Injuries piling up for the Mariners—but so have the wins, for now

The hits keep coming—literally and figuratively.

Despite about everything you could possibly imagine going wrong on the injury front, the Mariners managed to take four of five games from a short homestand facing the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels.

Let’s start with the bad news, why don’t we?

On Friday night, starting pitcher Logan Gilbert left his start with forearm tightness after three perfect innings. With Casey Lawrence being called upon in long relief, the Mariners defense faltered and surrendered a six-spot in the fifth ainning. They ultimately would not recover, dropping the first game to the Marlins, 8-4.

Gilbert received an MRI the following day, which revealed a Grade 1 elbow flexor strain. The team said they are shutting him down from throwing for two weeks, at which point his condition will be reassessed.

Even ignoring the fact that Gilbert’s diagnosis is nearly identical to the one former Mariner Robbie Ray received before electing to undergo Tommy John surgery, there is plenty of reason for fans to be anxious.

Best case scenario, accounting for ramp-up, bullpens and rehab starts, we are looking at a June return at the earliest. For a team who prides itself on its rotation and was already missing another starter in George Kirby, a month without maybe their best starter is a concerning proposition. The Mariners’ inexperienced starting pitching depth beyond their top five is likely to be tested in the coming weeks.

In addition to the loss of Gilbert, Dylan Moore (hip inflammation) and Luke Raley (oblique strain) both landed on the injured list this last week. While Moore expects to return to the roster as soon as his 10 days are up, you can likely expect a few weeks to pass before seeing Raley on the field again—oblique injuries can and will nag if not rehabilitated properly.

Polanco, Mariners continue their habit of resilience

Given the tough injury news, you may expect the vibes in the Mariners clubhouse to be in a dark place.

Quite the contrary.

Following Gilbert’s injury the night before, the Mariners lit up the scoreboard on Saturday night, shutting out the Marlins 14-0. The win was tied for the largest shutout win in franchise history, and the first time it has happened since 2000, according to Mariners PR.

In the rubber match Sunday, pitcher Logan Evans earned the win in his Major League debut—a solid foundation to build on as he fills into the Mariners rotation in a time of need.

Jorge Polanco was named AL Player of the Week for April 21-27, making it back-to-back weeks with a Mariner winning the award (Moore, April 14-20).

After a day off on Monday, the Mariners welcomed the Angels to town on Tuesday night.

Well, except for Polanco. His ‘welcome’ of the Angels would be more aptly described as bullying. He drove in all five Mariners runs on Tuesday night with yet another multi-homer game, his second in less than a week’s time. With Bryce Miller keeping the Angels scoreless through five—even without his best command—the contributions by Polanco alone were enough offensively for the M’s to come away with another win.

Polanco barreled everything he laid his eyes on in the month of April—or at least it felt that way—and it has landed him near the top of MLB’s home run leaderboard with nine homers, only one behind the leaders. This, despite him not yet being a statistically qualified hitter—though he’s only 13 plate appearances short of that threshold at the moment.

Polanco’s bounceback from an extremely disappointing 2024 season marred by an injury is emblematic of the Mariners’ entire month of April. Time and time again, through only 30 games, the M’s have faced adversity with injuries. Time and time again, they’ve answered the bell, and everyone is pitching in. Some of the biggest contributors have been some of the least expected headed into the season (shoutout bottom of the lineup!).

Least expected of all is the offense, as a whole, being one of the best in baseball through a month. I mean, the M’s old play-by-play announcer was getting clowned at his new job about the team’s offensive deficiencies only several weeks ago. Expectations were not high! Now, they have the second-highest team wRC+ in baseball (125), trailing only the Yankees.

The Mariners finished off the homestand with a 9-3 win on Wednesday afternoon—a six-run seventh inning the cherry on top of their seventh consecutive series win.

That leads us to where we are now. The Mariners hold a two-game lead at the top the AL West standings through the first full month of the season. After starting the season 3-7, they have won 15 of their last 20 games.

What’s on tap?

The Mariners head to Arlington to kick off their six-game road trip with a three-game set against the Rangers. Bryan Woo is scheduled to take the mound tonight at the site of his Major League debut in 2023.

After wrapping up in Texas, they will travel to Sacramento to face the Athletics for three games in a half-empty Triple-A stadium. Thanks, John Fisher.

All six games of the roadtrip will be televised on Root Sports and broadcast over the radio on 710 AM Seattle Sports.

This is Rolling Roof Rundown’s weekly Mariners newsletter. You can follow James @johnstonsports.com on Bluesky and, if you haven’t already, subscribe to the newsletter for more news and commentary.