Had the deal not occurred in the early stages of the winter, with the club still reeling from their ALCS exit, Cole Wilcox’s acquisition from the Tampa Bay Rays for cash considerations would’ve delivered a classic Jerry Dipoto quote. Something in the milieu of having had their eyes on Wilcox since his draft day, seeing him as one of the most talented arms available, yadda ft. yadda.
Instead, as I wrote upon his acquisition, Wilcox appears more as tertiary decor for the M’s bullpen pile; 40-man bunting that will remain past Opening Day but is unlikely to be in Seattle for the season’s debut. In the linked blurb, I outlined Wilcox’s growth mechanically from his starting days into a higher-effort, bullpen role. Once a notable feature of the Blake Snell trade that sent that ace from Tampa Bay to San Diego, Wilcox’s post-Tommy John trajectory is a reminder that the big leaguers we see recovering fully from the knife are those who’ve been more fortunate.
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Wilcox’s velocity and efficacy has never recovered fully from his 2021 time on the surgeon’s table. His halting performance and health in 2023 and 2024 demonstrated a very different ceiling than his draft day promise, where as Emerson Hancock’s former rotation-mate he secured an ample $3.3 million signing bonus to leave campus early as the 80th pick overall. Now, he’ll be in the bullpen, or even possibly the rotation once again with Hancock, helping the Tacoma Rainiers compete for a Pacific Coast League title while filling a swingman role in the aftermath of Logan Evans taking his turn on the TJ roulette.
This isn’t conclusive for Wilcox. The 26 year old showed promise a season ago, sitting around 96 mph with his sinker as a reliever and making his big league debut with the Rays for a single frame. After an age 25 season with just two appearances in the majors, Eduard Bazardo burst onto the scene with… three more seasons riding the AAA-MLB shuttle between three organizations, throwing 133.1 minor league innings and just 60.0 in the majors. At age 29, Bazardo came into camp last year as a contender for the final spot in the bullpen. It would be, for the first time in his career, a year fully spent as a big leaguer, solidifying himself as a sinker-slider mainstay for the M’s. 40 in 40s are a snapshot, a moment only somewhat more predictive than one we might’ve taken in Chattanooga, TN in 1999 when Wilcox came into this world.
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Keep slingin’ it, Cole. This year might be yours. Or maybe it’s just four away.
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