{"id":727947,"date":"2026-06-17T02:51:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/727947\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T02:51:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:51:43","slug":"the-mariners-are-about-to-deploy-an-unorthodox-pitching-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/727947\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mariners are about to deploy an unorthodox pitching plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mariners are shaking things up in their starting rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a crowded stable of six starting pitchers \u2014 Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Luis Castillo and Emerson Hancock \u2014 Seattle revealed Tuesday that they will use a \u201cpiggyback\u201d pitching plan through the All-Star break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of a traditional five-man or expanded six-man rotation, the Mariners will have each of their starters work in a piggyback setup, meaning they will either open the game or cover bulk innings behind another starter while skipping their usual start, helping the team manage workloads and keep all six starters involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LuisLuis Castillo of the Seattle Mariners pitches against the Detroit Tigers during the second inning at Comerica Park on June 7, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of the six guys will either appear as the front end or the back end one time in the next 30 days,\u201d Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said, per the Seattle Times<\/a>. \u201cEach guy will be a participant for one day, so roughly everyone will sacrifice an inning or two innings over the next 30 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

After some frustration from Miller and Castillo<\/a> when the Mariners last tried the piggyback plan in May, it appears everyone is on board this time around, with Hollander saying this was a \u201cunanimous\u201d decision with the six starters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAny way you did it, it wasn\u2019t going to be ideal or perfect for everybody, but [they tried] to pick the options that made the most sense for everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite some hesitancy with the plan last month, Miller and Castillo combined for a 1.67 ERA in three outings as the piggyback duo, covering 27 of 28 innings in those games, giving the Mariners\u2019 bullpen a rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hollander described the plan as more of a short-term solution than some grand pitching experiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to revolutionize pitching in any way,\u201d Hollander said. \u201cBut for this group that we have right now, I think it\u2019s the right thing to do. And I think everybody landed on that unanimously for this group, and I think the starters began to understand and embrace it when we talked to them on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BryanBryan Woo of the Seattle Mariners pitches against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on June 11, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Mariners\u2019 rotation has been one of the best in baseball this season, posting a 3.82 ERA heading into Tuesday\u2019s play, which is the seventh-best mark in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seattle, entering Tuesday, is 37-36 and holds a 1\/2-game lead in the American League West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mariners are shaking things up in their starting rotation.\u00a0 With a crowded stable of six starting pitchers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2392],"tags":[5,331,620,4,619,65,3235,185],"class_list":["post-727947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-mariners","tag-baseball","tag-luis-castillo","tag-mariners","tag-mlb","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-seattlemariners","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116763183441695493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}