Seattle Mariners Manager Comments on Decision to Reshuffle Rotation

Originally posted on Seattle Mariners on SI
By Teren Kowatsch | Last updated Sep 17, 2024 8:05 PM ET

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners have 12 games left in the season with remaining series against the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics.

The Mariners will close out their current homestead in a three-game series against the Yankees with Game 1 starting at 6:40 p.m. PT on Tuesday.

Before Seattle's series against New York, the Mariners got dealt a massive blow when starting pitcher Luis Castillo was placed on the 15-day injured list on Sept. 10 (retroactive to Sept. 9) with a left hamstring strain.

The Mariners compensated for Castillo's injury by bumping starting pitcher Logan Gilbert to Castillo's normal spot in the rotation and recalling Emerson Hancock from the team's Triple-A affiliate Tacoma Rainiers to fill in for Gilbert's usual No. 5 spot. Seattle shifted things again to have Gilbert close out the series against New York.

And the reshuffling of the rotation might help the Mariners in the long-term.

With the new rotation, Gilbert started against the Texas Rangers, will close out the series against New York and will start during the series against Houston.

Logan Gilbert, 98mph Paint. ️ pic.twitter.com/D7WBVaAosW
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 15, 2024

"We looked at the pitching and with Castillo on the IL, just kind of looked to maximize what we could do outside of that," Seattle manager Dan Wilson said in a pregame interview Tuesday. "Having it set up the way it is is what we were looking to do. And these next 12 games is obviously a very important stretch. It's the stretch. So everything we can do in this time is what we were looking to do."

Gilbert, a 2024 All-Star, has a 3.24 ERA this season in 30 starts with 198 strikeouts in 191.2 innings pitched.

Barring anything disastrous happening, Gilbert will likely pass 200 strikeouts and 200 innings pitched before the season is over. And if things go well for the Mariners, those milestones for Gilbert will also coincide with a playoff berth for Seattle.

This article first appeared on Seattle Mariners on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: