Breaking Down Potential Extensions For Logan Gilbert And Bryan Woo
The Mariners have become a playoff contender in recent years thanks in large part to their pitching. Between Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, and Bryan Woo, the club has a plethora of effective homegrown starters. With Luis Castillo also in the mix, Seattle’s rotation is both a top-10 unit in the league and well-suited to take advantage of the pitching-friendly dimensions of T-Mobile Park.
Understandably, the club is exploring ways to keep that group intact, with Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reporting that the team explored extensions with Gilbert and Woo over the offseason. Kramer adds that the talks with Gilbert did not progress to the point where the two parties were close to an agreement. Talks with Woo’s representatives were also preliminary.
Gilbert has been a staple of the rotation since debuting in 2021. In 840 2/3 innings, he owns a 3.59 ERA, a 26.2% strikeout rate, and a 5.3% walk rate. He has always done well at limiting walks, and the strikeouts have improved year over year since 2022. He is also quite durable, with 2025 being the first time he went on the injured list. After missing seven weeks with a right elbow flexor strain, Gilbert returned in mid-June and was his usual self for the rest of the season. He ultimately made 25 starts with a 3.44 ERA and a career-high 32.3% strikeout rate.
Woo, 26, made his debut in 2023 and has a 3.21 ERA through 70 career starts. Like Gilbert, Woo gets strikeouts at an above average rate and excels at limiting free passes. He has made a few trips to the IL, including two separate stints in 2024 which limited him to 22 starts. He made 30 starts for the first time in 2025. His 21 quality starts in 2025 tied Hunter Brown and Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal for fourth place in the majors. Although he missed the last two weeks of the regular season with pectoral inflammation, he returned as a reliever in the ALCS and is fully healthy heading into his first start of 2026.
Both Gilbert and Woo are immensely valuable to the Mariners, so it makes sense for the team to explore extensions while they have multiple seasons of club control remaining. Gilbert has the longer track record, with over four years of effective pitching on his resume. Being closer to free agency, an extension for Gilbert would also be more costly. Looking around the league, Garrett Crochet was the most recent starter with four to five years of service to be extended. He got six years and $170MM from the Red Sox in March 2025. Crochet’s case was unique, as he had been a reliever until 2024 and only had one (very effective) season as a starter before signing the extension.
Gilbert does not strike out as many hitters as Crochet and profiles as a No. 2 starter rather than a true ace. The recent Pablo Lopez and Mitch Keller contracts may be closer comparisons based on talent level and age at the time of signing. Lopez was worth 8.5 fWAR over 84 starts from 2019-22. He got a four-year, $73.5MM deal from the Twins in April 2023, which covered his age-28 through 31 seasons and bought out three free agent years. Meanwhile, Keller was worth a combined 6.2 fWAR in 91 appearances (89 starts) for the Pirates from 2020-23. His February 2024 extension gave him $71.6MM in new money over four years (age-29 through 32), including three free agent years.
Gilbert’s talent level puts him closer to Lopez and Keller than Crochet. Given his comparable age and superior talent, Gilbert might be worth $85-90MM over a four-year term. It wouldn’t be out of character for the Mariners to pay that amount. Castillo’s extension in 2022 gave him a similar average annual value over his age-30 to 34 seasons, and he had a comparable track record at the time to Gilbert’s now.
If the Mariners would prefer to spread money around to different parts of the roster, then Woo might be the more logical long-term fit. He is currently 26 years old and under club control through 2029. For players with two to three years of service time, Cristian Javier and Tanner Bibee are the best points of comparison. Prior to his February 2023 extension, Javier was worth a combined 4.0 fWAR over 66 appearances, roughly half of which were starts. He earned a $64MM guarantee over five years (two would-be free agent years) for an AAV of $12.8MM.
More recently, Bibee got around $47.2MM on a four-year extension in March 2025, which covered at least one free agent year. That came following a 2023-24 stretch in which Bibee accumulated 6.3 fWAR over 56 starts. Being a full-time starter, Woo is a closer match with Bibee’s contract than Javier’s. Bibee had exactly two years of service when he signed his deal, whereas Woo has closer to three years of service. The two are comparable in terms of overall performance, with Woo having an edge on a rate basis and Bibee covering slightly more innings. Based on those circumstances, Woo might garner $55MM over a four-year term ($13.75MM AAV).
