Hyphen: The big step taken by Mariners’ Bryan Woo

Injuries have put a damper on the Seattle Mariners’ stellar starting rotation, but there’s been one shining light amongst the group since the start of the season.

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Bryan Woo has taken another step forward after a solid but limited season in 2024. The right-hander was on and off the injured list multiple times last season, but hasn’t missed a start this year while continuously going deep into games.

That’s something the Mariners have needed greatly with injuries to Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, and some early struggles from Bryce Miller.

Woo did run into his first adversity of 2025 on Wednesday against the Athletics. The 25 year old allowed three runs in the first inning – the same amount of runs the Bay Area native had allowed in seven previous career starts against the A’s – and two more in the fourth inning. But Woo was able to grind out his seventh straight start of at least six innings to start the season, and the offense was able to stage a comeback for a 6-5 victory that clinched Seattle’s ninth straight series win.

Mariners color analyst and former MLB pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith spoke about Woo bouncing back from his rough first inning during a conversation Thursday with Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

“I’m watching him just going right back to fastballs (at) 96 (mph) middle of the plate and up. (He’s) just going right back to what (his) foundation is,” Rowland-Smith said.

“(He’s) not going to mess around like he did in that first inning with breaking balls, everything else. That is a huge maturation process. It really is. And man, I can tell you I’m so impressed by Bryan Woo, the 2025 version, because last year, man, there were some question marks.”

Woo (4-1, 3.25 ERA, 0.92 WHIP) leads the Mariners with 44 1/3 innings pitched this year, which is over one-third of the career-high 121 1/3 innings he pitched last season. He hasn’t shown any signs of injury or wearing down at this point, either, which is key for the Mariners considering how much his health was a topic of conversation a season ago. Outside of the injuries, the M’s also needed to skip or push Woo’s starts back at times last season.

Rowland-Smith said Woo’s limitations were part of why he had concerns that the Mariners’ reliance on pitching to win ballgames last season was unsustainable.

“He’s posting every day,” Rowland-Smith said. “You can go four days off and he’s right back there, and there’s not a any kind of situation where there’s a lack of velocity, or ball behavior, or spin on his fastball or arm slots changing.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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