Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Assessing Kade Anderson's MLB Debut + What's Causing the Seattle Mariners' Rotation STRUGGLES?!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kate Anderson's MLB debut got a little overshadowed on Saturday, but we'll break it all down coming up. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, it is Monday, August 24th, 2026. My name is Taday Gonzalez, and I'm joined as always by my co-coast, Colby Patnode. On today's show, we'll open up the mailbag and answer some of your mayor's questions,

Starting point is 00:00:33 but something you guys didn't ask us about was Kate Anderson's MLB debut on Saturday. So we're going to talk about that first to kick things off one of the biggest debuts in Mariners history, frankly, especially recent Mariners history, going up against the Chicago Cubs, the best lineup in all of baseball,

Starting point is 00:00:51 statistically speaking, especially against left-handed pitching. And Anderson goes five and two-thirds, gives up three-earn runs on five hits, two of those solo home runs, five strikeouts, two walks, on 81 pitches, just five hard hit balls, give it up in total. Lot has been made of Anderson's fastball and how lackluster it was on Saturday coming out on that start.

Starting point is 00:01:15 And while I do agree, it was lackluster. Obviously, he's using the Major League Baseball for the first time. It's a different ball down in AA. It's also just one start. Like, can we give him a little bit more time before we, write all these huge think pieces about Kate Anderson's fastball. Also, pitch profiler had Anderson's three other pitches as above average offerings in that start.

Starting point is 00:01:42 He averaged a 45% whiff rate on his slider. He got two whiffs on three swings on his curveball. There were a lot of good things that Kate Anderson did in the start. And he started out pretty hot as well. You know, he gets that first strikeout against Alex Breggman, gets a couple more strikeouts in the second inning, I believe. He had some real flashes over the course of this outing. It was really fun to watch, really cool to see.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And frankly, that final line looks a lot worse than it should have. You know, unfortunately, Dan Wilson tries to squeeze a little bit of extra juice out of Anderson that he shouldn't have tried to, you know, having him go out there for the third time against the Cubs lineup with him already pushing up against the season high in pitching. is just totally unnecessary to have him go out and do that and things obviously go sideways gives up the two solo home runs and he's not able to finish that inning and ultimately his debut ends on a sour note so that was a little bit of a bummer but again not too concerned about the fastball definitely not concerned at all about how things ended there really he just

Starting point is 00:03:00 shouldn't have been put in that position to begin with. So overall, I feel really good about Kate Anderson's debut. Yeah. I mean, again, like you said, it came against arguably the best offense in all of baseball and certainly the best against left-handed pitching, not the, and on national TV, no less. So not the easiest landing spot for Cade. And I thought he performed quite well. Not too surprising to see the poise.

Starting point is 00:03:30 That's always been kind of a big part of Cade is that he's that he's. He's on top of being very polished. He's kind of a big game pitcher, and he has that reputation of not letting the moment get too big for him. And so, yeah, I'm not too surprised that he threw the ball as well as he did. Like you said, the line should have been better. It could have been better. It should have been better.

Starting point is 00:03:49 Dan had three opportunities, four opportunities to take him out, and he didn't take him out in any of them. And he even got a gift of the boneheaded, you know, base running of people. PCA to get even more than he could have possibly hoped out of Cade, and he still decided to roll with him again. And then after that, ended in disaster another one before he finally took him out. So you guys all saw it. We know Dan's incapable of making even the simplest and most obvious baseball decisions

Starting point is 00:04:23 you could possibly make. And we're not going to spend the segment ripping Dan because we do that every day, essentially. And no, we're not going to ask. We're not going to tell you guys who's going to be hired when he gets fired because we've done that like every week for the last five weeks. And no. Anywho, yeah. So I was at the stadium.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Good energy, good vibes. Obviously, not much I could tell from watching where I was. I was up in 313. So, good seats. Yeah. They're good seats,

Starting point is 00:04:52 but not for scouting purposes. Not that I'm much of a scout anyway. You could say the break on every single pitch. You can see all the calls correctly. Yeah. Oh, dude. The guy is front of me. blue. The guy in front of me went, you know, 100% on his, his strike calls. Like, he would not have lost a single challenge.

