Injured Mariners aces George Kirby, Logan Gilbert give fans a sight for sore eyes

The Seattle Mariners may be in first place in the AL West, but it's hard to ignore just how backward their 2025 season feels. It is their formerly much-maligned offense that is carrying them, whereas their supposedly elite pitching staff has sputtered.

What would help is if the Mariners got George Kirby and Logan Gilbert back in their starting rotation sooner rather than later. And all of a sudden, this is a realistic scenario.

Both aces were seen throwing the ball over the weekend, with Kirby doing so in an especially notable way. After missing the first month of the season with inflammation in his right shoulder, the 27-year-old made his first rehab appearance for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. To say it was encouraging would be an understatement.

George Kirby and Logan Gilbert are coming to rescue the Mariners' starting rotation

Kirby threw 42 pitches over three innings against the Las Vegas Aviators on Sunday. His fastball touched 97.8 mph and he struck out four while allowing one hit and no walks.

As Adam Jude of The Seattle Times wrote on Sunday, the Mariners don't have a firm plan for when Kirby will return to the rotation. Yet he should only need one or two more rehab outings, putting him in line to return in the middle of May.

There's never a bad time to welcome back an All-Star hurler whose career stats include a 3.43 ERA and 7.6 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Yet with Seattle starters struggling more than their 3.76 ERA lets on, getting Kirby back stands to be capital-H Huge.

Meanwhile, yet another encouraging development that took place on Sunday involved Gilbert playing catch at Globe Life Field. Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports shot the footage:

Sidelined since April 25 with a mild flexor strain in his right arm, Gilbert was meant to take a two-week break from throwing. That break is presumably still ongoing, as making lob tosses while playing catch isn't the same as "throwing" when the player in question is a pitcher.

Even still, this particular game of catch reinforces what we were already thinking about Gilbert's injury: it could have been so much worse.

Season-ending Tommy John surgery was the worst-case scenario for Gilbert, but it now seems as if that possibility is off the table entirely. As part of an interview with Brian Kenny on MLB Now on Friday, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said he hopes Gilbert's return will happen in the general vicinity of Kirby's return.

“We’re hopeful that we’re gonna see both this month, which is a little better we had thought initially,” Dipoto said, as per Brent Stecker of Seattle Sports.

This, also, is capital-H Huge. The 28-year-old Gilbert led the majors in innings and WHIP in 2024, and his first 30.1 innings of this year had yielded a 2.37 ERA, 44 strikeouts, and only six walks.

At 20-13, the Mariners already lead the AL West ahead of this week's showdown with the Athletics in Sacramento. If they can be this good despite not having their two best pitchers together in the rotation until May, the imagination naturally runs wild when thinking about what might come next.