Mariners infielder Luis Urias exited last night’s game after taking a 94 mph fastball of his left wrist, but the Mariners announced that he’s been diagnosed with a contusion. X-rays on the wrist were negative, per MLB.com, and he’ll be considered day-to-day for the time being.
The 26-year-old Urias has gotten out to a .160/.300/.400 start this season, striking out 11 times in 30 plate appearances (36.7%) — an uncharacteristically high rate for a player who entered the season with a career 21.6% strikeout rate.
The Mariners entered the season envisioning a platoon of the righty-swinging Urias and lefty-hitting Josh Rojas — a more contact-oriented pairing than the more boom-or-bust nature of since-traded third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Rojas has been one of the team’s bright spots, hitting .311/.392/.422 (148 wRC+) in 51 trips to the plate thus far. Only four of those plate appearances have come against lefties, but if Urias is sidelined for a bit, Rojas could get some more reps against southpaws. Seattle doesn’t have many lefty opponents on the immediate horizon, though they’re slated to face Andrew Heaney on Thursday.
Elsewhere on the injury front, the M’s are getting closer to welcoming righty Bryan Woo back to the staff. The right-hander made his first minor league rehab appearance with Triple-A Tacoma last night, and as broadcaster Mike Curto points out, pitched three perfect innings while fanning five of his nine opponents.
Woo’s fastball ranged from 91-95 mph, per Curto, which is down from last year when he averaged 95.2 mph on his heater. That said, it’s also the first rehab start for a right-hander who’s yet to pitch this season while waiting for some elbow inflammation to calm down, so that’s not necessarily a massive red flag just yet. It’d be natural if he built closer to that velocity as he continued to ramp up over what could be multiple rehab starts between now and his activation.
In place of Woo in the rotation, Seattle has been relying on former top-10 pick Emerson Hancock, who’s posted a 6.10 ERA through four starts, although the vast majority of the damage came in one tough outing against the Brewers. Hancock has yielded a combined seven earned runs through 17 1/3 innings in his other three appearances but was lit up for an eight spot in just 3 1/3 innings that day. He’s sporting a well below-average 16.7% strikeout rate but also an exceptional 3.3% walk rate. Hancock is the least established arm in Seattle’s rotation, trailing Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller — so he’s likely to be the odd man out if everyone’s healthy when Woo returns.
Miller, in particular, has impressed the Mariners this year. He’s pitched to an electric 1.85 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate in 24 2/3 innings. Miller recently chatted with Adam Jude of the Seattle Times about his incorporation of a new splitter into his repertoire — a pitch that’s been flat-out dominant for the 25-year-old righty so far. Miller has thrown his new pitch at a 19.4% clip this season, finishing off 24 plate appearances with the pitch. Those 24 plate appearances have resulted in 21 outs — eight of them strikeouts — and yielded only three singles. Both Gilbert and Kirby began throwing splitters last season, and Miller has leaned on his teammates for advice and guidance when looking to master his new pitch.
“It kind of has a mind of its own sometimes, but I’ve been able to command it really well,” Miller tells Jude of his new weapon. “So, I’m really happy with it and I think it’s opened up a lot of things for me [against] lefties and righties.”
Fred Park
It’s all going to get better for the Mariners, and soon, too.
They’ll be in the lead in a day or two, I do believe.
Go Mariners!
Chillem
Any news on Brash or Santos too?
Monkey’s Uncle
Back in my day, we didn’t get “contusions”… we got bruises! Lots of them! Big purple ones! And that’s the way it was, and we like it!
*rocks slowly on rocking chair*
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Josh Rojas is actually looking like the guy for 3rd, I think he has earned more than a strong side platoon
I am not impressed with Hancock so far, he probably needs 1 more season of seasoning before he can get that strikeout rate up
Fred Park
@sad…, I agree, especially concerning Rojas. With Hancock, he may still get it going this season. Lots of baseball left.
Lets Go DBacks
I hope it is true for Rojas. Liked him as a D-Back, especially as a hometown kid. Sadly he lost the 3B job as soon as he seized it, nice to see him gearing up again, although I hope the bat goes silent against us within a few days.
lee cousins
Rojas, was hitting leadoff as Crawford sat last night. not only is his hitting been good but his defense as well.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Hancock pitched himself a nice quality start yesterday. Velo up to 96. I think he looked great, as the article states, he’s only had one bad outing. Kinda hate to see him go down when Woo is ready. I wonder if there is any consideration to go with a 6-man rotation for awhile…
ayrbhoy
Strikeouts are great but groundballs, dbl plays and 88% (vs COL) first pitch strikes are better! The former is dead sexy but the latter helps keeps the pitch counts down
padrepapi
Luis Urias turned out so differently than I expected, which was something more like Luis Arraez. It’s like when he got to PCL his game got overly focused on hitting homers and his biggest strength went to the wayside.
A .233 batting average over 1671 big league PA’s while never hitting better than .249… I would have pegged that as a 1-5% future outcome back when he was a prospect.
BrianStrowman9
Right. That 2nd trip to El Paso was the beginning of the road to “more pop”
Worst thing that ever happened to him. I guess it’s too late for him to try and go back to being a hitter rather selling out for the long ball.
Would’ve never guessed his brother would’ve had the better big league career thus far.
lee cousins
As of yet Hancock is predictably inconsistent, just the same if he gets enough outings we should see some improvements.
As things turn in the baseball world the cosmic tumblers don’t always lineup. Urias unspectacular start will need to improve he still has time ⌚ but then Rojas has so far provided for the both of them.
lloyd_christmas
When will Ryan Bliss get the call to help SEA IF?
SLL
He should sometime this year, but Haggerty will be called up first, as he’s technically on a rehab assignment. Bliss isn’t on the 40-man roster yet, so bringing him up is more complicated.
Blackpink in the area
Julio Rodriguez has yet to homer in 2024. That’s concerning.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Not really. His exit velos are where they should be and he hits the ball so dang hard the homeruns are inevitable and will come with warmer weather. Not concerned at all. And they will probably come in bunches. It’s an interesting start to his season…he’s on a consecutive multi-hit game streak right now of 3 or 4 games.
lee cousins
Were looking at some uneven play from Julio. One minute he does something good the next, he gets caught off the base or he can’t hold on to the ball at the wall. He can excite, with or without the ball. still the rookie.
DonOsbourne
And just like that, the splitter is back and it’s 1988 all over again.
ayrbhoy
1988 – you mean when ‘my Seattle Mariners’ had a payroll of $6.5 Million? Wade Boggs League Leading .480 OBP that year was just ridiculous! I guess that’s what 125 BB’s will get you!
LordTeaboBaggins
Regardless of which team it will be against when Bryan Woo makes his return, the first batter he faces MUST be “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Woo VS WHOOOOOOOOOO!
Smell the money y’all