Drayer: Why ‘Who is the best Mariners pitcher?’ is a great question

“Who is the Seattle Mariners best starting pitcher?” was a fun question asked periodically throughout the season on the radio pregame show – because the answers were almost always different, and there was rarely consensus. So when we put together a Seattle Sports offseason Mariners roundtable, we took the question for another spin.

Seattle Sports’ Mariners roundtable looks at ’24, ahead to offseason

With the season fully behind us the choice was a bit easier, but there was still some hesitation here and there. And that is a good thing.

“It’s Logan Gilbert,” Mike Salk answered. “How do you not?”

Bob Stelton also went this way, but a piece of him considered the not.

“It’s Logan. But I’m telling you, when he’s healthy, it’s Bryan Woo, who was special,” he said. “I was blown away by him.”

Going down that road, there was another.

“The guy that surprised me the most honestly was Bryce Miller this year,” Salk said. “He was the guy who just developed, he just kept adding pitches throughout the year.”

Former Mariners pitcher Charlie Furbush hit the nail on the head when he finally had an opportunity to chime in.

“I thought he pitched like Logan,” Furbush said of Miller.

Rapid progress of Bryce Miller isn’t normal, explains Logan Gilbert

“I mean, it is Logan, because the All-Star first time, it’s fantastic. But I still I think the biggest leap forward was Bryce Miller. The idea that he pitches so aggressive, and I think that’s really the the step forward is he’s not afraid to continue to attack. You know that third time through the lineup it’s great to see, and that’s what hopefully gets him to that next level. I do think he’s All-Star-caliber next year, no doubt.”

Something to look forward to next year, but for now, the roundtable nod was not the only one Gilbert picked up. On Monday, he was named along with Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase and Detroit starter Tarik Skubal as finalists for the Players Choice Award as American League Outstanding Pitcher of the Year. The winners, which are chosen through a vote of fellow players, will be announced Saturday on the FOX MLB pregame show prior to Game 2 of the World Series.

Great to see Gilbert garner the recognition but the discussion shouldn’t stop here as it was just too good, start to finish. If you wanted to make a bid for opening day starter Luis Castillo as the Mariners’ best pitcher, there was a case early in the season. After a rough start to the year, he righted the ship and in his first 13 starts posted led the team in ERA (2.99), strikeouts per nine innings (9.31) and fWAR (1.4).

George Kirby, who led the team in fWAR (4.2) for the season (with Gilbert right behind at 4.1), was perhaps the most inconsistent starter, allowing five or more runs in a team-high seven games (no other M’s starter had more than three). But in a 13-game midseason stretch, Kirby led the AL in WAR (2.9) and ERA (2.17), was second in innings (78.2) and third (gasp!) in walks per nine innings (1.14) with Gilbert first (0.82).

The real fun began when Woo came off the injured list after missing the first month of the season. If there were any questions the fastball would still play after being seen the year before, or if not adding a pitch to help deal with lefties was a bad idea, they were put to rest early. While Woo never threw qualifying innings because of time missed to make the leaderboards, he spent the majority of the season near and sometimes at the top of important lists when adjusted for fewer innings. From May 1 through Sept. 5, Woo led the AL in walks per nine innings (0.82) and WHIP (0.85), and was second in ERA (2.36) and in home run to fly ball rate (8.3).

The eye-opener, as Salk and Furbush pointed out, was indeed Miller, who in a career-high 180 innings finished fifth in the AL in ERA (2.94), third in WHIP (0.98), and the best pitching, fastball and offspeed run values by Statcast, all percentile ranked 97 or above. Perhaps most impressively, Miller posted a 1.75 ERA from July 10 to the end of the season and allowed just two runs total in his final four-game stretch facing St. Louis, Texas, New York (AL) and Houston.

Both Miller and Woo put up impressive second-year numbers but seemed to end the season at different places, with Woo still needing to show he can stay healthy and put up the innings through a full season.

Drayer: The gloves are off for Mariners’ Bryan Woo

Woo struggled down the stretch in two of the bigger games of the year, giving up seven runs in 4.2 innings to the Yankees on Sept. 17, then four runs in six innings on Sept. 22 to the Rangers. But on either end of those games, he took a perfect game bid into the seventh inning on Sept. 11 against San Diego, and he finished out 2024 with five scoreless innings in a 2-0 win over Oakland on Sept. 27, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out a season-high eight batters.

Woo is still very young in his pitching career, having converted late in college and throwing minimal minor league innings, and as Stelton pointed out there is some intrigue in what his ceiling ultimately is.

Part of the fun of throwing out the question of “Who is the Mariners best pitcher?” throughout the season was the consternation it could cause with the panels asking for qualifiers. Right now? In terms of stuff? Who would I want in a must-win game? Choose your adventure.

At the start of the year, sure, why not point to the veteran who had done it before in Castillo. Stuff-wise, in a very informal poll of a handful of players and coaches, the best pitch answers were almost always Woo’s fastball and Gilbert’s splitter. Overall? The Players Choice nod would indicate hitters want no part of Gilbert, who is known to be just as hard to catch as he is to hit with the ridiculous array of pitches he can throw in any count and ability to hit all four corners. Throw in top extension, and if he is on, good luck.

In terms of who you would want in a must-win game, Gilbert, Kirby and Castillo were the names that came up most often on the pregame show. The organization clearly wanted Gilbert in that spot as they juggled the rotation in the second half to get him into the final game if needed or Game 1 of the postseason. Interestingly enough, it was Miller who came up biggest in September.

The question provoked good debate throughout the year. On multiple occasions, Rick Rizzs tried to answer the question by saying whomever was on the mound that day was the best starting pitcher. There were times he wouldn’t have been wrong.

Seattle Mariners offseason coverage

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