SeaSide Thoughts: Mariners split the week for Mom!

The return of Woo…we think?

The last start by Emerson Hancock will likely be his last with the team for a while. After giving up four runs in four innings, Hancock was pulled in what ended up being Seattle's lone win in Minnesota. The young prospect has had some good to great moments this season, filling in while Bryan Woo got healthy and ramped up, but he's also been playing with fire.

His baseball savant page shows a depth starting pitcher who probably has been affected by injuries to the point we may never see his full potential. I still think there's a path where he could be a real contributor, but his best value moving forward could be as trade bait. We all saw the Jim Bowden trade involving Hancock for Pete Alonso. That's a deal I probably say yes to, and pretty quickly, but I also don't know how realistic it is. He's a name to keep an eye on at the deadline, or if someone gets hurt.

Which leads us to Woo. Woo was absolutely fantastic and electric in his first start of the season until back-to-back 88 mph fastballs and a wince brought everything to a halt. Woo was removed after 62 pitches, but supposedly he is fine? Scott Servais mentioned that this has been happening to Woo after long offensive innings where he has to sit for an extended period of time.

This is a situation to monitor. The Mariners will likely never equal their historic pitching run, but they are a better overall unit with Woo in the rotation over Hancock. If he can stay healthy, and show what he did in 4+ innings against Oakland, this team could run away with the division, if the offense clicks.