Hitters are telling Mariners' Bryan Woo how to adjust (and he must listen)

The Mariners have spent the last few days dealing with a pretty uncomfortable pitching reality with their rotation, and now, Bryan Woo is officially part of it, too. He still throws strikes like he has somewhere else to be. And he still has above-average velocity. But we also can’t pretend the warning lights are imaginary.

Over his last two starts, Woo has allowed 13 earned runs in nine innings and given up six home runs. That kind of stretch makes everyone around the Mariners take one extra look at the pitch mix, the contact quality and the way hitters are clearly adjusting to him.

Right now, hitters might be telling Woo exactly what he needs to hear. This doesn’t look like a broken profile as much as a changing one. The walk rate is still excellent, sitting at 3.6 percent, which puts him in the 98th percentile. That matters because he’s not suddenly losing the zone, nibbling himself into trouble or handing out free baserunners. He’s still making hitters earn their way on. The problem is that hitters are earning it a little too loudly.

Woo’s barrel rate has jumped to 10.1 percent, the highest mark of his career. His hard-hit rate is up to 48.1 percent, a pretty sharp climb from 35.2 percent in 2024 and 41.8 percent in 2025. His ground-ball rate has also fallen all the way to 31.0 percent, while his air-ball rate has jumped to 69.0 percent.

That’s where this starts to feel dangerous. Woo lives in the zone. But when a strike-thrower starts giving up more barrels, the whole profile gets thinner in a hurry.

Bryan Woo’s sinker trouble gives Mariners a clear path out of his rough stretch

The strangest part is that the issue does not feel impossible to identify.

Woo’s sinker is getting hit. Hard. Hitters are batting .317 against it with a .561 slugging percentage and a .400 expected wOBA. The whiff rate on the pitch is just 7.1 percent, which basically means it is not fooling anyone right now. If the pitch isn’t missing bats and it’s getting punished when hitters put it in play, that is a rough combination.

The Mariners should be having a very direct conversation about why this is still such a central piece of the plan against right-handed hitters.

Woo has already cut back on the sinker overall, which is a good start. But against righties, he still seems to prefer a fairly even four-seamer/sinker blend. That part is odd. The four-seamer still plays. It’s averaging 95.7 mph, and even if it hasn’t been quite as dominant as it was last season, it remains a better bet than a sinker currently getting pummeled.

The sweeper looks like the obvious right-on-right weapon here. Hitters are batting just .160 against it with a .320 slugging percentage and a 39.6 percent whiff rate. That’s the pitch giving hitters problems. 

So the adjustment doesn’t need to be a massive reinvention. It looks more like a matter of sharpening the hierarchy. Trust the four-seamer. Trust the sweeper. Let the sinker become more of a show-me pitch instead of something hitters can sit on and punish.

Emerson Hancock has already given the Mariners a pretty useful proof of concept. He has moved away from a heavier four-seamer/sinker blend and leaned more into a four-seamer/sweeper combination that has made hitters far less comfortable at the plate. Woo doesn’t have to copy Hancock pitch for pitch, but the broader lesson applies: when the sinker is not helping, there’s no reason to keep treating it like a co-headliner.

Still, the encouraging part is that Woo’s best traits have not disappeared. This doesn’t look like a pitcher searching for his career. It looks like a talented starter who needs to stop being stubborn with a pitch that is no longer helping him.

Woo has the stuff to adjust. Now the Mariners need him to make the adjustment before hitters keep making it for him.

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