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Mariners Activate George Kirby For Season Debut

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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.

Mariners Reinstate Matt Brash From Injured List

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The Mariners announced that right-hander Matt Brash has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. He underwent UCL surgery last year and will be making his first major league appearance since the 2023 season whenever he gets into a game. Right-hander Troy Taylor was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma as the corresponding move.

It’s a little bit of an early birthday present for Brash, who will turn 27 on May 12th. Prior to his recent absence, he was in the process of establishing himself as a potent bullpen weapon for the Mariners. Coming into 2022, the M’s were still using him as a starter. He made his major league debut with five starts early that year but posted a 7.65 earned run average. They optioned him down to the minors and started converting him to relief.

Since then, the results have been excellent. He was recalled in July and tossed 30 2/3 innings out of the bullpen the rest of the way. In that time, he had a 2.35 ERA, 33.9% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate. He added 3 1/3 scoreless innings in the postseason. In 2023, his first full season as a reliever, he logged 70 2/3 innings with a 3.06 ERA, 34.7% strikeout rate and much-improved 9.4% walk rate.

Since getting called up in July of 2022, he has a 2.84 ERA over 101 1/3 innings with a 34.5% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. He became a part of the club’s high-leverage group, earning four saves and 33 holds in that time.

Unfortunately, that’s been on pause for over a year. He experienced some arm troubles early in 2024 and eventually went under the knife in May. Now that he’s back, it’ll be a nice boost for the Seattle bullpen. Jackson Kowar is still recovering from his own UCL surgery. Gregory Santos recently underwent knee surgery and was quickly transferred to the 60-day IL, meaning he won’t be coming back anytime soon.

The club’s relievers have a collective 3.69 ERA this year, which puts them just outside the top ten. However, their 18.9% strikeout rate is actually 28th in the league, ahead of just the Cardinals and Marlins. Assuming Brash gets back to his previous strikeout ways, he’ll give them a nice bump in that department. Andrés Muñoz is the Seattle closer but Brash should jump in and take one of the prime setup roles.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Casey Lawrence Elects Free Agency

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April 16: The Mariners announced that Lawrence cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma. MLBTR has learned that Lawrence will elect free agency rather than accept that assignment.

April 14: The Mariners announced Monday that right-hander Casey Lawrence has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to righty Troy Taylor, who’s being reinstated from the 15-day injured list. It’s also worth noting that right-hander Jesse Hahn, whom Seattle outrighted to Triple-A over the weekend, has rejected that assignment in favor of free agency, according to the transaction log at MiLB.com.

Lawrence, 37, was called to the big leagues last week for a return stint with Seattle. He pitched the final three innings of their April 9 game against the Astros and was credited with a win after allowing a pair of runs on four hits and a walk (no strikeouts). It’s the third season in which the well-traveled Lawrence has suited up for the Mariners. He also pitched with Seattle in 2017 and 2018, in addition to spending the entire 2024 season with their Triple-A club. In 127 big league innings, Lawrence has a 6.73 ERA with a 16.6% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate.

The Mariners clearly like Lawrence and have a good relationship with him. Since 2017, they’ve claimed him off waivers and signed him to three minor league contracts. He can be placed on waivers or traded at any point in the next five days. Waivers would be another 48-hour process.

Within a week’s time, we’ll know the outcome of his DFA, although given his track record and history with the organization, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he accepted an outright assignment or quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal after clearing waivers and electing free agency. He’s already spent the past year-plus living and pitching in the Seattle/Tacoma area, after all, and he could be called upon in similar situations if the Mariners decide they need a fresh arm in the ’pen once again.

Taylor, 23, was a quick-to-the-majors reliever who impressed during his 2024 MLB debut. A 12th-round pick by the M’s in 2022, Taylor logged 19 1/3 innings last year and turned in a 3.72 ERA with a huge 30.9% strikeout rate against a solid 8.6% walk rate. That performance came on the heels of 42 2/3 minor league innings during which the UC-Irvine product recorded a stellar 1.27 ERA with a 27.6% strikeout rate and identical 8.6% walk rate.

Taylor missed the first two-plus weeks of the season with a minor lat strain. He made five rehab appearances and was torched for six runs on nine hits (one homer) and a walk in 3 1/3 innings. Most of that damage came in one outing where he was tagged for three runs without recording an out, however. Clearly, the Mariners are encouraged by the current state of his stuff and his previously ailing lat, as they could’ve simply optioned Taylor to Triple-A rather than reinstate him to the big league roster.

Hahn, 35, pitched in the majors for the first time since 2021 earlier this year when he tossed four frames for the Mariners. Injuries have continually plagued the right-hander, who’s been limited to 29 1/3 MLB frames (and 85 innings overall) since 2019. He’s continued grinding through rehab after rehab, however, and was rewarded with a brief big league return. Hahn could get another look with the M’s on a new minor league deal or latch on elsewhere as a minor league depth option now that he’s once again a free agent.

Jerry Dipoto Discusses Castillo, Lineup, Polanco

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Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto met with reporters this afternoon after the team finalized the one-year deal to retain Jorge Polanco. Seattle’s longtime front office leader addressed the team’s atypically quiet offseason while providing a couple injury updates.

Dipoto said the front office entered the winter believing they could be in for a slow offseason. “One of our points going into this offseason, and I know I made it sitting in the dugout in the final series, was that we didn’t anticipate a great deal of movement around the team,” he told the beat (including Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). “As we are now about a week away from heading to Spring Training, I’d say that probably played out to be spot on, much to, I think, the dismay of a few. But we have a good team.”

