Stacy: When it comes to Mariners’ piggyback tactic, feelings matter

When it comes to the Seattle Mariners piggybacking starting pitchers Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller, there’s a purpose every M’s fan understands.

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The Mariners have six healthy starters and seemingly want to avoid either rolling out a six-man rotation or sending one of them to the bullpen. The solution has been to piggyback their worst performing starter, Luis Castillo, and one who recently returned from injury, Bryce Miller. Doing so, in theory, keeps both starters healthy and getting reps, and lightens the workload for a bullpen short a few arms.

That’s perfectly fine on paper. But, as you know, that’s not how a season is played. And the problem with the Mariners – well, one of many so far this year – is that they’re off to an incredibly disappointing start. This is a team with World Series aspirations that has yet to hold onto first place in one of the league’s worst divisions and has spent all of one day over .500, and that was back on March 30.

When you’re not performing and players are frustrated about it, keeping a firm hold on team chemistry and clubhouse culture matters a ton. And that’s really, really difficult.

I don’t envy the role of a manager in this case. Dan Wilson is dealing with professionals who know how to stomach — more than non-players can understand — embarrassing outings in front of tens of thousands of people. But this isn’t a little league team; it’s a business, and “do your job” isn’t always going to cut it with real people with real egos and real million-dollar contracts.

Players aren’t robots, and they’re not simply numbers. Like it or not, those feelings matter. Unless wins — which are a universal salve for an unhappy group — begin mounting here fast, the Mariners need to prioritize the people over the paper-solution here. Because seeing two clearly frustrated and confused starters only adds to a mounting list of problems.

Castillo showed his frustration in the dugout after he was told his night was done following four shutout innings Monday against the AL West-leading Athletics.

Another look at Luis Castillo after learning that his night was done.

Can’t recall ever seeing this kind of frustration in his nearly four years with the Mariners.

"We knew that was part of the plan, and you've got to respect what his decision was." pic.twitter.com/goDRAmc262

— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) May 26, 2026

As for Miller, meanwhile, it took him a few seconds to respond to a question on the Mariners TV broadcast about the piggyback situation after he threw five innings to finish Monday’s win.

“This setup’s not very comfortable,” Miller said.

There’s another point here about erasing murkiness, too. I remember a conversation I had with someone who had been hearing about frustration from players in another league. It primarily stemmed from players wanting to see a clear purpose and plan. They wanted to see a steadfastness.

I know that’s the perspective of athletes who aren’t baseball players, but I’m confident the point holds true: players want to know what their job is, and they want to know the coaching staff and organization has a plan and a philosophy they’ll stick to. The emotional and physical toll of the sport is great enough as-is; knowing your routine and what’s expected of you is a basic requirement. But the Mariners haven’t seemed to iron that out yet. There are underperforming and inconsistently-applied platoons, questions at third base, and piggybacking.

In a division — in an American League — weak enough that teams can withstand some shakiness, I’m still confident the Mariners can get to the postseason. But they’re vulnerable right now, and so is the psyche and confidence of their players. And I’m not convinced that balancing an effort to improve clubhouse confidence and constructing the best team need to be opposing efforts.

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