Mariners GM Justin Hollander spoke to reporters (including Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times) this evening and provided medical updates on several players. Most notably, Hollander revealed that right-hander Bryan Woo will open the season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation. Hollander added that Woo underwent an MRI which showed no damage to Woo’s UCL. Joining Woo on the injured list to open the season is outfielder Sam Haggerty, who the GM (as relayed by Divish) noted is dealing with a personal medical issue not related to baseball.
Hollander compared Woo’s current ailment to a bout of forearm inflammation that sent him to the shelf last August. Woo ended up missing just over two weeks due to that issue, a fact that potentially indicates the young right-hander could be slated for a similarly minimal absence this time around as well. Hollander noted that the club hopes the inflammation will have faded in 7 to 10 days, at which point Woo would be able to resume throwing.
Even a short absence for Woo is an unfortunate turn of events for Seattle. The 24-year-old righty made his MLB debut with the club last season and made 18 starts in the big leagues, pitching to a roughly league average 4.21 ERA with a 4.36 FIP in 87 2/3 innings of work. While Woo paired a solid 25.1% strikeout rate with an 8.4% walk rate, he saw a hefty 13.4% of his fly balls leave the yard for home runs last year. That proclivity toward the long ball limited Woo’s ability to establish himself as a mid-rotation starter, though even if he were to fail to take a step forward he’s shown the ability to be a quality back-end arm for a Mariners team loaded with controllable pitching talent.
With Woo set to begin the season on the shelf, Seattle figures to turn to right-hander Emerson Hancock to take the fifth spot in the rotation behind Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, and Bryce Miller. Hancock, the sixth-overall pick from the 2020 draft and a former consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, also made his big league debut last season. In a trio of starts with the Mariners, the right-hander posted a decent 4.50 ERA with a 4.09 FIP. He struck out six while walking three across his 12 innings of work. That cup of coffee in Seattle is Hancock’s only experience above the Double-A level, where he owns a career 3.99 ERA and 24.1% strikeout rate in 210 innings across 44 starts.
As for Haggerty, the loss of the switch-hitter to open the season could have an impact on the club’s bench mix. Since arriving in Seattle after being claimed off waivers from the Mets prior to the 2020 season, the 29-year-old has posted roughly league average offensive numbers in four years as a reserve outfielder with the Mariners. He’s done particularly well the past two seasons, slashing a solid .255/.345/.382 with a 111 wRC+ in a combined 135 games with the club.
While Haggerty’s switch-hitting bat and ability to handle all three outfield spots and even the right side of the infield on occasion have made him a valuable bench piece for Seattle in recent years, the Mariners appear well equipped to handle his absence. Julio Rodriguez is locked into center field on an everyday basis as the club’s star player, and with the likes of Mitch Haniger, Dylan Moore, Luke Raley, and Dominic Canzone vying for playing time at the outfield corners, Haggerty was at risk of being squeezed off the roster even prior to the injury.
In addition to the IL announcements, Hollander also provided an update on the status of right-hander Gregory Santos, who is nursing a lat strain that will keep him off the roster to open the 2024 campaign. Divish relays that Santos is scheduled to undergo an MRI later this week. If said testing comes back clean, Santos will then resume his throwing program. It’s a welcome update for a Mariners club that is expected to be without two high-leverage relievers in Santos and right-hander Matt Brash to open the season. Free agent addition Ryne Stanek and southpaw Gabe Speier figure to set up for right-handed flamethrower Andres Munoz while Santos and Brash are out of action.
Boooo we want Woo!
We’d be fine if MARINERS BRASS had gotten off their @ss and signed Snell!
Guess we get to see what Hancock can do. Hopefully this isn’t serious.
If/when he gets healthy, he may even have to wait for an injury to a different member of the staff to get back into the rotation. Hancock looked awesome at times during the spring.
