Mariners suffer blow with George Kirby set to begin season on IL

The Seattle Mariners are facing adversity before the new season has even begun, as George Kirby is week-to-week with shoulder inflammation.

If the Mariners are to return to the playoffs after a two-year absence, their elite rotation will likely be the main reason they succeed. As such, news coming out on Friday regarding George Kirby, has proven to be an early — albeit not fatal — blow to the team’s chances in 2025.

Executive Vice President and General Manager of Baseball Operations Justin Hollander spoke to the media on Friday about Kirby’s status, with the implication that he will likely begin the 2025 regular season on the Injured List. Hollander said:

“We did an MRI. The MRI looks great. No structural concerns whatsoever. There is some inflammation in there that we need to get out. So, much to George’s chagrin, we’re going to take the ball out of his hands. George wants to keep going, and he’s going to lose this argument. We need the inflammation out, so we will shut George down and work on getting the inflammation out. This is more like a week-to-week thing than a day-to-day thing. We just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”

The MRI came about, as a result of Kirby admitting to the medical staff that he hadn’t been feeling great following his outings in spring training. And despite the righty understandably wanting to continue pitching, the Mariners have taken the correct approach in taking the ball out of his hands for now, thinking long-term as opposed to short.

A tough turn of events for an elite Mariners rotation

The Mariners rotation was the best in the Majors last season, with them ranking first in a whole host of categories, including being the only team to have four starters with 30+ starts. This included Kirby, who was tied for the Major League lead with 33 starts.

Assuming the 2023 MLB All-Star does miss the beginning of the 2025 season as projected at this stage, the Mariners will obviously be hoping his absence doesn’t turn into anything more serious. His main forte is not throwing walks, with him leading the Majors with the lowest walk rate and strikeouts-to-walk rate in each of the past two years.

Just in general Kirby has been tremendous during his three seasons in the big leagues, and there are plenty of other teams where he would be the staff ace. He has made 89 starts in the Majors, in the process producing a 7.2 WAR, 3.43 ERA, 3.22 FIP and 1.093 WHIP.

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Emerson Hancock needs to step up in Seattle

The 2019 20th overall draft pick had been set to start on Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Peoria. His place was instead taken by Emerson Hancock, who looked ineffective as he allowed four hits, a walk and three earned runs in 2.1 innings of action.

In this respect, it will be Hancock who is in line to take Kirby’s place in the rotation pending the latter missing the beginning of the upcoming season. Harsh or not, it’s a reality that the 2020 sixth overall draft pick has yet to live up to his potential, with a 4.71 ERA, 5.42 FIP and 1.335 WHIP in 15 Major League starts.

As per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, Kirby previously dealt with inflammation in his shoulder, including missing a month of the 2021 minor league season. Everyone connected with the Mariners will be hoping the 27-year-old isn’t out for even that long this time around, as they aim to make a positive start in 2025.

Do you have any concerns about Kirby missing time to begin the 2025 season? Or are you confident in the Mariners rotation holding up well during his absence? Let us know in the comments section below.