CLEVELAND -- The Mariners have put the piggyback on hold, at least for now.
The club announced a few hours before Saturday night's 4-3 loss to the Guardians that it was adjusting its rotation alignment, giving Logan Gilbert a standard start and pushing Emerson Hancock to Sunday. Hancock was initially slated to follow Gilbert on Saturday.
They will also push George Kirby from Sunday to Monday against the Angels at T-Mobile Park.
Gilbert went seven innings, allowing four runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks Saturday.
Seattle hasn’t announced its probable pitchers beyond Monday, and manager Dan Wilson intimated that it’s possible that the club revisits the piggyback again before the All-Star break.
“We're able to adjust it as we go a little bit, just in terms of giving guys a little extra rest,” Wilson said. “So it's a chance to do that this time, and we'll see as we go forward and look to see if we do the piggyback again later. But just a chance to get a little extra rest for guys.”
Essentially, this pushes everyone back but Gilbert, who was already operating on an extra day’s rest via Monday’s off-day leading into this East Coast road trip. He had most recently pitched last Sunday in Seattle, as a first-time dad on Father’s Day, before Saturday's start.
Hancock, however, will take the mound eight days removed from his most recent outing (last Saturday’s loss to Boston), while Kirby will be six days removed from his last start (Tuesday’s win in Pittsburgh).
Bryan Woo also factors into this, as he’s coming off another tough outing (Wednesday’s loss in Pittsburgh). Woo has been directly after Kirby the past few weeks, and has been followed by Bryce Miller then Luis Castillo.
“Extra rest is never bad, I don’t think so,” Hancock said. “Not on the body.”
The Mariners are in the midst of 12 games in 13 days, with the lone off-day being a quirky one this Wednesday -- in the middle of a three-game series vs. the Angels -- to account for the FIFA World Cup across the street at Lumen Field that day.
They then have one more off-day before the break -- on Monday, July 6, leading into another East Coast swing through Miami and St. Petersburg.
“Because we're able to do it, it worked out that way,” Wilson said. “And so again, like we've talked about, it's something that we put together as we look forward and just were able to be a little bit more flexible. And it worked out this way.”
Wilson added that the decision, which was made after Friday’s 3-1 win at Progressive Field, was not reactionary to Gilbert being in the midst of his best stretch since 2024. The right-hander was recently named the American League Pitcher of the Week.
“No, it's more about just adding a day of rest for guys and being able to get those guys one more day,” Wilson said.
Gilbert led the Mariners to a 6-0 record over each of his previous six starts, over which he averaged just over six innings per outing -- with a 1.49 ERA, a 0.80 WHIP, 43 strikeouts and 10 walks while holding hitters to a .492 OPS. Over his first 10 starts, Gilbert had a 4.45 ERA and was averaging 5 2/3 innings per start.
Hancock is coming off his first stretch of consecutive clunkers this season, having given up a combined 11 earned runs his past two times out (10.61 ERA). But he was arguably the most consistent of their six starters leading up to that point, with a team-best 2.74 ERA and 8-5 team record. This late change would also give him a full start against a Guardians team that he held hitless over six innings with nine strikeouts on March 29.
“It's not that big of a deal,” Hancock said. “I went through my prep. I went through my prep today. I'll pitch tomorrow.”
Gilbert and Hancock would’ve represented the piggyback’s second of three turns through leading into the All-Star break. Miller and Castillo went first (in a June 19 loss to Boston) and Kirby and Woo were slated to be the caboose (though when hadn’t yet been announced).
When the Mariners reverted to a rotation-wide piggyback just under two weeks ago, it was because of a bushel of off-days on the immediate horizon that would’ve pushed arms to more downtime between starts than the club preferred -- up to a week at a time.
They also wanted to be equitable among the six arms for innings allocation, as each was tabbed to go on the front or back end of one piggyback outing.
However, they also suggested that they could adjust, and that’s indeed what’s happening.