Emerson Hancock's prime-time dominance puts Mariners in best kind of awkward spot

Emerson Hancock did not get a chance to finish off a primetime no-hitter on Sunday, but that's beside the point. What matters is that he gave himself a shot, which is not normally what you expect from fill-in starters of his ilk.

Hancock was, in a word, dominant against the Cleveland Guardians in the Seattle Mariners' 8-0 win on Sunday Night Baseball. By the time Dan Wilson lifted him in favor of Cooper Criswell, Hancock had fired six innings of no-hit ball with one walk, one hit-by-pitch and a career-high nine strikeouts.

The no-hitter ended when Criswell served up a leadoff single to (Who else?) Chase DeLauter in the top of the seventh. But this wasn't so much an injustice as a non-controversy. After throwing 97 pitches through his six innings, there was no way Hancock was ever going to see his no-no attempt through to the end — at least not with his arm still intact, anyway.

Even so, Hancock managed to make a bit of Mariners history. Per the team's public relations, only Hancock and one other Seattle pitcher have logged as many as six hitless innings while striking out at least nine. The other was Félix Hernández in his perfect game in 2012.

Emerson Hancock shows Mariners he's too good to be banish to the minor leagues

At this stage of his career, it's only fair for Mariners fans to have trust issues when it comes to Hancock.

Six years ago, he was the club's No. 6 overall draft pick. And at his peak in 2021, MLB Pipeline had him rated higher than Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Cal Raleigh among the team's top prospects. That he's gone from that kind of background to a pitcher with a 4.81 ERA in the big leagues is disappointing, to say the least.

He's still only 26, though, and signs of some kind of rise were there before he shut down the reigning AL Central champions on Sunday. He added 1.5 mph in average fastball velocity from 2024 to 2025, and dropping his arm angle helped turn a mediocre slider into a sweeper that had a 52.4 whiff rate during spring training this year.

It's only one start, but Sunday night felt like Hancock brushing up against a newer, higher ceiling.

He ditched the sinker and threw almost all four-seamers when he opted for the heat, sitting in the mid-90s and getting whiffs on nine of 37 swings. He also leaned heavily on the sweeper, which got whiffs on three of seven swings.

Even given his pedigree, this is impressive stuff for a pitcher who wouldn't have been the Mariners' first choice to start on Sunday. Hancock is only in there because Bryce Miller is sidelined with an oblique injury, and his absence doesn't figure to last beyond the first few weeks of the season.

Because Hancock has a minor league option left, the Mariners can simply stash him in the minors when Miller is back. But even with that being the case, he's already put them on a collision course with the best problem a team can have:

Too many good pitchers, not enough spots for all of them.