BROCK AND SALK
UPDATED: APRIL 15, 2023 AT 12:40 PM
Seattle Mariners’ Logan Gilbert throws a pitch against the Chicago Cubs on April 12, 2023. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
The strength of the Seattle Mariners over the past two seasons has been their starting pitching, and young right-hander Logan Gilbert has been a big part of the team’s success.
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Gilbert, Seattle’s first-round pick in 2018, debuted in May 2021 and has been a fixture in the M’s rotation ever since.
Gilbert has a career 3.72 ERA in 59 career starts and, like last year, he’s off to a good start in 2023.
In three starts, Gilbert has a 2.70 ERA and 20 strikeouts with four walks in 16 2/3 innings.
And he’s had success in a slightly different way this year, as Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto explained to Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Thursday.
“Pretty doggone good,” Dipoto said of Gilbert’s first three starts in 2023. “His secondary stuff is coming.”
Gilbert has a “special” fastball, Dipoto said, and he’s leaned on that pitch in his first two MLB seasons.
Gilbert used his fastball 61.5% of the time as a rookie in 2021 and 53.9% of the time in 2022, per Statcast. This year, Gilbert is throwing his fastball 46.7% of the time as he uses his slider, curveball and splitter more than in previous years. Between those three secondary offerings, Gilbert allowed just five hits, and opponents hit just .125 against those three pitches.
In his most recent start Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs, Gilbert threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run while striking out seven.
Gilbert could have leaned heavily on the fastball and done just fine, Dipoto said, but he used his secondary pitches in a number of ways.
“He could have gone out there with the fastball he had (Wednesday) and just slipped through most lineups. And what he did was he included all of his pitches in a different way than any previous version of Logan included them,” Dipoto said. “I really like his separation. Yesterday, he threw a number of excellent breaking balls. And you could tell he was feeling it in the middle of the start when there was a little bounce coming off the mound. This is as fresh an outing as he’s ever had.”
The improvement in pitches could also change Gilbert’s potential as a pro.
“With the secondary stuff, I think it just creates a new ceiling for Logan, which is really high,” Dipoto said.
The Jerry Dipoto Show airs live at 8:30 am every Wednesday during Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. Listen to this week’s edition at this link or the podcast below.
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