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Report: Fister a 'name of interest' for Mariners

Kevin Jairaj / USA TODAY Sports

After trading right-hander Taijuan Walker to the Arizona Diamondbacks last week, the Seattle Mariners have been on the hunt for another starter to fill their rotation, and are reportedly looking closely at a name from their past.

A sourced confirmed to Bob Dutton of The Tacoma News Tribune that free agent Doug Fister is a "name of interest" for Seattle.

Fister spent the first three years of his career with the Mariners, before he was traded to the Detroit Tigers in 2011.

Adding the right-hander would help fortify a Mariners staff headed by ace Felix Hernandez, which finished fourth in the AL in rotation ERA, but is now without Walker or Wade Miley (traded to the Baltimore Orioles), who accounted for 44 combined starts last season.

Mariners Projected Rotation - 2016 Stats

PITCHER W-L GS IP ERA WHIP
Felix Hernandez 11-8 25 153 1/3 3.82 1.32
Hisashi Iwakuma 16-12 33 199 4.12 1.32
James Paxton 6-7 20 121 3.79 1.30
Nathan Karns 6-2 15 94 1/3 5.15 1.48
Ariel Miranda 5-2 10 56 3.54 1.09

The 32-year-old Fister spent 2016 with the Houston Astros, posting the highest ERA (4.64) of his eight-year career across 32 starts, after signing a one-year, $7-million deal.

Over the course of eight major-league seasons split between the Mariners, Tigers, Astros, and Washington Nationals, Fister owns a 77-76 record with a 3.60 ERA across 212 appearances, 199 of which have been starts.

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