Starting point is 00:05:11 He's also... Tap your head, Julio! He's also ripping into Julio for his lack of production while wearing a Cowley jersey. I'll get the irony there, but okay, whatever. Whatever. Anyways, yeah, so when I went back and watched, yeah, the breaking balls were really good. I felt like the change up. He he sailed a couple to his glove side. Sorry, to his arm side and up and elevated. So that is something that he'll have to fix through some good ones, certainly. But I feel like that really wasn't much of a factor there. It really was the two breaking balls that that carried him and got him big outs when he needed them. Fastball, you missed a couple times. Gloveside, just kind of over-yanked them a little bit. And so, you know, some minor things here, some pitches that, you know, Either he tried to put a little extra on or like we talked about the seams on the baseball are different.

Starting point is 00:06:07 So he's kind of trying to figure out where he needs to release that pitch. There were just a few pitches where you're like, yeah, that's not competitive pitch. So that's a bad miss. But nothing super, you know, critical, nothing that leads me to be concerned at all. And again, the two breaking balls, times I couldn't tell them apart, except for what they set on the radar gun. The slider is like 88 and the curve balls 82. So, yeah, both of them are very, very good. And he had a 50% whiff rate on the breaking balls, again, against a very, very good lineup.

Starting point is 00:06:43 And one that is the opposite of the Mariners and that it's good and also it destroys left-handed pitching. So, yeah, it was a really good debut for Cade, excited to watch him pitch again. You know, he's kind of the nice thing about Cade. If he's going to tap out at about 80 pitches, he's probably still going to go five or six most nights with those 80 pitches because he's really efficient. He pounds the strike zone. He attacks and he can throw any of his pitches in any spot at any time, which makes him a bit of a unique Mariners pitcher because a lot of Mariners guys are. I throw my basketball at the top of the zone. And then I have my off speed, my go-to off speed off of that.

Starting point is 00:07:22 And that's kind of what I do, you know. And Kate is much more of a kitchen sink guy. a little more Logan Gilbert than Brian Wu, so to speak. And so I'm excited to see him pitch again. I think his next start will be in Toronto. As for what day, we don't know because Bryce Miller is hurt. And it's pretty obvious that he is. And will the Mariners put him on the aisle?

Starting point is 00:07:43 No, because the Mariners don't do smart things like that. But Kate, very good. Well, also because Miller pitched after Anderson, like Miller's thing doesn't really matter. It's more the Wu aspect of this. That matters. Yeah. So right now, Kate is slated to start on Saturday.

Starting point is 00:08:00 We'll see if that happens. If not, it'll be Friday. But his next start, no matter what day it is, will come in Toronto. So, and that's going to be a packed house. As I've learned, I kind of assume like, hey, the Blue Day is not particularly good this year. Yeah, I'll be able to get tickets pretty easily. Nope. That's also like kind of their 50th anniversary celebration without it being like specifically a 50th anniversary celebration.

Starting point is 00:08:26 They're opening up their Hall of Excell. or whatever, they're inducting Buck Martinez into that. So Saturday is like sold out basically. They're only like big game energy. I'm going to have to. Yeah, I'm going to have to spend a lot of money to get into that building. But I will for Cade. But yeah, it's going to, this is all to say, it's going to be a packed house.

Starting point is 00:08:46 It's going to be a lot of energy in that in that ballpark. That's going to be a tough landing spot for Cade to make his first road start of his MLB career. And yet not too dissimilar from his first overall start. And it's an LB career with a packed house and lots of energy. So, yeah, we'll see how it goes. But that could be a playoff series, more or less. I mean, at least from a wild card standard. Sure.

Starting point is 00:09:10 Yeah. Yeah, big weekend series, Kate on the bump. We'll see how it goes. But yeah, overall, start one, very encouraged. Definitely some things to clean up, but things that will get cleaned up and the things that need to be cleaned up are not anything that are caused for concern whatsoever. All right. coming up, we're going to open up the mailbag and answer some of your Mara's questions, but first, a reminder of this episode of the Locktime Marries podcast is brought to you by Odu.

