Why Jeff Passan likes Mariners’ plan with 6-man rotation

For at least the time being, the Seattle Mariners have six starting pitchers, and they’re all in the rotation.

How Seattle Mariners’ six-man rotation lines up for this week

Bryce Miller has returned from the injured list and is set to make his 2026 season debut starting Wednesday night in Houston. And with the Mariners currently in the middle of a stretch where they play 13 games in 13 days, they’ve decided to go a full rotation turn where all six of their starters get an outing.

After that, there is the possibility that Miller and Luis Castillo, who has had the toughest start to the season of any of Seattle’s starters, could share pitching duties in the same game in a “piggyback” situation – though the Mariners have not committed to anything at this point.

To ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan, Seattle’s plan for the short term is the right call.

“I think (the Mariners) don’t want to make a move before they know what Bryce Miller’s stuff is playing like at the big league level,” Passan told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Wednesday. “If Bryce Miller comes out tonight and throws six innings and gives up two hits and walks one and punches out 10, all of a sudden the calculus changes. But making a decision that has multiple different paths that could have the kinds of consequences you need to plan for as opposed to react to in the moment, I just don’t think you rush to make that decision.

“This is kicking the can down the road, and I think it’s the right thing for them to be doing.”

Counterpoint: Hyphen sees pitfalls in M’s rotation situation

The benefits of the Mariners’ plan

Six-man rotations continue to be rare in baseball, as it results in teams getting less outings out of their top pitchers, and starters in MLB are accustomed to pitching every five or six days. Passan sees value in going to a six-man rotation for a short period, though.

“I don’t think an extra day of rest for a finite amount of time is necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “We’re getting to that point in the season now where guys arms are really getting, I’m not going to say conditioned, but we’re getting toward like peak arm health right now. And if you can give guys some extra time for recovery, I generally don’t think that that’s a bad thing.”

Passan also sees potential benefits for the other part of the Mariners’ pitching staff should they piggyback starting pitchers in the same game.

“It hasn’t been done really consistently at the big league level at this point. Some teams have tried it. It’s more of a thing that you see in the minor leagues when teams are trying to get multiple starters to limit their innings there, and so you’ll see one guy go three or four (innings) and another guy go three or four after that,” he said.

“It can be effective. If you can give your bullpen a full day off – they don’t get that anymore. Guys do not throw complete games. If you see one, mark it with a star because it’s an absolute rarity at this point. And so because of that, if you can have someone who goes five innings and somebody else who piggybacks off of him and finishes the final four, man, what a gift that is to give a bullpen a full day off.”

You can hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan at this link or in the player below. Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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