The Mariners announced Thursday that right-hander George Kirby has been reinstated from the injured list. He’ll make his 2025 debut today against the Astros. Righty Troy Taylor was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma last night to open a spot on the roster for Kirby’s return.
The first-place Mariners have surged to a 28-20 record this season despite not getting a single pitch from arguably their best starter. The 27-year-old Kirby has been out all season after the Mariners opted for a cautious approach when Kirby was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation during spring training.
A first-round pick back in 2019 (No. 20 overall), Kirby quickly became one of the Mariners’ top pitching prospects and was soon regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport. He breezed through the minors and could very well have debuted even sooner were it not for the canceled 2020 minor league season.
Kirby broke through to the majors in 2022 and hasn’t looked back. He pitched 130 innings over the life of 26 starts in his rookie season and turned in a 3.39 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate. Few pitchers can sustain a walk rate that low, but Kirby has actually improved upon that mark in subsequent seasons. He was touted as having the best command of perhaps any top pitching prospect in the sport prior to his debut, and he now has a legitimate claim to the best command of any pitcher in Major League Baseball.
Since his 2022 debut, no starting pitcher has a lower walk rate than Kirby’s 3.1% mark. Only one qualified reliever in that time has a better walk rate (Chris Martin, at 2.8%). You’d have to drop the threshold to a minimum of 20 innings pitched (total) since 2022 to find a second pitcher with a lower walk rate than Kirby.
Kirby’s pinpoint command is all the more deadly when one considers that he’s not the archetypal soft-tossing, finesse pitcher typically associated with this type of precision. He’s averaged 95.8 mph on his four-seamer in his career and sat 96.1 mph with the pitch from 2023-24.
Kirby was an All-Star in 2023 and finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting that season. He’s started 89 big league games for the Mariners since his debut and touts a 3.43 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate and 43.4% ground-ball rate to go along with that pristine walk rate. Those strikeout and grounder rates are only a bit better than average, but a pitcher who averages less than a walk per start doesn’t need to pile up strikeouts or ground-balls at league-leading rates to be among the most effective pitchers in the sport.
The Mariners are getting Kirby back at an ideal time. Rotation-mates Logan Gilbert (flexor strain) and Bryce Miller (elbow inflammation) are both on the 15-day injured list at the moment. Seattle is also set to square off against the second-place Astros for a four-game series. Houston has been a league-average team against right-handed pitching this season, and the ’Stros are currently without their top left-handed bat: designated hitter Yordan Alvarez (though he has uncharacteristically struggled versus righties this season). The only left-handed hitters on Houston’s roster are switch-hitting catcher Victor Caratini and backup catcher Cesar Salazar. Kirby held right-handed hitters to an awful .234/.257/.360 slash in 2024.
Kirby, Kirby, Kirby
That’s the name you should know
Kirby, Kirby, Kirby
He’s the star of the show!
He’s more than you think,
He’s got maximum pink
Kirby, Kirby, Kirby’s the one!
Maximum pink? Please explain
Please don’t!
Back atcha.
hey kirby, i’m going to strike out against ya
It’s Kirby time
Will be great to get him back. Then the other two and hopefully get the BP straightened out. The D is good and the O can always be better but is better than it has been. The team looks really good compared to what I and most Ms fans thought it would be. Is that because the team was sneaky, is Dan the Man the best Manager ever or some luck and good play? I am not giving ownership any accolades they are cheap and after profit over success. Hopefully even with the injuries we have had are in first place. Not saying this is a WS winning team but with a couple players added could be close. Go Ms.
Yes the casual Ms fans in spring training are a bit quiet. All the clamoring for trades, free agents and ownerships heads…First, a lot of players underperformed last year. This team isn’t perfect, but they are hitting at close to league average- also strikeouts are down, walks are up and they hitting with RISP.
Second- trades of young prospects are always risky. These casual fans assume the players we would receive would perform instead of banking on current players to do their job.
Third-free agent hitters won’t sign in Seattle so instead of overpaying we locked up cal and have money to extend some young pitchers. All these casual fans think we missed the boat but the reality we didn’t have a chance on them. Dipoto is taking a chance that last season was an anomaly. So far he is right.
It’s early. They have the talent to play with anybody in a short and long playoff series. Sure, some nice additions wouldn’t hurt. But let guys do their job before selling the farm to make casual fans happy. We gotta get past mentality that spending money and trading prospects will get us a WS title vs asking and expecting the current roster to perform.
However, if Evans pans out and Hancock can become serviceable 5th starter- then yes, see if Kirby get net us a legit bat in a trade.
It’s a common mentality among fans of teams who struggled for a while or haven’t won any championships, let alone reach the playoffs. It doesn’t mean these fans are impatient, though. They deserve to have a contending team on the table. Lots of M’s fans are also pretty dedicated no matter what.
Deserve? How do we determine what we deserve? Management has built a winning team with a top 5 minor league system that under performed last year and still was competitive. It’s a fairly young and talented team. I get fans are impatient, but deserve has nothing to do with it.
Darn, you got me. I think I worded that incorrectly.
My preference is Sword Kirby, but Fire Kirby and Cutter Kirby are also favorites of mine!
Might be the Mariners year battling through big injuries and still being on top. Good for them.
a wealth of pitching riches
Heeeeeey Kirby
What you doing Kirby
What you doing there
Respected his work as a comedian.
Hope the baseball career is better to him.
Can’t wait to see him pitch again. Even better with the Mariners already in first!
Mariners are looking solid at the moment and bringing Kirby in should be a boost.
I was so pissed when the Angels took Wil Wilson when Kirby was on the board and we desperately needed pitching.
Halos gone Halo….(shrugs).
I’m not convinced the Angels could have developed Kirby.
Well that was a crap sandwich that killed my pitching lines. Got a little too zealous starting him tonight should’ve waited for him to get the rust off. But it’s good that’s he is back both for the mariners and my fantasy team. Gilbert doesn’t seem far behind either. There pitching is lining up to be dirty.
I think they still have a move to make on offense…wonder who they will target.
The pickings are slim at 1b, DH, 3b. Maybe Cedric Mullins from the Orioles?
George is always a hoot.