The Mariners’ bullpen picture got a little clearer Tuesday, and not in the way anyone in Seattle wanted. Matt Brash is done for the season after an MRI showed continued inflammation in his right lat, a setback that will shut him down for eight weeks.
The scan reportedly showed no structural damage, which at least leaves something to feel better about heading into 2027. But for this season, it changes nothing. Brash is out, and the Mariners have to move on without the arm they spent most of the summer waiting for.
That wait never really paid off. Brash opened the year as the kind of late-inning weapon Seattle hoped would stabilize the back end of the bullpen, but he never got there consistently.
He finishes with a 0.54 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP in 20 appearances, allowing just one earned run all season. It’s a tiny sample, but it still says a lot about what he can be when he’s right.
And the reminder of that ceiling is fresh. In 2023, Brash struck out 107 hitters while leading the majors with 78 appearances.
Then came Tommy John surgery that wiped out all of 2024. He came back the following May and barely looked like he had missed a step, posting a 2.47 ERA and opening with a franchise-record 19 straight scoreless appearances before helping Seattle reach the ALCS.
That made 2026 feel like the year he’d finally settle in as a permanent fixture in the late innings. The idea was simple enough: José A.
Ferrer, Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo could handle the earlier work, Brash could take the eighth, and Andrés Muñoz could finish the ninth. Instead, Brash’s right lat landed him on the injured list twice.
Seattle initially hoped rest and another throwing progression would get him back. Instead, he felt tightness after a recent bullpen session in Boston, and the follow-up MRI confirmed the inflammation hadn’t healed.
For the Mariners, it’s a painful loss of a dominant reliever. It also doesn’t absolve the rest of the staff for what’s been happening lately.
The bullpen still has to get outs, and the front office can’t keep treating Brash as the answer waiting around the corner. That answer is now gone for the year.
While Brash was being shut down, Troy Taylor got his latest shot. The Mariners recalled him after placing Hoby Milner on the family medical emergency list, but the move also gives Taylor a real opening. Seattle has bullpen innings to hand out, and anyone who can string together three clean outs should be taking this as an audition.
Taylor’s path to this point has been unusual even by baseball standards. He was a high school shortstop who moved to pitching in college, and the Mariners drafted him twice. They took him in the 20th round in 2021 but couldn’t sign him, then came back after his season at UC Irvine and picked him again in the 12th round of the 2022 draft.
He moved fast once he got going. Taylor started 2024 with High-A Everett, reached Double-A Arkansas quickly, and posted a 1.17 ERA at both stops while saving 21 games before making his big-league debut in August. He was excellent at first, too, putting up a 0.87 ERA over his first 11 major league outings.
The last stretch has been messier. Taylor dealt with a right lat strain in 2025 and gave up nine earned runs in 6 2/3 innings in the majors. He spent all of 2026 at Tacoma, where he logged a 4.99 ERA with 60 strikeouts and 35 walks in 52 1/3 innings before this recall.
Still, there’s something here. Taylor can miss bats, and the fastball/sweeper combination gives him a real path to useful innings.
The issue has always been the command, and 35 walks in Triple-A is a pretty loud warning sign. That’s what makes this opportunity feel wide open, but far from certain.
In Other News...
Mariners Suddenly Have A Lazaro Montes Concern They Cant Ignore
A routine outfield collision turned into a Mariners health check Monday when rookie Lazaro Montes ran into the right field wall and came away with left hip soreness. He initially stayed in the game, but the discomfort was enough to send him out later for evaluation, a reminder of how quickly a small in-game scare can become something worth watching closely on a young player the club is trying to keep on the field.
The early read offered at least some relief, with X-rays coming back negative, but that does not fully settle the matter for Seattle. The Mariners are now left to monitor Montes and see whether the soreness fades or lingers, and for a team already keeping close tabs on its depth and development, even a clean scan is only the first step in figuring out what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Face An Urgent Clubhouse Question As Season Slips Away
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For Seattle, the sharper question is who inside the room is willing and able to do that work from within. Olney framed it as a leadership problem as much as a performance one, asking which Mariners players have the voice and standing to hold teammates to a higher standard while the losses keep piling up. It is the kind of concern that can linger in a clubhouse long after the immediate slump fades, and for a team still searching for traction, it only adds to the pressure on everyone involved. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Pitching Collapse Leaves One Urgent Question For Seattle
The Mariners have reached a point where the pitching numbers are no longer just a slump, they are dragging the whole season into a different conversation. Over their last 40 games, Seattle owns the worst ERA in baseball at 5.89, a stretch that has overshadowed an overall 4.22 mark that still sits only 19th in the majors. For a team built around run prevention, that kind of slide cuts right to the core of what has kept them competitive.
Dan Wilson has already acknowledged the issue on both ends of the staff, pointing to trouble in the rotation and bullpen alike. The timing makes it even tougher because Matt Brash is shut down for the season, leaving Seattle with one less high-leverage arm to lean on as it tries to stop the bleeding. The bigger question now is whether the Mariners can patch this together quickly enough before the seasons last stretch becomes defined by what their pitching staff could not hold together. [Read more 🡒]