Kramer framed both sets of extension talks as preliminary, so Mariners fans should take the news with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, these comparisons offer insight into how much it would cost for the club to retain their starters throughout their window of contention. Per RosterResource, the club has four guaranteed salaries on their books in 2027. Castillo ($24.15MM), Julio Rodriguez ($20.19MM), Josh Naylor ($17.3MM), and Cal Raleigh ($13.67MM). That’s a total of $75.31MM in guaranteed money. After factoring in the arbitration class, that should leave enough room for the club to extend at least one of its homegrown starters, and perhaps more.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Tarik Skubal Wins AL Cy Young Award
For a second straight season, Tarik Skubal is the American League Cy Young award winner. He beat out Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown, the other two finalists. Skubal received 26 of 30 first-place votes. The other four voters had him second behind Crochet, and those pitchers were 1-2 in some order on every ballot.
Skubal is the first pitcher to win back-to-back Cy Youngs since Jacob deGrom took the NL honors in 2018 and ’19. He’s the 23rd pitcher in MLB history to win the award twice. Skubal cemented himself as one of the two best pitchers on the planet by turning in a 2.21 earned run average across 31 starts. He recorded 241 strikeouts, 13 more than he did during last year’s award-winning season, and won a second straight ERA title.
The Tigers’ star southpaw was fourth in the AL in innings, second in strikeouts behind Crochet, and trailed only Logan Gilbert with a 32.2% strikeout rate (minimum 100 innings). Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference credited him the most Wins Above Replacement of any AL pitcher. He also had the lowest FIP (2.45) and SIERA (2.71). He tied Brown and Bryan Woo for second in the league with 21 quality starts, one behind Crochet.
Skubal is headed into his final season of arbitration control. With no progress on a long-term extension, there’ll surely be teams trying to pry him out of Detroit. It’s very difficult to imagine the Tigers trading their ace on the heels of two consecutive playoff appearances, though. He’ll likely be back as A.J. Hinch’s Opening Day starter and go for a third consecutive AL Cy Young while trying to get Detroit back to October.
It’s the first top three finish for both Crochet and Brown. The Red Sox could not have asked for more out of Crochet in his first season in Boston. He led the AL in strikeouts and innings pitched (205 1/3) while pitching to a 2.59 ERA over 32 starts. This was only Crochet’s second season as a starting pitcher and his first logging a full starter’s workload. The White Sox had eased him back in the second half of the ’24 campaign to not put too much stress on his arm after years working in relief. He demonstrated he’s capable of maintaining his stuff and ace level over a full season with the Red Sox, who signed him through the 2031 season in April.
Brown’s top three placement earned the Astros an extra pick after the first round of the 2026 draft under the Prospect Promotion Incentive. Houston’s ace turned in a 2.43 ERA across 31 starts. He struck out a career-high 206 batters over 185 1/3 innings. This was Brown’s first time receiving any Cy Young votes. He’s entering arbitration and is under club control for another three seasons.
Voters unanimously had Skubal and Crochet as the AL’s best pitchers in some order. Brown was the consensus choice for third, receiving 24 of 30 third-place votes. The other six third-place nods went to Max Fried. Brown and Fried appeared on all but one ballot apiece. Woo finished comfortably in fifth. Carlos Rodón, Aroldis Chapman, Jacob deGrom, Trevor Rogers and Drew Rasmussen were the other pitchers to receive at least one vote.
Image courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images. Full vote tally available via BBWAA.
Bryce Miller Expected To Avoid Elbow Surgery
Seattle right-hander Bryce Miller is not expected to need elbow surgery this offseason, reports Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. Miller had multiple stints on the injured list this past season due to elbow inflammation. He returned for the final six weeks of the regular season and made three starts in the playoffs. “I finished the year the best I felt all year — three good starts, I felt like,” Miller told Jude. “My body and my arm feel good, so just get better, get fully healthy and be ready to go from Day 1 next year.”
