How Logan Gilbert is tinkering with his pitch arsenal

For the past few seasons, one of the annual storylines coming out of Seattle Mariners camp has been the new pitches the team’s arms are developing.

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In 2023, both Logan Gilbert and George Kirby added a splitter to their repertoire. In 2024, Bryce Miller did the same. And last year, Andrés Muñoz’s new kick changeup had everybody buzzing.

So it comes as no surprise that the M’s have arms tinkering with their repertoires during camp this year. Perhaps even less of a surprise, Gilbert is one of them.

Gilbert discussed a couple of pitches he’s experimenting with this spring when he recently joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“I’m trying out a cutter again. I threw some in the game (Monday),” Gilbert said, referencing his first Cactus League start of 2026. “I’m trying to have more behind-in-the-count options. I’ve been pretty good getting ahead and when I’m ahead. If I can take a little bit of pressure off the fastball (and) slider (when I’m) behind (in) counts, that would help.”

Gilbert first introduced the cutter – a fastball with horizontal break to the glove side – to his arsenal in 2024. He threw 320 of them that season, which accounted for 10.5% of his pitches, according to Baseball Savant. It was a pitch he was able to get more swing and miss on than his four-seam fastball, with a whiff rate at 27.4% on the cutter compared to 19.4% on the four-seamer. But the .239 average and .443 slugging percentage he allowed on the cutter were the highest of the five pitches he threw regularly.

Gilbert described the effectiveness of the pitch in 2024 as a “mixed bag.”

“First half it was good, second half it wasn’t as good,” he said. “I have different theories on why, but I’m trying to bring that back.”

Gilbert has one more pitch he’s tinkering with in spring that he’s thrown occasionally during his career – a sinker.

“I even worked a sinker in the game (Monday) for a strike – another behind-in-the-count option,” Gilbert said.

The right-hander threw 21 sinkers a year ago. In the four at-bats that ended on one, batters had three hits and struck out once.

“I don’t have high hopes for that, but it did make Cal (Raleigh) really upset that I threw it. So that was win in itself,” Gilbert said with a laugh. “He hates it.”

Why isn’t Seattle’s catcher a fan of the pitch?

“He just likes tried and true,” Gilbert said of Raleigh. “He doesn’t like when you mess around with all this stuff. I have a funky grip. It’s kind of a funky pitch. He likes things that he knows are normal.”

In addition to working on the cutter and sinker, Gilbert said he’s trying to throw more curveballs this season. He used the pitch just 7.5% of the time last season, but the results were good. It generated a 38.6% whiff rate and batters hit just .148 with a .259 slugging percentage against it.

Hear the full conversation with Logan Gilbert at this link or in the audio player in this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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