Seattle Mariners Reliever Matt Brash Encouraged After Latest Live Bullpen
PEORIA, Ariz. — There's a lot of anticipation surrounding the Seattle Mariners bullpen.
Gregory Santos will be back healthy, Andres Munoz and Collin Snider are coming off career-best seasons and Troy Taylor is expected to be back early in the year from a right lat strain.
The pitcher who led the Mariners in appearances in 2023, Matt Brash, is also expected to return within the first month-and-a-half of the season.
Brash was out all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He is ahead of his original timeline for return and threw his second live bullpen of spring training on Sunday.
Brash was encouraged after facing hitters for the second time this spring.
"I felt good," Brash said in an interview Sunday. "Awesome to face hitters. Just haven't done that in a long time. It was fun to get out there and compete. And the main thing was I felt good doing it."
Hitters weren't allowed to swing against Brash in his first live BP Wednesday. He was also instructed not to go full strength with his fastball. The Seattle reliever threw his heater around 93-95 mph compared to his average of 98.1 (per Baseball Savant) on Wednesday.
Brash added more juice to his fastball on Sunday, but didn't know where his velocity was at the time of the interview. The hitters he faced, Victor Robles and Miles Mastrobuoni, were also allowed to swing.
"I was getting (the fastball) pretty good today," Brash said. "I don't really know exactly what I was at, yet. But it was definitely coming out a little firmer today. And kind of working my way back, I'm really happy where I was at. Thought everything was feeling good and the offspeed was nice."
Matt Brash vs. Victor Robles - Round 2 pic.twitter.com/FYPKgww6gM
— Teren Kowatsch (@Teren_Kowatsch) March 16, 2025
Brash's offspeed throws have been the most encouraging aspects of his two BPs. He had full spin rate on his secondary throws on Wednesday and had noticeable movement on those offerings Sunday.
"Slider's felt great since I started throwing it and throwing it," Brash said. "It's right back where it was and I'm locating it great and throwing strikes when I need to and kind of expanding when I got two strikes. So I couldn't be more happy with the offspeed pitches."
Brash faced Robles and Mastrobuoni twice each on Sunday. Brash generated two groundouts and a fly out to foul territory. He allowed one base hit to Mastrobuoni that was 50/50 on whether or not it was a fly out.
Matt Brash vs. Miles Mastrobuoni - Round 1.#Mariners #TridentsUp pic.twitter.com/Ker4Cm3ZCo
— Teren Kowatsch (@Teren_Kowatsch) March 16, 2025
Barring any setbacks in his recovery, Brash will be back soon. And he'll be rejoining a bullpen that has the chance to be one of the best in the American League when everyone is healthy.
"I'm super excited," Brash said. "It's been awesome. My rehab has been going really good. I'm just excited to get back with the team, man. Whenever that is, it is. But like I said, (the arm) is feeling good and we're getting close. ... Everyone has great stuff in that bullpen. And we were a little banged up last year and a lot of guys stepped up and filled in roles that they hadn't done before and they did amazing. I feel like we have a ton of guys that can pitch high leverage or pitch any spots. So it will be exciting once we're all back and really see what that bullpen can do."
Brash had a 3.06 ERA in 2023. He struck out 107 batters in 70.2 innings across 78 appearances.
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