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Starting point is 00:10:54 And also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Let's open up the mailbag and answer some of your marries questions here on Mailbag Monday, starting with NWFXC, who wants to know with Bryce Miller continuing to struggle to get past the fourth inning. It would be similar to Matt Brash, where they do the conversion type program to turn his stuff into leverage material. I'm not sure if I'm there yet on Bryce, because like last year, the struggles were obviously very, you know, directly connected to the injury that he was dealing with. And this year, you know, now it's been reported. He's had a little bit of a lot thing since the Texas start. And that pretty much aligns with when his season started to go sideways this year.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And before that, he was dominant, right? So I don't know if I'm there yet on the whole, like, let's just convert Bryce Miller into a reliever. Are we talking long term or are we talking like for the rest of this year? I mean, like for the rest of this year, if you want to throw him in the bullpen, that's fine. but I think the question is, but I think the question more so is long term related. No, Bryce needs to prioritize his health. And if he needs a surgery, he needs to get the surgery. You know, it's, it's been about two months now since he's been a productive, viable major league starter.

Starting point is 00:12:13 That's, you know, if you were 68 and 60 or whatever the record is, you know, if you were in first place by five or six games, maybe you could live with this. but I feel like they also would have put him on the IL if they were in first place and tried to get him right. So yeah, I mean, the monkey wrench here in terms of 2026 is, is Brian Wu healthy enough to go out there and pitch every five days? And if he's not, do you want to call up Brian Sloan and burn some service time for this team where they currently sit in the standings? Maybe, I mean, they're only three back of the division, but maybe not.

Starting point is 00:12:50 And how much ammo does Ryan Sloan have left anyways? you know so yeah I think long term no I'm not putting Bryce in the bullpen for the rest of this year yeah I would assuming that we I feel good about who being able to go every five days I would because frankly this version of Bryce Miller is not giving you a better chance to win than even like Jonathan Diaz so I mean tell me I'm wrong he walks seven dudes in his last outing tie yeah I mean he shouldn't have been given an opportunity to walk no he should know but again once again yeah Dan We know. So, yeah. This year, bullpen, fine. Long term, no, no. I mean, Brash's problem wasn't health, although that became a problem. It was that he couldn't throw strikes.

Starting point is 00:13:37 Like, he didn't have enough ability to throw strikes consistently. And Bryce, when he's healthy, can certainly do that. And it just, we haven't seen him healthy for a couple of years now. And it sucks. But that's the reality. And that's why you should draft pitching every single year. But, yeah, long term. No, not interested for the rest of this year.

Starting point is 00:13:55 Sure, depending on the health of the rest of your guys. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not there yet on the real labor transition. But yeah. Real Husky hours wants to know. Do you think affording Randy a Rosarena is realistic or would it have to come at the cost of basically no new free agents? I think it's absolutely realistic that they can afford him and still do other things. Because I don't buy into this whole idea that like Randy is going to get like a hundred plus million dollars on the market.

Starting point is 00:14:21 I don't. I don't buy that. You've said it several times, but isn't the, isn't the comp for him to Oscar Hernandez? Yeah, which he got what, three years, 66? Yeah, after he had to take like a one year, 20-something million dollars. Yeah, it's just, it's just who, like, I get it. Like, there aren't that many bats that are going to be on the market. But when was the last time the market kind of like bit the knee to the free agents, really?

Starting point is 00:14:50 like when was the last time teams overpaid just because there was a lack of options on the market specifically in free agency? Like significantly. Yeah. And like who was the last 31 year old who got $100 plus million dollars as a corner outfielder with bad defense? Yeah. My guess is he's going to get a three year like 75ish million dollar deal. Yeah. I think that's about right.

Starting point is 00:15:13 I think anybody else, anything more than that in extra year is just overpaying for a guy. just because you feel like there aren't better options. And again, even if he did get 3 and 75, I am fairly convinced without having been told this directly. I'm pretty sure he would not take 3 and 75 from Seattle, but he would take it from somebody else. So we'll see, you know, who knows? But could they afford him and still like do other things?

