PHOENIX – The thing about starting pitching depth is that you’ll always need it. Very few clubs get through the 162-game grind of a regular season with the same five members of a rotation.
Which is why it’s great to have a guy like Logan Evans.
The Mariners recalled Evans from Triple-A Tacoma prior to Tuesday’s game against the D-backs at Chase Field and immediately tabbed him as the starter, sliding Bryan Woo back a day to Wednesday’s series finale.
Evans delivered five uneven innings in a 10-3 loss as the D-backs constantly had the right-hander working from the stretch. In total, he scattered seven hits and two walks, leading to four runs while striking out five. He threw first-pitch strikes to just 13 of 23 batters, six of whom put the ball in play.
Bryce Miller, who hasn’t bounced back as the club hoped he would from a cortisone shot last month, returns to the 15-day injured list retroactive to Saturday and will receive a PRP injection, shutting him down for at least the next two weeks, a source told MLB.com. He will miss at least the next month as the club works on a return to play program.
It marks Miller’s second IL stint of the young season. Having established a reputation of displaying excellent command, the walks have alarmingly jumped in 2025 for the 26-year-old with his 4.3 BB/9 rate nearly doubling the 2.2 mark he posted over 31 starts last year.
“The most important thing is getting Bryce back to 100 percent and Logan has done a great job in his stead when he's been up here,” manager Dan Wilson said.
Evans had a locker in Phoenix on Monday but served as a member of the club’s taxi squad as they weighed their options. The 24-year-old most recently pitched last Tuesday for Tacoma, throwing 80 pitches in a four-inning start.
But it isn’t the Triple-A results that earned him a call back to the bigs, it’s the Major League ones. He didn’t know when – or where – he’d be throwing his next pitch. But he stayed ready.
“He's got a lot of weapons, we know that,” Wilson said. “Him being able to utilize those at different times has been key. … I think just getting a feel for what it's like here in the big leagues and how to use that stuff the most effectively has really helped him to grow. He's picked it up very quickly and I think being around this group of pitchers, guys that are always striving to get better, guys that are always trying to make their stuff better or come up with a different pitch, being around that kind of environment and getting feedback from those guys, too, I think it's extremely helpful and it's really helped him along, too.”
From April 27-May 27, Evans went on a six-start run for the Mariners that saw him deliver a 2.83 ERA, including a professional best outing vs. the Nationals in which he spun eight innings of one-run ball. So it was somewhat surprising that after such a superb outing, he found his next one happening down a level. But as they say, having multiple good options at the big league level has a way of working itself out.
Adding to the club’s rotation conundrum is that Logan Gilbert made his third rehab start for Tacoma on Tuesday night and looked brilliant. The All-Star spun five scoreless frames and struck out six while allowing just two batters over the minimum. His pitch count has steadily climbed across his first three outings – first going 45, then 60, then 72 – with the expectation being that he’ll return to a Major League mound when the club feels he can provide adequate length.
“Having a deep staff is always beneficial,” Wilson said, “and thankfully for us, in terms of our starters going down, having that depth with Emerson and Logan and them being able to step up in certain situations has been huge for us.”