The Gonzaga product has been a spring standout for Seattle and looks to make his first-ever Opening Day roster
Casey Legumina’s left arm is full of tattoos that trace the story of his life. Front and center on his inner forearm, drawing the eye, is the most meaningful: his dad Gary’s baseball card from when he was in the minor leagues with the Dodgers in the early 80s. Since his dad never made the big leagues, tracking down his baseball card had been a challenge for the family; Legumina treasured the one he had.
“I thought, man, if anything ever happened to this card, I’d be beside myself. So I decided to get [the tattoo] so I’d never be without it.”
Further down, on his inner wrist, is another significant image: one of the smokestacks from Great American Ballpark, where he made his major league debut with the Reds in April of 2023.
The moment represented the pinnacle of a long journey for Legumina, a Gonzaga product who was drafted in 2019 but wasn’t able to make his professional debut until 2021 due to TJ surgery and the cancellation of the 2020 minor-league season. But for all the excitement of making the big leagues, Legumina knew he hadn’t yet shown his full ability after being traded from the Twins to the Reds. The team shuttled him up and down between the big-league club and Triple-A ten times over the two years he was with Cincinnati, and he struggled with finding consistency.
“I just don’t feel like I was me in a lot of those appearances,” he says, shaking his head. “There were some times where I showed what I could do, and other times I just didn’t execute like I was in the minors.”
Consistency hasn’t been an issue for Legumina this spring with the Mariners. He’s appeared in five games, working crisp, clean innings that stand in stark contrast to the occasionally sloppy late-inning spring training contests. He’s worked ahead in counts, not walking a batter, and coaxed easy ground balls and soft contact from opposing hitters.
Comfort breeds consistency, and Legumina has found familiarity in the similarities between how the Mariners and Twins do things with regards to player plans and the emphasis on improvement, which has helped him feel at home quickly in a new system.
“It means a lot that they saw something in me and thought I could be of value to them. Having a really good pitching staff and hearing about all the things they do pitching-wise, it felt really good for me. I have not felt this comfortable with a staff like that immediately. You hear people say that they do a good job of having good people here and people that care about us, and you feel it. It’s not just a job, but you can actually feel like they care about you and they want you to get better.”
Aside from the team culture, he’s been especially impressed with Trent Blank and his knowledge of pitch design and arsenal optimization.
“He feels like a magician. It’s almost like he has all the answers, even though he probably doesn’t. But it feels like he does.”
Legumina was initially a starter at Gonzaga, but then took over the closer role from 2017 Mariners third-rounder Wyatt Mills, setting a school record for saves in 2018 and earning a place on the Stopper of the Year watch list. In college, Legumina hit as high as 96 mph, but a forearm strain slowed him in his draft year, and the Twins—when he was finally able to start pitching again—had him emphasize velocity less and lean into his low-slot fastball, which he throws up in the zone with an arm angle that’s almost identical to former Mariner Paul Sewald—although with slightly different metrics given the three-inch height difference between the two.
“It’s not like a crazy induced vertical break pitch, but I get a lot more height visually because of that arm angle.”
In addition to the fastball, Legumina also throws a slider that has cutter-ish movement, which he’s revamped some to throw a little harder (86-89 mph). He rounds out his arsenal with a sweeper that he can move up in the zone to mirror his fastball, or can also throw down in the zone with late downward break. Legumina is especially excited with the new-ish cutter-slider.
“I just say cutter now because it’s easier, because in my mind, I’m trying to throw it like a cutter. If I’m throwing it up in the zone I’m trying to cut it, and if I’m throwing it down in the zone I’m trying to make it a little bit more like a slider. And so that’s what’s cool about it—depending on where I throw it and the arm slot I have, it feels like I can just manipulate how I’m making it move.”
“I’m thinking, hold like a cutter, but throw like a slider. And for me that mentally works. Just like when I’m throwing my sweeper, I’m thinking, I’m putting on my seatbelt [makes a crossbody gesture], but at the same time I’m thinking I’m throwing a 12-6 curveball. So those are just like the cues that help me find that arm angle I need and the consistency with the break.”
Legumina also throws a changeup that he hasn’t thrown much this spring, but he’s hoping to have a chance to break it out soon as another potential offering for weak contact and swing-and-miss, especially against left-handed hitters.
“It’s been a big pitch for me, and I think last year it was really big for me and helped me have a lot more success in the minors. I used to only try to throw it to lefties, and then I was like, you know, screw it. We’re just going to start throwing it to righties a lot. And that helped me throw it to lefties too, just get past that mental barrier of, oh, I can’t throw it armside to a lefty, I have to like, really get it down and in on him. So it helped me throw it against lefties more.”
But that’s not all the tricks in Legumina’s bag – physically nor literally, as like Logan Gilbert, he carries a big bag of arm-care tools around with him everywhere.
“Oh! I forgot about the sinker. My second bullpen here, they were like, hey, try this. Your arm angle and the way you throw the ball right now, we should be able to just put it in your hand and it should do what we want. And so I threw it in the bullpen and they were like, all right, it’s doing what we want. So it’s been nice to have another pitch like that, throwing two fastballs keeps guys guessing a little bit.
And it was funny because right after I threw that in the bullpen, they came up to me and they were like, okay, you’re officially a Mariner. Which is funny because I heard that from a couple guys I trained with, they said, hey, get ready, they’re gonna tell you to throw a sinker. And I was like, bahhhh, no they’re not. And then I throw my first pen, they watch me, and before my next pen Trent [Blank] comes up to me and says, I gotta talk to you about something. I looked at him and said, let me guess: a sinker. And he goes, yepppp.”
With his openness to being coached and the trust he’s placed in the organization, the Mariners are justifiably excited by what they’ve seen from Legumina this spring, as he looks poised to make his first-ever Opening Day roster: officially-officially a Mariner. That’s something Legumina is trying not to overly focus on, but he can’t help but dream about it, and is doing everything he can to put himself in that position.
“It would mean everything. I’m working so hard to do that. That’s every player’s dream, to be able to make the team on the Opening Day roster. It would mean the world to me, especially my family.”
If he does make the Opening Day roster, will he get some Seattle-themed ink to celebrate?
“I’m one step ahead of you on that,” he laughs, saying that it’s something he’s been thinking about since his Gonzaga days, considering a pine tree or something similar to represent his time in the Northwest. And while he’s not a fan of the traditional Roman numerals tattoo to commemorate an important date—“be a little creative,” he scoffs—it’s looking like March 27, 2025 could be a very memorable date for Casey Legumina.