Starting point is 00:15:43 Yeah, they could. It would be a little bit, it would be a much tighter fit. But remember JP's coming off the books as well. and I still think they're going to end up trading Kirby, who's supposed to make about $10 million. So they will have some wiggle room there. But we shall see. But I'd be surprised if he was back.

Starting point is 00:16:01 But could they do it? If Randy's open to it? Yeah, at the right number, absolutely. All right. We'll answer more of your questions in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the longtime era's podcast is brought to you by Amazon. This back to school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon.

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Starting point is 00:17:37 For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. Getting back into your questions here on Mailbag Monday, Max wants to know, would they bring up Ryan Sloan if Bryce Miller goes on the injured list, even though this organization refuses to put people on their injured list, but you get what I mean. Does Wu also have to go on the aisle? It doesn't seem like it. Seems like he's going to pitch on Wednesday against the Phillies, but we'll see. So, yeah, that's all very dependent on that.

Starting point is 00:18:07 So if Bryce has to go on the IL but Wu doesn't, they just stick with a five-man rotation. Yeah. I don't know if they're going to bring up Sloan regardless. If you get later in the year and you do make up these three games that you're behind the Rangers and the Astros, could they pop them in the bullpen real quick? Yeah. Sure. I just, I don't think that we're going to see him in the rotation. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what the plan is in terms of his workload and all of that. So I don't know how close he is to that threshold either. So,

Starting point is 00:18:51 Yeah, if Bryce goes on the IL, I mean, assuming Wu doesn't, he still might want six starters because in addition to not letting Anderson go more than 80 pitches in any of his starts, he's only pitched once a week the entire season. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, do they have to manufacture a sixth spot in the rotation? And could that be Sloan? I mean, it probably should be. If you're going to stick with a six-man rotation, it should be Sloan.

Starting point is 00:19:18 But do you just go with Diaz or are you willing to, are the Mariners willing to go to a six man or go, you know, are they willing to go to a five man because of Wu and because of Anderson? And if their dead set on the six man, would they even consider putting Miller on the IL regardless of how bad he is? Because frankly, if they haven't done it yet, why would they? Like, it just, this team's refusal to use the IL is bonkers. But anyways, yeah, so they're kind of in this weird spot. They swear Cooper Chriswell really would have come in handy. But unfortunately, You know, he's just now getting back to a rehab assignment as a reliever. They can't stretch him out in time for that.

Starting point is 00:19:57 So, you know, I think they might be able to stretch him out enough where he could like kind of piggyback with Cade. Maybe. I mean, like, could they claim like Zach Little or Lattell or whatever and then just be like, look, it's not good, but at least he's healthy type of guy. And so, yeah, could they piggyback? I don't know. I don't know. So really is a weird situation.

Starting point is 00:20:22 it seems clear to me, Bryce needs to go to the IL. Like whatever he's trying to pitch through, he can't do it. He needs to go to the IL. And if that means, you know, you have to roll with Jonathan Diaz

Starting point is 00:20:35 for a few weeks as a sixth starter because of Cade's limitations and because you're worried about Brian Wu and how he's going to bounce back, then so be it. It is worth knowing the Mariners do have some off days coming up. Yeah. So they can, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:49 go with a five-man and still give everybody an extra day's rest. somewhat regularly for the rest of the year. So maybe that's the path they go down. But, yeah, I don't think Sloan is going to be called up to be a starter this year. I just feel like he's probably at about the end of his allotted innings. And, yeah, we'll see. Now, again, if they go on a little bit of a run here and they, I mean, maybe not even in the regular season.

Starting point is 00:21:11 Maybe it's just postseason. We say, hey, look at that. Sloan's with the boys, you know, on the taxi squad or whatever. And he's pitching in the postseason out of the bullpen. I don't know. like are they even going to get to the postseason? Yeah. But yeah, I don't think he's going to be as a starter. Next question here from Jeff.

Starting point is 00:21:28 Has Pete Woodworth and Trent Blank lost their touch with the pitching this year? Or was it the loss of Max Wiener during the 2023 season? I think we've just overrated this rotation. So I don't think it really is a Pete Woodworth and Trent Blank thing. I don't know. I know there's like some people that still believe there's some extra gear for George. I know Nick Pollock from pitcher list thinks that like him switching sides of the rubber could help him and something like that. I know there's been suggestions made there.

