Emily Klesick details how George Kirby has become the anchor of the Mariners’ rotation with his consistent ability to command the zone and pitch with efficiency. Photo courtesy of MLB.com.
If we’re being honest, there is a lot to worry about with the Mariners’ season so far. Offensive struggles, bullpen injuries, defensive blunders, and mental mistakes have plagued Seattle and led to issues across the board. Players may be succeeding in one aspect of the game but struggling at another in a strange and frustrating game of whack-a-mole. But at this point, there is one person on the Mariners roster that no one should be worried about at all:
George Kirby.
Coming into the season, one of the biggest conversation pieces surrounding the M’s season was the hope for a return to the 2024 version of their starting rotation. I’d love to say that this hope has been fulfilled, but that has not been the case thus far. Logan Gilbert, despite receiving the nod on Opening Day, has lacked efficiency and command while struggling to make it deep into games. Luis Castillo has had an extremely tough start to the season, with a 6.57 ERA through eight games. Bryan Woo, while being his excellent and efficient self for the most part, had back-to-back rough starts against St. Louis and Kansas City that he hopes to leave behind him. Bryce Miller will have made his return from the IL this week, and in his stead, Emerson Hancock has been everything we could have asked for and more. But through it all, the anchor starter that we’ve been able to trust all season is George.
At this point in the season, George Kirby is sporting a 2.84 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP over 9 games, in which he has a 5-2 record. Of those nine games, George has five quality starts, one of which was a complete game against Texas, where he pitched eight innings of three-run ball (although the Mariners ended up losing that game). George has been both brilliant and efficient, maintaining the expectation of controlling the zone while also going consistently deep into games.
While it’s not true that no one is talking about his success so far this year, it does feel that Kirby’s performance is underrated and underappreciated. I have a few theories about the reason for this. One reason, I believe, is that George’s level of success is more expected and therefore sits in the shadow of the standout performance of Emerson Hancock and how he’s blown the expectations for his depth starter role out of the water (and don’t get me wrong, these accolades are entirely deserved). Alongside this, George’s pitching may look less flashy than in years past as he has worked to command the edges of the zone, leading to more walks on the stat sheet. In reality, this development is actually a positive sign, as his in-zone pitching often created more offense for the teams that he faced. Ultimately, Kirby has developed greater pitching maturity and control, and his WHIP is evidence of this.
In the age of the ABS system, George Kirby is exactly the type of pitcher that you want on your team. It would be hard to find another pitcher who is as familiar with the boundaries of the strike zone than George. In fact, during an interview with Ryan Rowland-Smith on his podcast, The Top Step, George told Ryan that he talked with manager Dan Wilson before the start of the season on his intention to utilize ABS himself, which he has done twice with a 50% success rate. But aside from challenging his own pitches, George’s ability to live in the edges of the zone makes him the type of pitcher that flourishes in this age of the pitching challenge, creating success for his team.
At the time of writing this article on May 12th, George is coming off arguably his least efficient start of the season, where he completed five innings of one-run ball. It feels ridiculous to type that, as he also had a season-high seven strikeouts and only two walks. But what I really want to highlight about George’s pitching this year is what his starts have offered to the team so far. At this point in the season, George Kirby has been the anchor for the Seattle Mariners.
While no one can know what the rest of the season holds for our starting rotation, as we face the reality of a six-man rotation for the next turn through with Miller coming back and some type of piggybacking between Castillo and Miller going forward, having George Kirby as someone we can count on in the rotation is such a gift. No one expected there to be this many questions about our starters this season, but in the midst of that, it’s nice to see that George is who he’s always been: consistent, efficient, and furiously intense about controlling the zone.
