Just when you think Jerry Dipoto is done, he has something in the works. And then three more things. And then after those four moves are complete, he still makes another one.

So often, it’s about building depth. After all, it takes more than the 25 men on the Opening Day roster to get to where you want to go. It’s finding an extra win here, maybe an extra half-a-win there.

The Drew Smyly trade—the Drew Smyly trade was not that.

When it appeared the 2017 Mariners roster was about set, at least in terms of significant additions, a two-trade day in January landed the lefty in Seattle.

“I’ve probably spent more time throughout the course of our offseason trying to acquire Drew Smyly than any other thing we’ve done,” said Dipoto immediately following the trade.

“He’s a guy who throws strikes, has a history of missing bats. He fits our ballpark particularly well.”

All true, backed up clearly by the numbers.

As many of us saw in his outstanding World Baseball Classic start, he has swing-and-miss stuff. But it’s more than that, as he does an excellent job controlling the strike zone.

The combination of the two is well-measured by taking his strikeout rate (the percentage of batters he faces that strike out) and subtracting his walk rate (the percentage of batters he faces that he walks). Abbreviated, it’s K-BB%.

He’s kept some pretty strong company in where he lands with this stat. Over the past three years, among starters than have thrown at least 350 innings, he’s in the top 25 in baseball.

Here are names around him:

As Dipoto also mentioned in the quote above, Smyly fits Safeco Field, in that he puts the ball in the air. Last year, his 49.3% fly ball rate—or, about half of the balls in play against him were in the air—was second-highest in baseball. He’s also in position to play right into the hands of the new outfield defense, literally.

But this all talks about what Drew Smyly has been so far in his career which, while valuable and why he was acquired, isn’t all he might be. At just 27, he’s entering what is most players’ prime. Even then though, you very rarely see something we’ve seen from Smyly in the early going of 2017.

I feel guilty going right back to another note from Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan, after doing so for our Mitch Haniger piece, but his recent discovery is too good to pass up.

That being: Drew Smyly, so far in 2017, is throwing really, really hard.

In his stellar World Baseball Classic start, he averaged 92.4 mph on his fastball. Last year, he averaged 90.96. The year before that, he averaged 91.98. In 2014, it was 90.85.

“Obviously, I had extra days of rest and more adrenaline than a normal start, but I don’t feel like I was throwing harder than I ever have before,” Smyly said to Greg Johns of Mariners.com upon returning to Mariners camp. “I’ve definitely thrown that hard before in the past. I don’t make that much out of it.

“Hopefully, I can carry that with me for the rest of the season, but it’s a long season. … It’s hard to maintain that for 30 starts, but if I can, that’ll be great.”

It would definitely be great, but as Smyly mentions, there may have been reason for the heightened velo. While Smyly is also correct that he’s done it before, it’s been a long, long time — if the numbers from his WBC start are accurate.

Per Sullivan’s count, Smyly threw 39 fastballs and, according to the velo numbers in MLB Gameday, they averaged 92.4 miles per hour in his start vs. Venezuela. The only other time he threw at least 25 fastballs (trying to eliminate some short relief outings) and averaged a higher speed was a start vs. the Royals in April of 2012 — the second of his career.

So maybe it was a little adrenaline? Working a short outing on a big stage, maybe he had a little extra. Then again, it’s also just March, when pitchers are normally building up their arm strength. Regardless, it’s something to watch as we head into 2017.

After all, we’ve seen how he’s looked so far. Mariners fans would certainly welcome more of the same.