Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune writes that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has a hard-throwing lefty reliever — “a legit late-inning presence” — on his offseason wishlist. It’s not the first time that Dutton has reported Seattle’s interest in adding such an arm to its relief mix, and a flamethrowing southpaw would indeed be an imposing complement to sensational rookie Edwin Diaz late in the game. Previously, Dutton noted that the team’s search wasn’t likely to be focused on Aroldis Chapman, whose free-agent price tag will be staggering. The trade market may not be flush with readily available late-inning southpaws, though from a purely speculative standpoint I’d personally wonder if Seattle might match up with San Diego in a deal for either Brad Hand or Ryan Buchter. While neither possesses the velocity of a Chapman or Andrew Miller, each sat at better than 92 mph with his heater this season (92.8 mph for Hand) and delivered a breakout season. Hand proved capable of pitching multiple innings while also showing better control and ground-ball tendencies than his teammate — ultimately tossing 89 1/3 frames with a 2.92 ERA, 11.2 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 46.7 percent ground-ball rate.

A few more notes from around the American League…