Is Seattle's pitching enough to lead it to a championship?

Pitching wins championships.

It is one of baseball’s oldest cliches. However, it is a cliché because it’s a fundamental truth of the game.

The Seattle Mariners have never won a championship since they joined the American League in 1977 as an expansion franchise. The Mariners have yet to make it to the World Series.

The Mariners’ hopes of capturing that elusive championship are growing slimmer by the day. They have fallen five games behind the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West after holding a 10-game lead in the division standings following their victory on June 18 over the Cleveland Guardians.

“The mentality is always to win. The goal is always to win the championship,” Mariners outfielder Victor Robles told Draft Nation. “We haven’t been playing the best lately, it’s no secret, but eventually it’s most important to just go out there and compete and we’re going to turn that page.”

Whether the Mariners have enough time to turn the page remains to be seen as they have 40 games left. They will likely miss the postseason for the 22nd time in the last 23 seasons.

However, the Mariners have reason to think they might be positioning themselves to win a championship soon.

The Mariners’ starting pitchers have a 3.26 ERA this season, the best in the major leagues. Four of the five members of their rotation are 27 or younger and none can become free agents until 2027. The other starter, three-time All-Star right-hander Luis Castillo is signed through at least ‘27 as he is in the second year of a five-year, $108-million contract.

The Mariners are the envy of many teams with their young foursome of 27-year-old Logan Gilbert, 26-year-old George Kirby, 26-year-old Bryce Miller and 25-year-old Bryan Woo.

Gilbert leads the AL with 161 innings pitched and 0.882 WHIP while his 7-9 record belies a 2.96 ERA. The Mariners’ first-round draft pick in 2018 from Stetson was a 13-game winner in 2022 and 2023.

Kirby was a first-round pick in 2019 from Elon and his 7.79 SO/BB ratio leads the AL as does his 26 starts. Like Gilbert, Kirby deserves a better record as he is 9-9 with a 3.40 ERA. Kirby is a premier strike thrower with an amazing 22 more career starts (82) than walks (60) during his three years in the big leagues.

Miller doesn’t have the same draft pedigree as Gilbert and Kirby, as he was picked in the fourth round in 2021 from Texas A&M. However, some scouts believe Miller will become the Mariners' ace. He is 9-7 with a 3.29 ERA in 24 starts in his second season.

Woo has been limited to 16 starts this season, also his second in the big leagues, because of right elbow inflammation and a strained right hamstring but has been outstanding when healthy as he is 5-2 with a 2.12 ERA. He was another find for the Mariners in the 2021 draft, getting chosen in the sixth round from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

So how have the Mariners accumulated four young frontline starting pitchers when so many other teams around the majors have a hard time filling out their rotations? Mariners manager Scott Servais let us in on the secret.

“It starts with scouting. You’ve got to pick the right ones and we’ve done an awesome job there,” Servais said. “Then getting them into (player) development and really challenging our guys to get better. We’ve seen the growth of our young pitchers when they come to the big leagues and there weren’t the same guys when they got here than they are now.”

A case in point is Miller, who worked six shutout innings on Aug. 15 against the Tigers in Detroit.

“When you see Bryce Miller go out and pitch six scoreless innings, it’s not what we saw a year ago,” Servais said. “He’s a totally different guy which is a credit to our players and our pitching coaches here that we are constantly trying to turn the dial, get more out of them – different pitches, different shapes to their pitches, how they use their stuff, their thought process. So, it’s constant development at the big-league level and we’re reaping the benefits of it.”

The trick is for the Mariners now to find a way to give their pitchers some run support. Seattle is 27th in the majors in runs scored with an average of 3.94 a game.

The good news is the Mariners have six hitters among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects – shortstops Colt Emerson (No. 14) and Cole Young (No. 47), outfielder Lazaro Montes (No. 33) and Johnny Farmelo (No. 69), catcher Henry Ford (No. 80) and first baseman Tyler Locklear (No. 88).

Locklear is at Triple-A now but made his major-league debut earlier this year. Though he hit just .156/.224/.311 with two home runs in 16 games, the Mariners are hopeful he will develop into a middle-of-the-lineup threat.

Young and Ford are also knocking on the door at the Double-A level. Emerson and Montes are at High-A with Farmelo behind them at Low-A.

While that portends a potentially bright future, the Mariners need some consistent offense in the present to make a late run in the pennant race.

“I just feel like, what I would like to have is just a consistent footing that you say, ‘OK, this is what the Mariners got,’” center fielder Julio Rodriguez said. “I just feel like really good teams don't have streaks. Really good teams are really good teams every single day, no matter what, if they lose or win.”