George Joseph Kirby...graduated from Rye (NY) High School in 2016 where he was named to the all-metro, all-state and all-league baseball teams three times...originally selected by the New York Mets in the 32nd round of the 2016 MLB Draft, but did not sign…spent three seasons a Elon University, where he was named Colonial Athletic Association
Pitcher of the Year in 2019…highest drafted player in Elon University history (20th overall)...Has spent entire professional career in Mariners organization...originally selected by the Mariners in the first round (20th overall) in the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Elon University...made Major League debut with the Mariners on May 8, 2022 vs. Tampa Bay...selected to first AL All-Star Team in 2023.
2023
Went 13-10 with a 3.35 ERA (71 ER, 190.2 IP), 19 walks and 172 strikeouts through 31 games started...Was named to his first career All-Star Team and became the fourth Mariners pitcher to appear in an All-Star Game in Seattle, joining Freddy Garcia, Jeff Nelson and Kazuhiro Sasaki (2001)...Set career-best marks in wins (13), ERA (3.35), starts (31), innings pitched (190.2), walks (19), strikeouts (172), WHIP (1.04) and opponent average (.246)...Finished the season with a career-high 20 quality starts, most among Mariners pitchers and tied for third-most in the American League...made eight consecutive quality starts (April 9-May 26), his longest quality start streak in his career...his eight-game quality start streak was tied for the third-longest such streak in the Majors in 2023...Led all qualified pitchers in the Majors with a 9.05 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2023, fourth-best SO/BB ratio in a single season in American League history among qualified starting pitchers...Pitched his first career complete game on April 27 at Philadelphia, tossing 8.0 IP and allowing 1 R on 4 H and 1 BB with 7 K...he became the first Mariners pitcher to lose a complete game since Taijuan Walker on Sept. 24, 2014 at Toronto...Made his 50th career start on Aug. 23 at Chicago White Sox...through his first 50 career starts Kirby recorded 275 strikeouts and 36 walks...his 7.64 strikeout-to-walk ratio was highest in Major League history through a pitcher’s first 50 career starts...Made 11 starts of at least seven innings, tied for the third-most 7.0+ inning starts in the Majors...pitched 7.0+ innings in three consecutive starts (April 27-May 9)...prior to the streak, Kirby had never pitched 7.0+ IP in consecutive games...during the streak Kirby was 2-1 with a 1.64 ERA (4 ER, 22.0 IP) with two walks and 18 strikeouts...Recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts twice in 2023, first on June 13 at Miami, and again on July 20 vs. Minnesota...Ended the first half of the season at 8-7 with a 3.09 ERA (37 ER, 107.2 IP), 10 BB and 89 SO through 17 starts on his way to making his first career All-Star appearance...Recorded his 300th career strikeout on Oct. 1 vs. Texas in his 56th career start...his 56 starts were tied for the third-fastest to reach 300 career strikeouts in franchise history (also: Logan Gilbert).
