Mariners' World Series hopes dealt another blow with new plan for Bryan Woo

Anyone who's been waiting patiently for Bryan Woo to return to the Seattle Mariners' starting rotation should stop. It's been a long time coming already, and now the team has changed its tune as to how it plans to use him.

Whereas Woo had been lined up to start Game 5 of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, the Mariners pivoted and announced that Bryce Miller will get the start instead.

For his part, Woo is going to be available out of the bullpen for Game 4 and seemingly for the foreseeable future.

“He’s in a good spot, he’s feeling good, and I think at this point that’s where we’re going to see him coming out of the pen,” manager Dan Wilson said of Woo ahead of Game 4 on Thursday, according to Tim Booth of the Seattle Times.

Mariners' new plan for Bryan Woo is not surprising, but it is disappointing

Though the vibes were good when the Mariners added Woo to their ALCS roster after he was sidelined for the ALDS opposite the Detroit Tigers, it isn't necessarily surprising that the team has backed away from him returning as a starter.

Woo hasn't pitched in any capacity since September 19, when he exited a start in Houston after 5.0 innings and 67 pitches. That's nearly a full month without game action, and even the live batting practice he threw on Monday only saw him ramp it up to 25 pitches. The Mariners even sent him out to the bullpen in the middle of Game 3, purportedly to get him "acclimated."

The optimistic read on the situation now is twofold. For one, it's a luxury for Wilson to have an All-Star starting pitcher in his bullpen, especially if he needs bulk innings. And for two, the Game 5 start doesn't feel wasted on Miller after he silenced Toronto's potent offense in Game 1.

And yet, Miller had been having a volatile season pretty much right up until that performance. Woo, on the other hand, was Seattle's best starter when he was healthy during the regular season. He had a 2.94 ERA over 186.2 innings, with a penchant for taking it to teams with winning records to the tune of a 2.09 ERA in 15 starts.

In a perfect world, the Mariners would have been able to throw Woo back out there as their starter for Game 5, or maybe even Game 6 or 7 back in Toronto if the series extended that far. He was really the only Seattle starter to excel on the road this season — he had a 3.40 ERA on the road, compared to road ERAs of at least 4.70 for Miller, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Luis Castillo.

From this point forward, it would seem that the Mariners will have to make it to the World Series in order to revive the possibility of Woo starting again. They're still two wins away even after Toronto's 13-4 victory in Game 3 cut their lead in the series to 2-1.

Yet between that loss and today's news on Woo, it's hard to say the tide still favors the Mariners.