Seattle Mariners Appear Cautiously Optimistic About Logan Gilbert's Injury
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SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners early-season injury troubles took a potentially devastating turn Friday.
Mariners ace and 2024 All-Star Logan Gilbert was immaculate against the Miami Marlins on Friday. In three innings pitched, he allowed no hits, no free bases, struck out three and worked through the entire Marlins lineup in 29 pitches. He was pulled after the third inning and replaced with Casey Lawrence, who went on to pitch five innings in long relief in the eventual 8-4 Miami win.
Logan Gilbert's 2Ks in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/CiAPRuZi7F
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 26, 2025
It was announced roughly 20 minutes after Gilbert was pulled that he was suffering from right forearm tightness, which set off several red flags.
Forearm tightness is usually a precursor to something more serious. Gilbert said after the game that he began to feel the tightness in pregame warm-ups.
Early indications are that Gilbert and Seattle avoided a worst-case scenario.
Gilbert said after the game that he chose not to throw his splitter, but that he didn't feel anything off on his slider.
"We didn't throw splitter tonight," Gilbert said Friday. "Just didn't think it was a good idea. I think the slider actually felt pretty good, maybe the best. So if there's anything to feel optimistic about, I didn't really feel anything on the slider. The fastball — a little tight. Tried to kind of get on one here or there just to test it out. And didn't really help the situation."
Gilbert said in his postgame interview that the tightness didn't feel that much worse when he was he was pulled compared to warm-ups.
According to an article written by MLB.com's Daniel Kramer, an anonymous source with knowledge on Gilbert's current situation said that there's modest but "not zero" concern. The article also said that the team is optimistic Gilbert avoided damage to his UCL. The Mariners won't know Gilbert's status for certain until he undergoes an MRI Saturday.
Gilbert hasn't missed a start since he made his debut May 13, 2021. He was named Seattle's Opening Day starter for the first time in his career this season and is viewed as one of the best pitchers in baseball. He has a 2.37 ERA this season with 44 strikeouts in 30.1 innings pitched across six starts.
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