Seattle Mariners GM's updates on George Kirby, Logan Gilbert

The Seattle Mariners added a third starting pitcher to their injured list on Wednesday, but the updates on all three of those pitchers from general manager Justin Hollander were generally positive.

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Hollander joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy at T-Mobile Park right after the team announced Bryce Miller had been placed on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation. In addition to providing the latest on Miller, which you can read about at this link, Hollander shared where All-Star right-handers George Kirby and Logan Gilbert are in their recoveries.

Here’s a look at what Hollander had to say about Kirby and Gilbert.

George Kirby

The Mariners have yet to get Kirby on a big league mound this year as he was shut down in spring training with shoulder inflammation. That’s a key point as while Kirby has made two outings on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma, the fact that he didn’t have a spring training is something the Mariners are very much keeping in mind.

“George is supposed to throw his next rehab outing on (Friday, May 16). We’re kind of taking it outing by outing and seeing where he’s at, how he feels,” Hollander said. “So we’ll see how George does on the 16th and how he feels afterwards.”

Hollander had said before that Kirby would need at least three rehab outings before being activated by the Mariners, but at this point Seattle may want to take a little more time.

“No guarantee that we would activate him for the next start in the big leagues. It just depends on how it goes (Friday),” Hollander said. “We want to make sure George is ready. … We do want to keep in mind George didn’t have a spring training, so the things that you experience over six starts or seven starts in spring training, trying to condense those down into two or three starts in a Triple-A environment (is) maybe not the smartest thing we can do unless we’re really confident that he’s good to go.

“We wanna make sure that we’re being smart, playing the long game with George, who’s got a lot of days in front of him. And we don’t want to think about just the next big league game in front of us.”

Logan Gilbert

On Tuesday, Gilbert threw his first bullpen at T-Mobile Park since he landed on the injured list with a right elbow flexor strain late last month.

Gilbert said he threw about 90% effort, and Hollander shared Wednesday that his velocity was around 92-94 mph, with his last pitch hitting 95.

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“He felt good afterwards, which is obviously the most important thing beyond the velocity,” Hollander said. “We’ll just see where Logan’s at over the next couple of days and when he’s ready for his next bullpen and go from there. Again, we feel like it’s going great so far.”

Hollander didn’t offer any dates on when Gilbert could start a rehab assignment but seemed encouraged by how Gilbert is progressing.

“They are injuries and you can never truly predict – it’s art and science – when he’s going to be back,” Hollander said, “but we feel like he’s definitely on the right track.”

In six starts for the Mariners this season, Gilbert has a 2.37 ERA and 0.791 WHIP.

Seattle Mariners GM’s updates on George Kirby, Logan Gilbert

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