By Paul Taylor Posted on

Mariners bullpen suffers another blow as Matt Brash lost for season

It’s been a challenging season for the Seattle Mariners bullpen, in many ways highlighted by Matt Brash’s ongoing challenges with injury.

There’s no getting around the reality that the Mariners bullpen has underperformed this season, resulting in ranking 24th in the majors with a team 4.51 ERA. However, as disappointing as this productivity has been, it certainly hasn’t been helped by ongoing injury issues. And now the team has lost arguably their best reliever for the rest of the 2026 season.

Mariners general manager Justin Hollander spoke to the media prior to Friday’s home game versus the Athletics, to confirm that Matt Brash has been shut down for eight weeks. The decision came following an MRI on Thursday, with the results showing continued inflammation in his right lat. This has been on lingering issue for the righty for the majority of the year.

This is obviously a frustrating turn of events for Brash, who only appeared 20 times this season for the Mariners. It becomes more frustrating when considering how tremendous he was when he did pitch, with a 0.54 ERA and 0.840 WHIP in 16.2 combined innings. To say the bullpen could have used him more, is a considerable understatement.

What are the long-term implications for Matt Brash’s lingering injury issues?

Brash originally missed the start of the 2026 campaign due to a right UCL sprain. The inflammation issue specifically first cropped up when he was placed on the 15-day Injured List at the beginning of May. Hollander admitted the Mariners aren’t sure what’s causing the ongoing inflammation issue, as he said:

“He just needs more rest. What we’re seeing is that he’s not getting full healing. Even when he began his throwing progression, it was improved but not gone. The recommendation was to throw and see how it went and we were super encouraged by the way that went until we hit this plateau. So that told me and that told our docs and everyone that we just need to shut it down.”

There’s understandable concern with Brash long-term, who led all Major League relievers with 78 appearances back in 2023. He has dealt with injury issues ever since, including missing the entire 2024 season with right elbow inflammation. However, Hollander stressed there’s no tears and nothing structurally wrong with the 28-year-old.

Mariners bullpen in general has suffered a perfect storm of everything going wrong

This at least sounds encouraging, given how good Brash is when he’s available and how much he has improved during his time in Seattle. Again though, his issues highlight what has been a rough year for the Mariners bullpen with injuries. In particular, Carlos Vargas and Cooper Criswell both missed significant portions of the 2026 campaign.

Further impacting the bullpen has been inconsistent and subpar performances by Andrés Muñoz, Eduard Bazardo and Jose A Ferrer, who were meant to be part of a strong core. Even Gabe Speier has had his rocky moments. On top of all this, the bullpen has at times been down a man, due to the Mariners deploying a six-man rotation or piggyback strategy.

Ultimately, this has been a perfect storm of sorts for the Mariners this season, with anything that could go wrong coming to fruition. The core relief group is still talented and capable of being among the best in the majors on their day. However, as with Brash specifically, we’re now going to have to wait until next year before seeing if the bullpen can come back healthier and stronger, to reclaim their spot near the top of the rankings.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

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