Miller was diagnosed with a bone spur in his elbow and received a PRP injection in early June. He relayed to Jude that he has an upcoming appointment to determine the next steps in treatment. Miller said the likely route is a gel cortisone injection early this offseason, and potentially another one at the start of spring training. “Now that we know how to deal with the bone spur, we can figure out what we need to do exactly with it and go from there,” Miller told Jude. He added that he’d be “surprised” if the appointment led to an invasive procedure.
The elbow injury seemed to derail the early portion of Miller’s 2025 campaign. He struggled to a 5.22 ERA through his first eight starts. The control was the biggest red flag. After posting a solid 6.4% walk rate in 2024, Miller nearly doubled that mark to 12.1% over his first 39 2/3 innings. He hit the IL on May 14, though it was a minimum stint. Miller returned at the end of May, but only lasted two starts. He was hammered for eight earned runs over nine innings and headed back to the IL.
The results following Miller’s second absence weren’t much better. He closed the regular season with a 5.62 ERA over eight starts, but there were encouraging signs heading into the playoffs. Miller’s fastball velocity improved by nearly one mph. He cut his walk rate to 6.3%. Miller was mostly done in by a massive 24.5% home run to fly ball rate, which should be expected to regress over a larger sample.
Miller put everything together in the postseason. He limited the Tigers to two runs over 4 1/3 innings in Game 4 of the ALDS. Miller then came through with six dominant innings in a win over Toronto to kick off the ALCS. He returned in Game 5 with four innings of one-run ball, though Toronto’s bullpen couldn’t hold a late lead. Miller’s fastball velocity topped out at 98.1 mph in his second start against the Mariners.
The uneven 2025 season was a disappointing follow-up to a tremendous 2024 for Miller. He built on a solid rookie year, putting together 180 1/3 innings of a sub-3.00 ERA and nearly a strikeout per inning last season. Miller’s 3.85 xFIP and 3.80 SIERA suggested he might not have been as good as his 2.94 ERA, but he looked like a fixture in a talented rotation.
After a remarkably healthy 2024, Seattle’s starters were hampered by injuries this past season. Logan Gilbert spent all of May and part of June on the IL with an elbow flexor strain. George Kirby missed the first two months of the season with shoulder inflammation. Bryan Woo went down with a pectoral injury in September. He was available for just 4 1/3 innings in the playoffs.
Seattle’s rotation led the league in ERA in 2024. The staff slipped to 13th this past season. With Miller managing his elbow injury without surgery, and an offseason for Woo to get back to full health, the rotation should once again be among the best in the league next season. The unit will be key in getting the team back to the postseason in 2026.
Mariners Add Bryan Woo, Miles Mastrobuoni To ALCS Roster
The Mariners announced the 26 players who will be part of their American League Championship Series roster against the Blue Jays. After using a complement of 14 pitchers and 12 position players against the Tigers in the ALDS, the M’s will use an even 13 pitchers and 13 position players to navigate their series with Toronto. The full list…
Catchers: Harry Ford, Mitch Garver, Cal Raleigh
Infielders: J.P. Crawford, Josh Naylor, Jorge Polanco, Leo Rivas, Eugenio Suarez
Outfielders: Randy Arozarena, Dominic Canzone, Victor Robles, Julio Rodriguez
Utility player: Miles Mastrobuoni
Left-handed pitchers: Caleb Ferguson, Gabe Speier
Right-handed pitchers: Eduard Bazardo, Matt Brash, Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Emerson Hancock, Luke Jackson, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Andres Munoz, Carlos Vargas, Bryan Woo
The biggest story is Woo’s return, as the right-hander hasn’t pitched since suffering pectoral tightness in a start against the Astros on September 19. Woo’s ramp-up work didn’t quite allow him to be ready for Seattle’s ALDS roster, but president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said on Friday after the Mariners’ Game 5 clinch that Woo would likely be part of the roster against Toronto.
