Seattle Mariners pitcher ruled out for the 2026 season
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The Seattle Mariners have announced that righthanded starting pitcher Logan Evans underwent surgery to reconstruct a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right arm on Jan 23. The UCL reconstruction and internal brace procedure has an estimated recovery time of approximately 12 months.
The 24-year-old Evans made his MLB debut in 2025, posting a 6-5 record with 59 strikeouts, 31 walks a 4.32 ERA in 16 games (15 games started). The Mariners’ front office considered him one of its top pitching prospects heading into last season, and he certainly showed a lot of promise.
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Evans was taken by the Mariners in the 12th round of the 2023 MLB Draft after a standout career with the University of Pittsburgh. Despite his lower draft status, he progressed through the M's system quickly, and he looked poised to take a big step forward this season. Now, that same timeline will start sometime in 2027 instead.
Despite this medical malady, the Seattle front office will be fine with waiting another year to see if he can live up to the potential that he's already flashed. Prior to last season, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto spoke about the rapid rise of the righthander through several levels of the organization.
He’s super attentive; he's easily coachable,” Dipoto said. “He buys into the things that are important to us, and if you buy into those things, and you throw strike one, and you win your 1-1 [counts] with the kind of stuff that he has, he's got a chance to move pretty quickly."
"And [promoting him] is evidence of that. We didn't feel like this was an absurd challenge based on what we were watching.”
