How the Seattle Mariners’ piggyback starting pitcher strategy is working
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman is joined by Toronto Blue Jays writer Ben Nicholson-Smith to discuss how the Seattle Mariners are handling their string of strong starting pitchers. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The Seattle Mariners, known for their pitching staff for, for the last few seasons, have had a very interesting development this season, which is that Emerson Hancock, former first round pick, has emerged as a very, very good starting pitcher.
Now, because of that, in tandem with the other homegrown guys that have been there and are established, like Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby, and Brian Wu, you also then have Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo.
Luis Castillo, who was really struggling to start the season, Bryce Miller, who was injured to start the season.
And because Emerson Hancock was throwing so well, they did not want to say, "Emerson Hancock, sorry, back to the bullpen with you.
Back to Tacoma with you."
When Bryce Miller got back from injury, you had six starters for five spots.
They did not want to go to a six-man rotation.
And so the Mariners decided, "You know what?
We are going to do a classic modern baseball strategy known as the piggyback."
And that is where you have two starters essentially s- pitching on the same day.
But the Mariners have taken this to an extreme.
Now multiple times they have essentially gone to Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller and said, "The whole game is yours."
They have alternated starting, but this was most relevant on Sunday where they combined to throw 10 innings in a walk-off victory over the Diamondbacks to sweep Arizona.
Before we get to what's going on in Pittsburgh, what do you make of the Luis Castillo, Bryce Miller, Emerson Hancock conundrum?
So I think this is, this gets to kind of the heart of it.
But from the outside, I think it's actually kind of cool.
And you look at, you know, the, the first time where Castillo started and then Miller finished the last four innings, hey, that, that worked really well.
Then they flip it this time, Miller's starting, now Castillo's finishing.
It saves the bullpen.
You're getting good production out of these pitchers.
They stay stretched out, so when someone else inevitably goes down, they are not building back up from 25 or 30 pitches.
They have a strong baseline to work from.
So outside looking in from a very great distance, it makes sense.
Now, of course, once you get closer, pitchers are creatures of habit.
They very rarely like this, and this is where the discussion's going.
So you know, it's a, it's a tough thing to do.
Now, I do think the way Bryce Miller's pitching, you cannot take him out of this role.
He has to be, a big part of the Mariners pitching staff.
He's just too good not to be.
what that means for Luis Castillo, TBD.
and ideally you keep him stretched out in some capacity.
But to me, it always starts with the guys who are performing best, and right now Miller is one of their five best pitchers.