Dipoto specified that Woo wouldn’t be available until closer to midway through the series, which would seemingly line him up for a start in Game 4. Because Gilbert and Castillo were both needed in the 15-inning finale against Detroit, the Mariners’ rotation plans over the first two ALCS games in Toronto are very much up in the air. Miller will start Game 1 on short rest and it can be assumed that Kirby will start Game 3 on regular rest, but it remains to be seen if Castillo and/or Gilbert will be involved in Game 2, and in what capacity.
Woo takes the roster spot of rookie infielder Ben Williamson, who didn’t see any action in the ALDS (and hasn’t played in a big league game since July 30). Williamson’s inclusion on the ALDS roster was largely as a hedge against Josh Naylor potentially missing time on paternity leave, so the Mariners wouldn’t be left short-handed in terms of infield depth. As it happened, Naylor played in all five games against Detroit and was still able to welcome his first child into the world.
Seattle’s other change comes on the bench, with one left-handed utilityman in Mastrobuoni replacing another in Luke Raley. Mastrobuoni doesn’t have Raley’s offensive upside, but brings more to the table in pure versatility. Raley can play first base and all three outfield positions, but Mastrobuoni saw work at both corner outfield slots and at first base in 2025, as well as time as a second and third baseman. Essentially, Mastrobuoni’s inclusion allows the Mariners to replace Raley and Williamson in one fell swoop. Raley came off the bench in four games of the ALDS, with one hit-by-pitch over six plate appearances.
Bryan Woo Expected To Be Part Of Mariners’ ALCS Roster
After an epic 15-inning win over the Tigers in Game Five of the ALDS, the Mariners are advancing to their first AL Championship Series since 2001. The club’s hard-worked pitching staff will likely be getting some major reinforcements, as M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto told reporters (including the Seattle Times’ Adam Jude) that right-hander Bryan Woo is expected to added to the Mariners’ roster for the next round.
Woo probably won’t pitch until closer to the midpoint of the series, Dipoto said. This means Woo is being lined up for a start when the ALCS shifts to Seattle for Games 3-4 and (if necessary) 5. It also leaves open the question of who exactly will be starting for the Mariners in the first two games in Toronto, as the M’s used starters Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo out of the bullpen during last night’s 15-inning marathon. Gilbert threw 34 pitches over two innings of relief, and Castillo threw 15 pitches over 1 1/3 frames.
Dipoto told Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports 710 radio last night that “probably Bryce [Miller] and friends” would be the plan for Game 1, “but for a couple of days we may have to be creative…simply because so many guys had to pitch in today.” Miller would be working on three days’ rest if he started Game 1, so as Dipoto implied, the bullpen may be leaned on again in what would probably be a limited start for the righty. Castillo is probably the favorite to go in Game 2 with Gilbert’s availability also a question, and in theory, this could line up Gilbert for Game 3, George Kirby in Game 4, and Woo in Game if the M’s chose to deploy their full rotation. This assumes that Woo will be used in a normal starting capacity, and holding him off until the middle of the series would give the right-hander more time to fully ramp up.
Woo posted a 2.94 ERA over 186 2/3 innings during the regular season, but he developed pectoral tightness in a start on September 19 that forced him out of the game after five shutout innings. Woo hasn’t pitched since, though he wasn’t placed on the 15-day injured list, and he was able to throw a bullpen session and a simulated inning prior to the start of the ALDS. Jude wrote prior to Game 5 that Woo threw close to 30 pitches during a bullpen session on Friday, and “appeared to be throwing at roughly 75 percent effort” before kicking things up “closer to 100 percent” for the final few pitches of the session.
Seattle and Toronto don’t have to reveal their ALCS rosters until tomorrow, so we’ll get the final word then on Woo’s involvement and whose spot he’ll be taking on the 26-man. The move to a seven-game series likely means the Mariners will carry an extra pitcher after using 14 position players and 12 pitchers in the ALDS, so a rookie like Ben Williamson or Harry Ford could be the odd man out.
Bryan Woo Left Off Mariners’ ALDS Roster
Right-hander Bryan Woo won’t be part of the Mariners’ AL Division Series roster, according to the Seattle Times’ Adam Jude. “The club is optimistic Woo will be available in the ALCS if they do advance,” Jude writes, though Seattle’s path to the next round will be trickier without their most consistent pitcher from the 2025 season.
