Mariners detail rotation plan upon Bryce Miller’s return

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller is slated to return from the injured list and make his season debut next Wednesday, May 13, against the Houston Astros, manager Dan Wilson said on Saturday.

Miller, who opened the season on the injured list after straining his left oblique early in spring training, is coming off four rehab starts between Triple-A Tacoma and High-A Everett.

Miller’s return – combined with Emerson Hancock’s success while filling his spot in the rotation – means the Mariners are now set to have an arsenal of six healthy starting pitchers.

So, how will the M’s handle that going forward?

Wilson said the Mariners will go with a six-man rotation for the rest of their road trip, which includes this weekend’s series against the Chicago White Sox and a four-game series against the Astros. After that, Wilson said they’ll re-evaluate their options.

There’s a good chance we will see the Mariners run through with a six-man rotation only one time.

For years, the Mariners have been adverse to using six starters, in large part because seven days of rest is not something any of their starters would be comfortable with, and because it would mean less starts from their best pitchers.

Does that mean a move to the bullpen could be in the near future for one of their starters? Well, that’s not likely either, as the Mariners are also opposed to such a move.

“The worst thing that could happen to the depth of our starting rotation is taking one of our top six starting pitchers, sending them to the bullpen, and then 10 days later their pitch volume is no longer a factor,” Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said Saturday.

In Dipoto’s view, it’s a move that might make sense on paper, but in practice, the starter more often than not will not get the work they need to maintain a starter pitch count, which is a huge part of a starter’s value.

At the moment, moving a starter to the bullpen is not a consideration, nor is sending a pitcher to Triple-A. So, if the Mariners don’t want to run with a six-man rotation, how do they manage the fortune of having more starting pitching than starting spots?

Piggybacking Miller and Castillo – having one pitcher follow the other in a single start – may be the answer.

“You’ve got to keep those guys stretched out,” Dipoto said. “With no off days, it’s easy. We can just run them through. And then we have got to figure out a more creative way to do it.”

A piggyback situation could in theory actually help out in a stretch where the Mariners are without their top two setup leverage arms in Matt Brash and Gabe Speier, as the two starters would be responsible for the bulk of the innings on that day. It could be, in a sense, a day off for most of the bullpen. Stress the “in theory” part here, however.

It’s uncharted territory for this group, but plans are being made. Too much starting pitching? One way or another, they will work it out.

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