Seattle Mariners Provide Promising Injury Update on Key Reliever Matt Brash
The Seattle Mariners bullpen was a healthy mix of good and bad in 2024.
Behind the offense, the Mariners relievers were arguably the most disappointing part of last year. Several blown saves, close games that teetered to the opposition after going to the bullpen and many transactions involving low-leverage bullpen arms highlighted the group's first half struggles.
The relievers bounced back in the second half of 2024. Seattle brought up rookie Troy Taylor, who quickly earned himself a spot as a high-leverage arm, Collin Snider revitalized his career after two disappointing years with the Kansas City Royals and closer Andres Munoz was named to the first All-Star game of his career after having a career season of his own.
The bullpen will likely undergo some tweaking before 2025 with five relievers up for arbitration. And one of those tweaks will involve the return of a back-end reliever from injury sooner than anticipated.
In an article published by MLB.com's Daniel Kramer, Mariners General Manager Justin Hollander provided a promising injury update on Matt Brash, who missed all of 2024 with Tommy John surgery:
“I'm loath to put timelines (on it) because it's science and there's some art to it, and it depends on how he progresses through. We do anticipate early in the season -- sometime in late April or early May, we think, is realistic based on how he’s trending.”
Brash was originally estimated for a late June or July return. He underwent Tommy John surgery back in early May of 2024.
This is great news for Seattle. Brash had more outings than any other hurler in the organization's bullpen in 2023. He had a 3.06 ERA with 107 strikeouts across 70.2 innings pitched in 78 appearances.
2023 PitchingNinja Award for Filthiest Slider of the Year. ☠️🪦🏆
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) November 18, 2023
Winner: Matt Brash pic.twitter.com/eSIzjt7HHF
Brash's return will be welcomed with open arms for the Mariners. His reintroduction to the bullpen would give the team four high-end relievers and would give the team a lot more leeway on what arm to go to in close games.
An extra month of Brash would be a net positive. And it might be the depth Seattle needs to avoid going through low-leverage arms at the rate it did last year.
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