Woo’s postseason status has been a question mark since September 19, when the righty left a start after five innings due to pectoral tightness. The M’s didn’t place Woo on the 15-day injured list, which was viewed as a sign that the injury wasn’t overly serious, and that the team was just being cautious in shutting Woo down in advance of what became an increasingly likely playoff berth in the final stretch of September. The fact that the Mariners won the AL West and secured a first-round bye only added to the hope that Woo would be ready once the postseason got underway.
A Thursday bullpen session and a simulated inning marked the first time Woo had thrown off a mound since his injury. Despite initial reports that the bullpen went well, it could be that Woo felt some discomfort the day after his throwing sessions, or perhaps he simply wasn’t close enough to 100 percent for the Mariners to pull the trigger on a roster spot.
More details should become available when manager Dan Wilson speaks with reporters later today, but the bottom line is that the Mariners’ rotation is missing a very important arm. In a season when the usually excellent Seattle pitching staff was more solid than great, Woo took a step forward to lead the pitchers in fWAR (3.6), innings (186 2/3), and ERA (2.94). Woo augmented those numbers with a 4.5% walk rate that ranked among baseball’s best, as well as a very strong 27.1% strikeout rate.
These numbers came on the heels of a very good 2024 season for Woo that was marred only by injuries, as a pair of IL stints limited him to 121 1/3 innings. The full and healthy version of Woo made his first All-Star team in 2025 and established himself as another important frontline piece of the Mariners’ deep rotation, though this pec injury now threatens to bring a sour ending to this breakout campaign.
George Kirby will be the Mariners’ Game 1 starter today, and Luis Castillo will start Game 2. The club hasn’t announced their Game 3 starter once the series shifts to Detroit for at least once game, though Logan Gilbert seems like the logical choice. If a Game 4 is necessary, Bryce Miller will likely start, though it’ll probably be an all-hands-on-deck situation if the Mariners are facing elimination (or if they want to throw everything to try and eliminate the Tigers in four games, with an off-day to rest up the staff before a Game 5 in Seattle).
The Mariners’ full ALDS roster will be announced later today, but Jude reports that rookie catcher Harry Ford and rookie infielder Ben Williamson have made the cut. Williamson’s presence gives Seattle some depth at third base if Eugenio Suarez has to move to first base. Josh Naylor‘s availability for the series beyond Game 1 is in question due to an impending paternity leave, as Naylor’s wife Chantel is on the verge of giving birth to the couple’s first child.
Mariners Notes: Woo, ALDS Roster, Raleigh
No, Ichiro Suzuki isn’t coming out of retirement to be part of the Mariners’ playoff roster. The Hall-of-Famer played six innings in the outfield during a split-squad tune-up game yesterday at T-Mobile Park, adding some extra fun to the proceedings as the M’s got ready for the start of their ALDS matchup with either the Tigers or the Guardians on Saturday.
The final calls on the 26-man playoff roster won’t be announced until a few hours before Saturday’s game, and as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times notes, some of the Mariners’ decisions will likely depend on whether they’re facing Detroit or Cleveland. Perhaps the biggest roster question revolves about Bryan Woo‘s status, but manager Dan Wilson said Woo is set to toss a bullpen session today.
“It seems like things are going according to plan,” Wilson told Divish and other reporters. “He’ll get off the mound on Thursday, and so getting a chance to hear how he comes back from that on Friday and whatnot….We’ll just a continue to take it day by day and assess. And I do believe that we’re in a good spot with that.”
The bullpen session will mark Woo’s first time throwing off a mound since September 19, when pectoral tightness forced him out of a start after five innings. The injury wasn’t severe enough to merit a placement on the 15-day injured list, though naturally the M’s are being as cautious as possible with a pitcher who has been Seattle’s most reliable starter in 2025.
