The Seattle Mariners will be without a member of their vaunted rotation to begin the season. Right-hander George Kirby has been shut down with shoulder inflammation, the team announced Friday. Kirby has not been bouncing back well between outings and was sent for tests, which revealed the inflammation. He will start the season on the injured list.
“We did an MRI. MRI looks great. No structural concerns whatsoever. And I will repeat that, zero structural concerns,” GM Justin Hollander said. “There is some inflammation in there that we need to get out. Much to George’s chagrin, we’re going to take the ball out of his hands. George wants to keep going … We will shut George down and work on getting the inflammation out.”
Hollander added the injury is “more like a week-to-week thing than a day-to-day thing,” and the Mariners will proceed with the big picture in mind rather than doing whatever gets Kirby back on the mound the quickest. He dealt with shoulder inflammation in 2020 and again as a minor leaguer in 2021, though this will be his first ever stint on the MLB injured list.
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George Kirby
SEA • SP • #68
ERA
3.53
WHIP
1.07
IP
191
BB
23
K
179
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The Mariners have one of the best rotations in baseball. Their 1-5 can match up with any team. The depth behind that top five is not great, however, and it will be tested early the season while Kirby is sidelined. Seattle’s rotation depth chart looks something this:
RHP Logan Gilbert
RHP George Kirby (will start season on injured list)
RHP Luis Castillo
RHP Bryce Miller
RHP Bryan Woo
RHP Emerson Hancock
RHP Jhonathan Díaz (cleared waivers in February)
RHP Casey Lawrence (37-year-old journeyman)
RHP Logan Evans (never pitched above Double-A)
Hancock is the odds-on favorite to slide into Kirby’s rotation spot. He’s struggled to establish himself at the big league level since being the No. 6 overall pick in the 2020 draft. Hancock, 26 in May, has a 4.71 ERA in 15 MLB starts the last two years.
The Mariners have been criticized about their lack of spending, including by their former players, and the lack of investment in the offense means the club’s margin of error isn’t large. Losing Kirby for any length of time is a major blow. Seattle’s chances revolve around their rotation being great, and now they’ll be without on their top starters to begin the regular season.
Kirby, 27, made his MLB debut in May 2022 and has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since. Last year he threw 191 innings with a 3.53 ERA and an MLB-best 7.78 K/BB ratio. Over the last two seasons, Kirby has walked only 42 batters in 381 2/3 innings. His 0.99 BB/9 those two years is easily the lowest in baseball.
The Mariners went 85-77 and missed the postseason by one game in 2024. The snapped their two-decade postseason drought in 2022, but have missed the postseason the last two years.
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