Seattle has made two major league free agent signings. They brought Polanco back on a $7.75MM guarantee and added Donovan Solano as a part-time righty bat for $3.5MM. Reporting from both The Seattle Times and MLB.com throughout the offseason has suggested that ownership was only allowing the front office to allocate between $15MM-20MM to the MLB payroll. While the lack of free agent activity has certainly been a source of frustration for much of the fanbase, it’s not especially surprising.

The more interesting development has been the M’s willingness to sit out the trade market. They’ve made four trades this offseason, all of which have been depth acquisitions for players who were in DFA limbo: Austin Shenton, Miles Mastrobuoni, Blake Hunt and Will Klein. Those are akin to waiver claims. The Mariners essentially haven’t made a single notable move on the trade market, a stark contrast to Dipoto’s reputation as one of the game’s most prolific traders. The “Trader Jerry” nickname has been well earned in prior offseasons.

Most trade speculation concerned the possibility of the Mariners moving a starting pitcher to add a hitter. As Dipoto noted today, he did indeed downplay that notion before last season even ended. He famously called dealing from the rotation the M’s “Plan Z” for the offseason in the referenced media scrum. That didn’t stop other teams from inquiring on Seattle’s young rotation nucleus of George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo, but there’s nothing to suggest the Mariners gave strong consideration to moving any of them.

The one starter who was available was Luis Castillo. The veteran righty is under contract for another three seasons and $68.25MM (plus a 2028 vesting option). Trading Castillo could have created spending room while netting the M’s immediate lineup help. It wasn’t going to be a straight salary dump, though, and Seattle hasn’t found an offer it finds compelling. The Seattle Times’ Adam Jude reported last week that Castillo was unlikely to move at this point.

Dipoto implied as much in today’s comments. He told Jude and other reporters that the front office received some proposals that warranted real consideration, but those obviously did not result in a deal. “Not shockingly, we had inquiries on all five of our starting pitchers and dozens of prospects along the way,” he added. “But obviously we opted not to go that route.” While he left open the possibility of making another move, he noted that the front office would be happy with the roster “if this is our team going into Spring Training or Opening Day” (via Divish and Jude).

The Mariners will go into Spring Training with arguably MLB’s best 1-5 in the rotation. Their depth behind that is lacking, though perhaps quick-moving prospect Logan Evans can soon be a factor. Seattle benefited from excellent rotation health last year. Woo was the only member of their front five who made fewer than 30 starts. That’ll be difficult to replicate, but when the rotation is at full strength, they’re giving the ball to an above-average starter every night.

As has long been the case, the question is whether they’ll score enough runs. Dipoto expressed confidence in the lineup, pointing to their success later in the season after the managerial and hitting coach changes. Seattle hitters had a .216/.301/.365 batting line through August 21. After dismissing Scott Servais and Jarret DeHart in favor of Dan Wilson and Edgar Martinez, respectively, they hit .255/.347/.417 in their final 34 games.

Attributing that entirely to the coaching changes is overly simplistic. They improved the lineup at the deadline with the Justin Turner and Randy Arozarena pickups and league-wide offense tends to peak later in the summer with warmer weather. Still, the change in voice probably played some part in the much improved finish. The Mariners play in the sport’s toughest home park for hitters. Only the White Sox had a lower team OPS in home games. Seattle ranked 13th in OPS on the road. Mike Petriello of MLB.com examined some reasons behind T-Mobile Park’s extreme pitcher-friendly environment last week in a column that’s well worth a full read.

Dipoto also addressed a few injury situations. He expressed confidence in Polanco’s health after the veteran infielder played through a left knee injury that eventually required a meniscus repair. The Mariners believe the move from his longtime second base position to third base will take less of a toll on him physically. Meanwhile, reliever Troy Taylor suffered a lat strain during his offseason workouts and will not be ready for the start of camp. It’s not clear if he’ll need to begin the regular season on the injured list. The righty turned in a 3.72 ERA while striking out nearly 31% of opposing hitters across 21 appearances as a rookie.

Mariners Select Troy Taylor

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The Mariners announced that the contract of right-hander Troy Taylor has been selected from Double-A Arkansas.  Righty Eduard Bazardo was optioned to Triple-A to create room on the active roster, and no further transaction was required since Seattle had an open space on its 40-man roster.

Taylor was a 12th-round pick in the 2022 draft, and a dominant showing in his second pro season has put the 22-year-old in line for his Major League debut.  Over a combined 42 2/3 innings with Double-A Arkansas and high-A Everett, Taylor has a 1.27 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate, 8.59% walk rate, and outstanding grounder rates.  The performance was impressive enough for the Mariners to add him to the 40-man roster, giving Taylor the nod ahead of other Triple-A arms already on the 40-man.

A full-time reliever in both college ball and in the professional ranks, MLB Pipeline’s scouting report feels Taylor has a “closer’s profile,” while Baseball America feels Taylor “has the stuff to be a mid-leverage reliever with further development.”  (BA has Taylor 21st on its list of the top 30 Mariners prospects, while Pipeline has him a bit lower in 23rd.)  Both outlets describe Taylor’s slider and fastball as plus pitches, if control can sometimes be an issue since the two pitches both have a lot of movement.  Taylor’s fastball sits in the 94-96mph range and he has dial it up to 98mph on occasion.

The M’s aren’t likely to use Taylor in many high-leverage situations right away, given how pitching key innings in a pennant race is a lot to ask of a pitcher in his first exposure to big league hitters.  Still, Taylor brings another intriguing  arm to an overall solid Mariners bullpen, and Taylor could help make up for the continued injury absence of Gregory Santos.

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