No announcement has been made about the Mariners’ playoff rotation, as Wilson said those decisions will wait until they team knows their opponent and has more input on Woo’s availability. Assuming Woo is able to pitch, however, Divish doesn’t think the right-hander will work in either of Seattle’s first two games of the series. Based on mound work during Wednesday’s warm-ups, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert (in some order) could be the favorites to start Game 1 and Game 2.
The Mariners have long envisioned the idea of these two homegrown arms headlining a playoff series, ever since Kirby was drafted 20th overall in 2019 and Gilbert was the 14th overall pick of the 2018 draft. As MLB.com’s Jim Callis writes, team scout Rob Mummau played a big role in convincing the M’s to select Gilbert, whose stock had somewhat dropped after an ill-timed bout of mononucleosis during the spring before the draft.
The focus of Callis’ piece is on Mummau’s real find of the 2018 draft, as the scout’s glowing reports led the Mariners to take Cal Raleigh with their third-round pick (90th overall). Raleigh wasn’t a complete diamond in the rough, as the M’s had to pay Raleigh $221.3K over the slot value of the 90th overall pick to convince Raleigh to leave Florida State after his junior year. However, while Raleigh was coming off a big season at FSU, his draft stock had fallen due to an unimpressive sophomore year.
Mummau (who had some past ties to Raleigh’s family) knew that Raleigh had been dealing with a thumb injury that season. As a result, Mummau’s grades on Raleigh’s offensive and defensive tools were notably higher than other scouts, who projected Raleigh as a part-time starting catcher at best. It was enough for the Mariners to make the pick and the rest has become history, as Raleigh has exceeded all expectations to become a superstar on both sides of the ball.
Bryan Woo Suffering From “Minor” Pectoral Inflammation
September 20: Woo’s MRI revealed “minor” inflammation in his pectoral muscle, manager Dan Wilson told reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times) today. Wilson added that the team won’t know for another 24-48 hours whether or not Woo will require a trip to the injured list due to the issue.
September 19: Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo made an early exit from tonight’s start, as Woo left the mound after a few warm-up pitches prior to the start of his sixth inning of work. Following the game, M’s manager Dan Wilson told the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish that Woo was dealing with “a little pec tightness” and would undergo an MRI on Saturday to explore the extent of the injury.
Wilson said that Woo initially told him about the discomfort after the previous inning, so the warm-up pitches were just a precautionary way of testing things before the decision was made to pull Woo from the game. Catching any possible injury early left Wilson hopeful that Woo has avoided something more serious, though more will be known once the tests are complete.
Woo hadn’t shown any indication anything was wrong, as he was masterful in limiting the Astros to just one hit and one walk over five shutout innings. The bullpen kept up the good work in finishing off Seattle’s 4-0 shutout win, which put the Mariners a game ahead of Houston in the AL West standings. The M’s also moved into position for a first-round bye, by dint of winning their season series with the AL Central-leading Tigers. With the playoff push in full swing and the Seattle fans dreaming of October success, losing Woo to the injured list would be a huge setback for the streaking Mariners.
The usually dominant M’s rotation took an overall step backwards this season, but Woo has been a stabilizing force in what has been the best of his three big league seasons. Even before tonight’s gem, Woo had a 3.02 ERA and 26.8% strikeout rate over 181 2/3 innings. A .238 BABIP has certainly added to Woo’s success and helped counter his hard-contact issues, but Woo has helped his own cause with an elite 4.9% walk rate that sits among the league’s best.
Amidst all of the impressive stats, the 186 2/3 innings Woo has now logged may be the most noteworthy, given the injury concerns that plagued the early stages of his career. He was recovering from a Tommy John surgery in his college days when the Mariners made him a sixth-round selection in the 2021 draft, and Woo missed time due to arm injuries in both 2022 and 2023, though he was able to make his MLB debut in the latter season. Elbow inflammation delayed his 2024 debut until May 10, and between that IL stint and a hamstring strain, Woo was limited to 121 1/3 big league frames last year.
