How Mariners RHP George Kirby fared in 3rd rehab start

Seattle Mariners right-hander George Kirby made his third rehab start with Triple-A Tacoma on Friday night as he continues to work his way back after being shut down with shoulder inflammation in spring training.

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The good news: Kirby stretched out his pitch count to 64 – an increase from 42 pitches in his first rehab outing on May 4 and 54 pitches in his second outing on May 10. And his usual control was there, as he threw 48 strikes and finished with four punchouts and no walks.

The bad news: Kirby allowed allowed four runs and 10 hits in four innings, including a pair of home runs in Tacoma’s 15-14 extra-inning loss to Albuquerque.

Over three rehab starts with Tacoma, Kirby has surrendered eight runs and 15 hits in 10 innings. He’s totaled 13 strikeouts and two walks.

During a conversation Wednesday on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said the team is taking it “outing by outing” with Kirby and “seeing where he’s at, how he feels.”

When speaking to the media on May 9, Hollander said Kirby would need at least three rehab outings before returning to Seattle’s rotation. But on Wednesday, Hollander said it’s possible Kirby could need more time, depending on how Friday’s start went.

“No guarantee that we would activate him for the next start in the big leagues,” Hollander said. “It just depends on how it goes (Friday). We want to make sure George is ready. … We do want to keep in mind, George didn’t have a spring training. So the things that you experience over six starts or seven starts in spring training, trying to condense those down into two or three starts in a Triple-A environment (is) maybe not the smartest thing we can do, unless we’re really confident that he’s good to go.

“We wanna make sure that we’re being smart, playing the long game with George, who’s got a lot of days in front of him. We don’t want to think about just the next big league game in front of us.”

Kirby, 27, has been a major part of the Mariners’ rotation since making his MLB debut in 2022. He has a 3.43 career ERA in 89 starts with Seattle over the past three seasons and was an All-Star in 2023, when he finished eighth in the American League Cy Young Award voting.

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