy, he’s got a pretty mature approach to how he’s attacking hitters.”

Given Margevicius has been working in relief so far this season, totaling five innings with three runs allowed over three outings, Servais is expecting to get about 60-70 pitches out of the youngster in his first start. But Margevicius says he’s kept his arm built up with daily throwing and will be ready for whatever comes his way.

Given his path over the past year, that’s a mentality he’s learned to embrace.

“It’s been a wild ride from the time I got called up [with the Padres] to coming over to the Mariners,” he said. “Then the whole quarantine stuff. But the thing I’ve learned the most is how to be adaptable. I think everyone is kind of learning that lesson and I think it really applies to the baseball field.

“I’ve learned that transitioning to the bullpen and now going back to a starting role, it’s just how adaptable can you be. The circumstances you can’t control, but what are you going to do in that situation? That’s what I’ve learned the most this past year.”

As for his quick elevation to the big leagues last season? Maybe there were lessons there as well.

“I just handled it the best I could at the time,” he said. “Looking back on it, maybe it was a little quick. Maybe I wasn’t quite ready for some things. But at the same time, I did what I could right away and I had some success right away. I just hit a little struggle and it was hard for me to bounce back from that.

“But I think doing that so early and young in my career has offered me the chance to grow probably a little earlier than if something had come along the line later. I don’t know if I was rushed or not, but I’m excited about where I’m at right now and continuing to learn and move forward has been great for me.”

Adams not quite ready yet
Right-handed reliever Austin Adams has been rehabbing his surgically repaired left knee and was hoping to face hitters in a simulated outing by this weekend to see whether he’s ready to accompany the Mariners on their upcoming eight-game road trip starting Monday, but Servais said those plans now appear unlikely.

Adams pitched in a pair of intrasquad games early in Summer Camp in July, but he had to back off after the knee flared up. He had surgery to repair a torn ACL in October.

“He’s still not feeling 100 percent,” Servais said. “He’s playing catch, but not to the point where we can get him on the mound. With that being said, it’s doubtful he’d travel with us, because even though the taxi squad has been expanded to five players, those five players are there to step in if somebody goes down or gets sick. I’m disappointed, and I know he is, too, that he’s not on the mound letting it fly just yet.”