Logan Gilbert Expressing Interest In Future Extension With Mariners
As the regular season gets underway, fans in Seattle enter the year on the heels of an offseason that didn’t see the Mariners make many significant changes to the roster, with veteran infielder Donovan Solano standing as the club’s most notable addition. Even after that quiet winter and missing the postseason in both 2024 and ’23, however, the team still remains in good position to compete in 2025 thanks primarily to an elite starting rotation that features four young, homegrown arms with front-of-the-rotation abilities: Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo. Seattle resisted overtures from clubs all around the league regarding their top starters this winter, and Adam Jude of the Seattle Times indicates that the club could have an eye on keeping those young arms in town long-term.
“Frankly, I’d love to see all the four young pitchers stay here,” Mariners chairman John Stanton told Jude. “It takes an interest on the players part and an interest on the organization’s part. But I think we, as an organization, are real believers in having a core group. There’s some symmetry … in keeping a group together that is as talented as our guys are, and I feel great about that.”
Stanton’s comments track with the club’s organizational philosophy of prioritizing extending their in-house talent rather than signing players in free agency. Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, and J.P. Crawford are among the current Mariners who have signed lucrative extensions with the club after either being developed by the club or acquired via trade. Just before Opening Day, the Mariners added another player to that list when they locked up star catcher Cal Raleigh on a six-year extension that will keep him in Seattle through at least the end of the 2030 season. The $105MM pact, which comes with $99.4MM in new money, locks up Raleigh after a three-season stretch where he emerged as one of the best offensive catchers in the sport and on the heels of a Gold Glove winning 2024 season.
Raleigh’s strides behind the plate have been such that he’s been nearly universally lauded among the Mariners’ pitching staff, with Gilbert in particular offering effusive praise for his longtime battery mate. Jude relays that the right-hander noted that the club’s decision to extend Raleigh “definitely” gives him further reason to stay in Seattle long-term, though it’s clear that Gilbert has interest in an extension even outside of continue to work with Raleigh.
“[The Mariners] know where I stand,” Gilbert said, as relayed.by Jude. “Seattle has become like home for me, and I’d love to be able to finish my career here.”
It’s less clear where Kirby, Woo, and Miller stand on the possibility of signing with the club long-term, but Gilbert’s desire to stick around is surely encouraging news for Mariners fans. The club’s ace has been among the most reliable pitchers in baseball since his breakout 2022 campaign, with a 3.36 ERA (112 ERA+) and a 3.50 FIP since then. He’s combined those solid results with durability that’s become rare in today’s game. In each of the past three seasons, Gilbert has posted between 32 and 33 starts, and his 208 2/3 innings of work in his first career All-Star campaign last year led the major leagues and helped him to a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young award voting.
With two seasons of team control remaining after this one and his 28th birthday approaching in May, it seems as though Gilbert is entering a phase of his career where an extension could make plenty of sense for both sides, guaranteeing the righty significant money through his early-to-mid 30s while extending the Mariners’ window of control through the rest of Gilbert’s prime.
All this being said, it doesn’t appear likely that a deal is around the corner. Gilbert acknowledged to Jude that it’s been “a while” since the Mariners approached his camp about the possibility of an extension, and added that he would be hesitant about opening up extension talks during the season. Those comments would suggest that, if an extension between the sides were going to come together, it would most likely wait until the coming offseason, when Gilbert will be preparing for his penultimate trip through arbitration.
Poll: The Mariners’ Dilemma In Dealing From The Rotation
If there’s one standout trait about the Mariners headed in 2025, it’s their elite rotation; Seattle has the most impressive collection of young, cost-controlled starting pitching talent in the majors right now. Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo combined for more than 700 innings of 3.18 ERA baseball in 2024. Gilbert, who turns 28 in May, is the oldest of the group and the quartet has a combined 17 seasons of team control remaining.
That crop of talented young starters is the envy of the rest of the league, but if there’s a second standout trait about the 2025 Mariners it’s their questionable offense. Cal Raleigh is among the best offensive catchers in the game, but the lineup offers little certainty outside of him. Julio Rodriguez has superstar upside but didn’t show it for much of last year as he entered July hitting just .247/.297/.327. Randy Arozarena managed an excellent 11.7% walk rate down the stretch after being traded to the Mariners midseason, but hit just five home runs in 54 games and was worth just 1.9 fWAR overall last year between his time in Seattle and Tampa.
