Potential rule change could benefit Mariners rotation more than any other in baseball

Baseball seems to be more in line with adapting their game than any other sport right now. Some ideas have been out there since literally the 1800s, while others have only come to the forefront recently. We've seen some of the new rules, between pitch clocks, getting rid of the pitcher hitting, bigger bases, and the three-hitter minimum for relievers, all bring the game forward as something both more watchable and a more efficient experience.

Others are in play in the Minors, with challenges and the automatic strike zones being implented at different levels for testing. While those are likely to make their way to the majors at some point, there was a new proposal that was brought up that stands larger than any of these changes, and it pertains to starting pitching.

The new rule would be a fantastic change for the Mariners

It's easy to see how much more efficient, aggressive, and disgusting pitches have become. 97 MPH 2-seamers. 104 MPH heat. Sliders that snap off the plate while still pushing 90 MPH still. It comes at a cost, as pitchers fuel tanks empty much faster. Few and far between are the outings where a pitchers will throw 125-140 pitches that were so common decades ago. We see relievers who can only throw an inning at a time, starters who can't approach 100 pitches, and the lowest average innings for SP in history.

All of this leads into the potential rule change. That a starting pitcher would have to go six innings at a minimum before leaving the game. Gone would be the days of bullpen openers to get through the tougher top of a lineup before handing it off to a long reliever. It's not set in stone or a 100% requirement, as there are a handful of exceptions that are being mentioned alongside the rule for when a pitcher can be removed from the game.

• They've thrown more than 100 pitches in the game
• They've given up four or more earned runs
• They've been injured, in which an IL stint is required to avoid gaming the system

While it wouldn't come into play for a couple of years, as teams would have to completely rethink how they handle their pitchers and build their staffs, it seems like a change that would help the Mariners more than any other team in baseball. Think about what we see from the Mariners on a day-to-day basis from their starters. More often than not, it seems like the starters are going 6+ innings as it is before leaving the game, meaning that it wouldn't change how they pitch at all.

Meanwhile, a lot of teams are going to slow down how they deploy their pitchers, having them tone down their stuff to make it through that 6th inning. We've seen the Mariners struggle to score runs in a historically poor fashion in 2024, coupled with an incredibly disgusting strikeout rate. If teams are forced to throw pitchers longer, the Mariners actually seem like the perfect team for this potential rule change.

You don't have to change how your pitchers throw at all, and on the flipside, your hitters are now seeing easier pitchers to hit, more tired pitchers, and are given more of a shot to produce at the plate. It's literally the solution to the Mariners problem. It's just too bad that they couldn't institute the rule in August of 2024... it's the only way the Mariners are likely to get to the playoffs.