A lot of scouts and prospect hounds have been saying Hancock may have a higher ceiling than Woo or Miller. Will be interesting to see what he does
That’s curious, all I hear from the prospect guys is how bad he has been and is not a ML quality pitcher right now. And may never be. The injuries he had, he’s never looked like the guy was before being drafted. I guess we’ll see.
Year of the broken pitcher continues
This is nuts
Depth gets shallower by the day. Mariners are doomed.
It seems like a lot of Mariners and ex-Mariners pitchers today…
Well the injury bug finally hits the Mariners rotation. Very few rotations have gotten thru the Spring gauntlet without any injuries.
Somehow the braves made it through and I hope it stays that way but with Morton, fried, and sale all having an injury history it does scare the hell out of me.
I drafted Kutter Crawford and it felt like I hit the lottery. There’s like 13 healthy pitchers left in mlb.
For some reason, I get Kutter and Winck mixed up, probably because they came up together about the same time. But they are not interchangeable right? One is clearly better, or has higher floor, than the other? (And that would be Kutter, right?)
I think of Winck as a sinkerballer and Kutter as more of a complete pitcher. Neither of them are world beaters though. Bello has the potential to be better than both of them IMHO.
This is the era of the fragile pitcher.
No it’s the era of the abused pitcher.
Abused? More like Million Dollar Babies! Remember what a complete game is? Yeah, me neither…… Now we have mid-relief, long-relief, set-up guys, closers…..
Babies that throw 96-102 with repetitive deliveries?
Pitching is more violent than ever. Do you really think the increase in surgeries is because of bad genes?
Take a look at the number of surgeries Tampa pitchers have had over the last 5 years, then the number of splitters, cutters, etc. that they’ve been told to throw more and more.
Stevil: Repitious THROWING 96-102 is more prevalent than ever. Real PITCHING is becoming a lost art.
You’re missing the point. This isn’t about an opinion on pitching, it’s about the players themselves. The game is evolving (for better of for worse) and I’m not about to blame, nor mock, the players for the injuries.
Ric Flair’s favorite player.
Seattle entered spring thin on starter depth. It isn’t really clear who would be next in line. Casey Lawrence? Austin Voth? The bullpen is still short one until Santos or Brash return, so Seattle should be pretty active in the coming days to find more pitching depth all around.
Jhonathan Díaz pitched well during spring, can imagine he’s next in line for a spot starter before Voth. Hancock definitely first up.
He only started one game and threw 11.1 innings over 5 total appearances.
I don’t think he would be able to start anytime soon.
Voth didn’t throw much either. Both were treated like relievers and it wouldn’t surprise me if Díaz made the team as a reliever along with Tyson Miller.
The only other starter within the organization that appears to be stretched out is Lawrence.
And I’ll correct myself.
Lawrence isn’t stretched out, either. Though he made a handful of starts, he threw just as little as Díaz.
Seattle is incredibly thin on starter depth that’s ready. They’re thin on relievers as well.
Where is Fred? he’s suppose to be here to tell us it will be alright.
Fred went to the Park…
I hope he took his parka with him., and he parked his car in a secure place.
They’ll be fine. They may be able to skip his turn the first time or 2 through the rotation. It’s not unusual for teams to do that at the beginning of the year.
If Hancock fails (he may well need to become a middle reliever to have a career), and Diaz doesn’t do the job, Levi Stoudt might get a chance.
Here’s hoping Woo makes it back quickly and healthy!
Stoudt threw 3 innings this spring. Nobody potential starter beyond Hancock threw more than 11.1 innings.
Hopefully Woo won’t miss much time, but it seems likely that Hancock is going to get a good opportunity to establish himself.
It’s almost a certainty that Seattle will look for outside help for depth.
From the sounds of everything that is being shared this does not seem to be a long term injury. Not good but not Robbie Ray throwing an inning and then being done for the season last year? It seems like there are always some open days at the start of the season that allows for most teams to go with four pitchers, anyways…..Get Brash and Santos back and we are good to go!