Starting point is 00:22:00 And I don't know, you know, eventually we'll probably put that to the test to see if there's another organization out there that can get more out of one or two of these guys. But I think for the most part of this rotation just is what it is. And I don't think that's really because of coaching. I don't think that's because of Pete Woodworth or Trent Blank. I think those guys are really good at what they do. I think there's just a limitation on what these guys ultimately are, these pitchers. And then, you know, in terms of the bullpen, like, I just don't think there's enough options there in the bullpen. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:22:35 And I mean, to be fair, like, if their whole shtick is like, we turn guys into, like, good leverage bullpen guys out of nowhere. to their credit, they did, you know, find Pomerantz. Turned out he still had a good year left in him. They did find Tyson Miller. Turned out he still had a good year in him. Unfortunately, the front office made the decision to move on from those guys before the Mariners could benefit from the like. So, yeah, I think the Max Wiener element of this is more tied to the identifying of pitchers

Starting point is 00:23:09 or lack thereof that we've seen over the last few years because they really haven't hit big on anyone. I mean, I guess you can argue for rare, but like, Ferrer, like, they haven't really taken Ferrer to that next step. Ferrer's just kind of been the guy that he's been in his career, you know, which has been good. Like, don't get me wrong, Ferrer has been really nice. Yeah, but, but yeah,

Starting point is 00:23:28 it's more like, you know, they've let Pomerans go, they've let Tyson Miller go, they've let Luke Weaver go, you know, etc., etc., etc. Riley O'Brien is another guy, right? So that is where they, where I think the loss of Max Weiner has really hurt them.

Starting point is 00:23:43 Yeah, losing Max Wiener is certainly a factor that we did not, or really could not properly have foreseen at the time that it happened, because we just don't know, right? Like, but yeah, obviously that has definitely played a role. The other thing for Woodworth and Plank is that these guys in the rotation, they've dealt with a lot of nagging injuries over the, last two years. Bryce has not really, Bryce has been healthy for what?

Starting point is 00:24:18 Three weeks of the last two years. And Brian Wu obviously had the chest thing. Last year was a chest. This year it's the shoulder thing. And Kirby's missed time with his oblique and Logan's missed time with his elbow and like, yeah, they haven't really been 100% healthy for the last two years. Again, that's not an excuse. Most teams' rotations aren't healthy whatsoever. But also keeping

Starting point is 00:24:43 mind that this front office didn't really draft pitching for a couple of years, like not at any kind of serious level. And now they recently have, obviously, with Anderson and Sloan, Hugus and Taylor the last couple of years. So they are getting back to it. But they went three or four years there where they didn't take really a high profile pitcher in any of their draft. So they hadn't signed any high profile pitchers in the international free agency

Starting point is 00:25:06 in quite a while. So they really did have this like big focus on the position player group over the last few years and well now here's the trickle-down effect if you're not drafting these pitchers and developing them and getting them to the big leagues you're going to have a shortage and so yeah max wiener definitely a part of this part of the problem i don't want to assign you know blame to woodworth and blank because i i don't know exactly what their role is in in that but no i i think they have top 10 rotation but it's closer to 10 than it is to one and i i think they have a a fine bullpen that is a leverage arm short

Starting point is 00:25:41 and that's not Woodward's in Blank's fault. That's Jerry Depoto's fault. So, yeah, I think the pitching is still fine. It's just, it's gone through a bit of a rough patch here, and you have guys trying to pitch through some injuries. And, yeah, they haven't hit on that, that extra bullpen arm. And that's probably where you're missing Max Wiener, but I don't think that's a Woodworth and Plank thing. No, I think this is more of a- thing.

Starting point is 00:26:06 Yeah, I think this is more of a matter that we just kind of need to recalibrate our expectations for this rotation. Yeah. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadine Gazzal. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners.

Starting point is 00:26:25 You can follow me at Tadine G and Colby at C-Pat 11 and CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Assessing Kade Anderson's MLB Debut + What's Causing the Seattle Mariners' Rotation STRUGGLES?!

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