The trio of Raleigh, Rodriguez, and Arozarena all project to be above average hitters in 2025, but the rest of the lineup is well below average. Victor Robles enjoyed a career year after joining the Mariners midseason last year, but his elite performance in Seattle was carried by a .388 BABIP. Between that extreme good fortune with batted ball luck and his career .236/.311/.356 (81 wRC+) slash line prior to joining the Mariners, it’s hard to expect more than league average production from Robles in 2025. Dylan Moore and Luke Raley both posted solid numbers in 2025 but are platoon players who can’t be relied on in everyday roles, while J.P. Crawford, Mitch Haniger, and Mitch Garver were all well below average hitters in 2024.
The club’s only addition to the offense to this point has been Donovan Solano, who posted solid numbers in 2024 but figures to join Moore and Raley as another part-time player. A combination of Moore, Raley, and Solano seem likely to be capable of handling first and second base, but the club’s lineup still has a gaping hole at the hot corner after non-tendering Josh Rojas and declining Jorge Polanco‘s club option. MLBTR explored the third base market as it pertains to the Mariners earlier this month, but none of the free agent options that fit their budget and lower-level trade candidates available are particularly inspiring.
The Mariners have been hesitant to trade from their excellent rotation, only reluctantly listening to offers on pricey veteran Luis Castillo and seemingly shutting down discussions regarding their young core of arms entirely. But shopping a cost-controlled, elite starting pitcher could open up new possibilities for the club to add impact talent that wouldn’t have been available otherwise. The Red Sox reportedly dangled an impact youngster in first baseman Triston Casas in exchange for either Miller or Woo earlier this winter, and it’s easy to imagine rotation-needy clubs offering similarly impactful talent in exchange for a young arm of that caliber.
Dangling Gilbert or Kirby would surely land the Mariners an even more enticing package in exchange given their solid track records of front-of-the-rotation work in the majors to this point. The Orioles, for example, have a deep group of positional talent but are in need of an impact starter. It’s not impossible to imagine Baltimore being willing to part with an established young talent like Jordan Westburg as the headliner in a package for someone like Gilbert, perhaps packaged with a less impactful cost-controlled arm like Dean Kremer to ease the blow to Seattle’s rotation.
Turning away from the Orioles, Mark Vientos of the Mets and Matt McLain of the Reds are among the other high-end, cost-controlled third basemen who the Mariners could theoretically seek as a headliner in a package for one of their top starters, though neither is quite as valuable as Westburg. Of course, such deals are easier to propose than actually execute. While a team like Cincinnati packaging McLain with one of their own rotation arms like Nick Lodolo in order to land an elite talent like Gilbert could make sense on paper, the injury history of both players could give the Mariners plenty of pause about giving up one of their most valuable assets for little in the way of certainty and the Reds may be equally hesitant to offer up two established players with All-Star upside in exchange for one.
That’s just one example, of course, but it’s equally difficult to imagine the Mariners lining up on the right trade package for a player as valuable as Gilbert or Kirby with the vast majority of rival clubs. High-end, cost-controlled starting pitching is the single most desirable asset in the sport, and while fans of rival teams have long dreamed of their GM working out a trade with Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to bring one of the Mariners’ young aces to town they’d surely start feeling queasy about the possibility upon seeing just how much their team would need to part with in order to land such a coveted talent.
If you were in the Mariners’ shoes, how would you approach the situation? Would you take the same course Dipoto has and simply refuse to seriously entertain offers for your elite group of young pitchers, looking to upgrade the team in other ways like by dealing Castillo? Would you listen to offers while holding firm on a high asking price? Or would you compromise on the value of one of your top assets in order to help bolster an offense in desperate need of impact? Have your say in the poll below:
How Should Seattle Handle Its Young Starting Pitching?
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Listen to offers, but only trade one if another team makes a huge offer. 60% (3,160)
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Hold onto the whole group and build around them. 25% (1,319)
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Shop them aggressively and work out a deal that improves the lineup no matter the cost. 15% (809)
Total votes: 5,288