What Mariners’ Emerson Hancock says has been key to his breakout

There’s a different name leading the Seattle Mariners’ starting rotation in the key categories thus far in 2026: Emerson Hancock.

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The 26-year-old right-hander came into the season having made 31 career MLB starts over the previous three seasons, but the 2020 first-round pick had been established as Seattle’s sixth option to start games on the mound. With Bryce Miller starting the year on the injured list, though, Hancock was given an opportunity, and he has picked up the ball and run with it.

Hancock is currently atop the Mariners leaderboard with a 2.59 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, .225 opponent batting average, 46 strikeouts, 1.30 walks per nine innings, and a ratio of 7.67 strikeouts per walk. In fact, he’s second in all of baseball in each of those last two categories.

Armed with newfound confidence in a devastating sweeper, Hancock is feeling pretty comfortable on the mound these days.

“I feel like we’re executing well,” Hancock told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk last week. “There’s always things that you can improve on and there’s things that you’re trying to take from each start, and you’re just trying to continue to build on those things and kind of get better as the season’s gone.”

It’s clear there’s one thing behind Hancock’s success that he is particularly focused on.

“I think the biggest thing is being able to limit free bases. I feel like that’s been a huge one for me. So I just want to continue to try to get better at that and try to keep it rolling.”

Keeping the walks down is certainly paying off, even though the flashy strikeout numbers – especially when there are 14 in a seven-inning outing, as Hancock did on Saturday against the Royals – tend to get more attention. But just as important was the fact that Hancock didn’t allow a single walk in that dominant performance.

“That’s something that I’ve always believed in is not giving guys free bases,” Hancock said. “That also goes into the run game and stolen bases as well. But I just think that I’m in a lot better position with my body, and mentally in terms of just continue to trust your stuff and continue to be aggressive in the strike zone. And sometimes guys are going to get you, but I feel like I’d always kind of want to lean on the side of being aggressive, being in the strike zone, throwing a lot of strikes, because that’s what we believe in here.”

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with Mariners pitcher Emerson Hancock at this link or in the podcast player below. Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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