Mariners 2024 Player Rankings: Logan Gilbert climbs a spot to #6

We ended up having seven people here at Sodo involved in our player rankings, and the race between #5 and #6 was actually the closest one out of any of them. A single vote was the difference, and Logan Gilbert narrowly missed out on the top five of this year's rankings. No spoilers here, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see who kicks off the top five. I was gonna try and be witty, but I decided to Dump all my puns.

Logan Gilbert comes in at #6 in our 2024 player rankings for the Mariners

I had Gilbert #4, along with one other voter on our team. The voting was very similar across the board for Gilbert, with some 4's, 5's, 6's and a single 7. No big outliers and I'm guessing it's not a surprise that he comes in right on the cusp of the top-five Mariners heading into the upcoming season.

I'm a big fan of Gilbert, and I was one of the few who said he was going to do better than Kirby in 2023. I was wrong, and that's fine. Kirby was a monster. I still think that there is more in Gilbert's arsenal to be unlocked and that he can continue to get even better. Looking at his Baseball Savant numbers makes me happy, especially when I look at his run values over the last couple of seasons. To get a good idea of run value, TangoTiger helps out with that.

In 2021, his 4-seamer was T-10th in run value at "15". In 2022, it was T-42nd at "12". That's actually still pretty good when you are looking across the entirety of baseball, relievers included. In 2023, it fell all the way to 1043rd at "0". The reason I get excited though is that his slider jumped into a stratosphere it had never been before, ranking 28th at "15".

It's a big ask, and not likely to happen, but if Gilbert could end up with 2 of the top 100 pitches in baseball? That instantly is going to put him into Cy Young contention. Gerrit Cole was #1 and #85 last season. Snell was #6 and #43.

Gilbert is also entering his proverbial prime. What used to be said, and possibly still is said, is that prime ages are 27-29. Gilbert is going to be 27 this season. As his walk rate drops and his K rate rises, maybe we could see a 9.5 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9. Taking a look at his outings over the last two seasons, I firmly believe that a low 3 ERA season is in there, if not flirting with a 2.9 ERA. Pitchers have bad outings, everyone does. In 2022, he had a really rough stretch against the Yankees. In 2023, it was more spread out across the year.

I'm curious to see if he becomes top five worthy for next years rankings as all the stuff is there. If he puts it together, he could be the best pitcher in the Mariners rotation.