By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times
PEORIA, Ariz. — The Mariners moved a step closer to finalizing their opening-day roster, officially announcing that hard-throwing right-hander Matt Brash would be the fifth starter in the rotation.
The 23-year-old Canadian will make his MLB debut in the Mariners’ fifth game of the season, which is scheduled for April 12 against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“We decided to go ahead and make a decision there, and Matt Brash will open the season with the big-league club,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “I told him, ‘You’ll actually get a chance to pitch this time.’ I promised him that he will start the fifth game of the season for us.”
Servais was referencing the Mariners calling up Brash up for the final week of the 2021 season but not actually pitching in a game.
“Just a really cool moment,” Brash said. “It just kind of shows that all the hard work that I’ve done even before I got to the Mariners to get my body in shape and get my arm in shape kind of pays off for that moment. I’m just super excited to get out there help the big-league club.”
Brash’s parents and sister are in Arizona, having made the trip south from Kingston, Ontario, over a week ago.
“We’d been talking about it, but it was definitely special to share with them,” he said. “We’ve all come a long way and they’ve been with me every step of the way.”
With Brash slotted into the rotation, top pitching prospect George Kirby will start the season with Class AA Arkansas in a rotation that will also feature right-hander Levi Stoudt and eventually former first-round pick Emerson Hancock.
“I had a really good meeting with George Kirby and understanding where he’s at,” Servais said. “He didn’t have a huge workload last year. It’s really important that he continues to progress. George is going to pitch for us this year, there’s no question about it. And I think he’s going to be a huge part of how our season plays out. But for right now, he’ll start in the minor leagues.”
Brash made three appearance this spring, pitching 9.1 innings and allowing one run on three hits with two walks and 12 strikeouts. Kirby also made three appearances, pitching 7.2 innings and allowing six runs on nine hits with two walks and 12 strikeouts.
Those innings totals were labeled “a separator” beyond spring-training performances. Brash pitched a combined 97.1 innings between High-A Everett and Arkansas, while Kirby, who missed a month with shoulder fatigue, threw a combined 67.2 innings in Everett and Arkansas. Normally, teams don’t want to jump more than 30 to 35 innings in the following season due to injury concerns, particularly for young pitchers.
“Both the guys had good camps,” Servais said. “I think Matt’s maybe a little bit more ready to go or whatever you want to call it just based on what he did last year and what it looked like in this camp. But both guys have bright futures ahead of them and they’re going to pitch a lot for us this year. I think people understand that. And we all get excited about, ‘Oh, how’s the team breaking?’ We all know things change in a hurry as the season goes on. And you’re going to need a lot of people to chip in, in the rotation as well as in the bullpen.”
While the team considered keeping both pitching on the same day for the first month of the season, it’s much easier to control innings and usage in the minor leagues.
“We discussed it even before we got into spring training here,” Servais said. “That’s something you could do. It’s certainly something we could pivot to. But I just thought with where we’re at right now, we’re trying to do what’s best for both players at this particular time. Once you go with that piggyback thing or whatever you call it, you have to have some really disciplined rules and stick with it.”
Servais didn’t want either pitcher to deal with that uncertainty.
“I just think it creates a lot of drama and stuff around it,” Servais said.
While Servais has his rotation set, the rest of the roster is still be determined. The Mariners will likely finalize their roster in the coming days. The deadline to submit their roster is Thursday morning. But they won’t take extra players with them on the flight to Minneapolis on Wednesday.
All indications are the Mariners are still planning to keep 15 pitchers (five starters and 10 relievers) and 13 position players.
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