Seattle Mariners All-Star Logan Gilbert Still Looking For Ways to Improve For 2025
PEORIA, Ariz. — The Seattle Mariners starting rotation has been deservedly praised over the last year.
The group already had two All-Stars on its staff (George Kirby, Luis Castillo) and Logan Gilbert made that number three last season. And he still thinks there's room to improve.
"(My focus) is just consistency — repeating," Logan Gilbert said in an interview Friday. "Last year I felt really good but if you take a handful of like, 10 or 20 pitches that I could have executed better, it could have changed a game here or there. It could have helped me win a close game, kept us in the game, whatever. So it's just repeatability. Even if it feels good, just doing it even more."
It's hard to imagine Gilbert having a season better than what he accomplished in 2024. He posted a 3.23 ERA in a team-high 33 starts and struck out 220 batters in 208.2 innings pitched. He held opposing batters to a .196 average and led the league in WHIP (0.89). He led all of baseball in innings pitched.
Logan Gilbert's Splitters are unfair. pic.twitter.com/N7jDc7DImm
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 19, 2024
But it makes sense why Gilbert focuses on those 10-to-20 pitches. He became Seattle's ace this past season in part because he hyper-focuses on the finer details. His fellow starting pitchers are very similar. It's not rare to see Gilbert share advice with others in the rotation or vice versa.
On Friday, Gilbert was talking with Bryce Miller about the latter's bullpen that day.
"Everybody's so good, it's really fun to learn from each other," Gilbert said. "Have that kind of internal competition with each other, because I feel like it makes us all better. ... I feel like we know each other really well at this point after a few years being together. So we kind of hold each other accountable on what we do well, if we're getting off track, that kind of stuff. So just making sure we all stick to our strengths — individually and as a staff. Getting in good counts, being aggressive, on the attack and we kind of hold each other to that standard."
That push to improve can sometimes have Gilbert's arsenal, and the other starting pitchers', resembling a laboratory of experiments.
Gilbert had a six-pitch mix of a slider, four-seamer, splitter, curveball, cutter and sinker in 2024, according to Baseball Savant. The only pitch hitters averaged better than .247 against was his sinker — which Gilbert threw the least (44 times out of 3,042 pitches).
Gilbert is experimenting with even more offerings in camp, but a new pitch isn't guaranteed to appear during the season.
"It's fun. It's hard to stop it," Gilbert said. "I think we all just love pitching. We love messing around. But there comes a time to experiment and a time to buckle down and make sure we still do what we do really well — our strengths. It's fun to have little side projects here and there, but I don't ever want to get away from what makes us successful, too. ... We'll see. Right now it's just testing stuff out in spring training. I've always wanted to have something kind of going into righties — two-seamer, whatever. But I got to prove to myself that it's good enough to throw in a leverage situation. And if it is — great. If it's not, I'll just stick with what I do."
Gilbert has been working his way back into regular season form throughout Cactus League play. Entering Saturday, he has a 6.75 ERA with eight strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched across three starts.
"Being on the attack, getting in good counts, that's always the main thing," Gilbert said. "So I can do a little bit better job of that. Offseason, you're always working on shapes and pitches and put-away pitches. But when you get back in games it's all about getting ahead of hitters. So just doing that over and over."
Nobody knows what Gilbert needs to work on better than himself. And that attention to detail is why the starting rotation has become the Mariners' indisputable strength. That mentality might also be the key for Gilbert and the rest of the rotation to reach an even higher level in 2025.
Opening Day is March 27 at T-Mobile Park.
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