2022
Went 8-5 with a 3.39 ERA (49 ER, 130.0 IP) in rookie campaign…limited opponents to a .246 (135x511), while walking 22 and striking out 133...Among all Major League rookies, ranked third in wins (8), thrd in innings pitched (130.0), third in ERA (3.39) and 4th in strikeouts (133)...Recorded 11 quality starts, including seven quality starts over a 14-game stretch, May 31-Aug. 24…allowed two or fewer earned runs in 18 of 25 starts, including 5 scoreless outings...DStruck out a season-high nine batters three times: May 24 vs. Oakland, July 2 vs. Oakland and Aug. 24 vs. Washington...Made Major League debut May 8 vs. Tampa Bay, allowing only four hits while walking 0 and striking out seven over 6.0 scoreless innings...Became the first pitcher in club history to toss 6.0+ scoreless innings in a Major League debut...the first pitcher to throw 6.0+ scoreless innings without allowing a walk in an MLB debut since Devin Smeltzer-MIN on May 28, 2019...Smeltzer also recorded seven strikeouts...Kirby’s seven strikeouts in his Major League debut were tied for second-most by a Seattle pitcher making their debut...the seven Ks are tied with Brian Snyder (5/25/1985) and Jim Converse (5/22/1993), trailing only Enrique Romo (4/7/1977), who had nine strikeouts...Kirby registered a “game score” of 71 in his MLB Debut, the highest mark of any Mariners hurler making their MLB debut in club history...it surpassed Blake Beavan (7/3/2011), who had a 69 game score...game score is a statistic devised by Bill James that marks an “average” pitching outing at 50...Became the first starter in AL history with one ER or less, one twoalk or less and eight-or-more strikeouts in his first two career games (min. 10.0 IP): May 8 vs. Tampa Bay (6.0,4,0,0,0,7) and May 14 at New York-NL (4.0,3,3,1,1,1)...His 7.79 SO/BB ratio through his first 20 starts was the highest mark in MLB history, ranking ahead of Roy Oswalt-HOU (7.65 in 2001) (excludes openers)...Named Rookie of the Month for August by Major League Baseball, after going 4-0 with a 2.15 ERA (7 ER, 29.1 IP) with 34 strikeouts and 3 walks in five August starts...he led AL rookies in fWAR (1.4), ERA, wins, WHIP (1.13) and SO/BB ratio (11.33)...became just the third Mariners pitcher to win Rookie of the Month joining Michael Pineda (April 2011) and Rafael Soriano (Aug. 2003), and the 2nd Mariner to win the award this season (also: Julio Rodríguez, May and June)...Began his outing on Aug. 24 vs. Washington by throwing 24-consecutive strikes, the most to start a game since the pitch tracking era (1988-current), passing the 21 strikes thrown by Joe Musgrove on Aug. 30, 2018 vs. STL with PIT...Earned first career win May 31 at Baltimore, allowing only four hits while walking one and striking out eight over 6.0 scoreless innings...Did not allow a home run over 75.0 consecutive innings over 15 starts July 2-Oct.2…marked the third longest streak within one season in Mariners history, behind Shane Rawley in 1980 (83.1) and Felix Hernandez in 2014 (83.0)...Did not allow more than one walk in each of his first 22 career starts, the longest streak to begin a career in MLB history...was the 2nd-longest streak to begin a season in MLB history trailing the 27 done by Carlos Silva-MIN in 2005...Struck out 123 batters over his first 22 career starts, third-most through a players first 22 career starts in Mariners history, trailing only Michael Pineda (137) and Félix Hernández (136)...also tied for the 3rd-fastest Mariners pitcher (18 starts) to 100 career strikeouts, trailing Hernández (17 GS) and Pineda (17 GS)...Went 2-0 with a 1.37 ERA (3 ER, 19.2 IP) in four starts with Arkansas in April…limited opponents to .191 (13x68) average, while walking 5 and striking out 25 over 19.2 innings of work…tossed 13.0 scoreless innings over parts of 3 starts, April 13-April 26… during this stretch he allowed only nine hits while walking four and striking out 17...Named Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April by the Seattle Mariners.
2021
Split the season between High-A Everett and Double-A Arkansas, combining to go 5-3 with a 2.53 ERA (19 ER, 67.2 IP) with 15 walks and 80 strikeouts while limiting opponents to a .227 batting average against in 15 starts...set career-highs in both strikeouts (11) and innings pitched (7.0) July 10 at Eugene...over six starts from June 26 - Aug. 21, went 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA (4 ER, 29.1 IP) with five walks and 40 strikeouts.
2020
Named to the Mariners 60-man roster prior to the start of the 2020 season…spent season playing at the Mariners Alternate Site in Tacoma...was rated as the Mariners 6th ranked prospect and 95th overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline at the end of the season.
2019
Spent first pro season with Short-A Everett, going 0-0 with a 2.35 ERA (6 ER, 23.0 IP) in 9 games (8 GS)…did not walk a batter while striking out 25…following the season named the Mariners #6 prospect by MLB Pipeline…named to the Northwest League All-Star team, but did not pitch…made professional debut with Everett on July 13 vs. Vancouver (2.0,1,0,0,0,2), allowing only 1 hit and striking out 2 over 2.0 innings.
