The Seattle Mariners piggyback experiment is coming to an end, at least temporarily.

The Mariners are set to play the first three of a 10-game road trip this weekend against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit. Game one will take place at 3:40 p.m. PT on Friday.

Seattle will opt for a six-man rotation during the lengthy road trip comprised of Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, George Kirby, Emerson Hancock, Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo.

Miller and Castillo will start games two and three against Detroit on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Seattle has opted to piggyback Miller and Castillo together the last three times through the order, with one of the two starting the first five innings and the later of the two pitching the second half of the game.

Despite since-smoothed over frustration with the arrangement from both pitchers, it's led to positive results.

The Mariners are 2-1 in games where Miller and Castillo have piggybacked.

Miller had a 1.15 ERA and struck out 17 hitters in 15.2 innings pitched across his trio of appearances (two starts) and Castillo posted a 2.38 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 11.1 innings pitched across a his three appearances (one start).

It's still undecided whether or not the team will maintain the six-man rotation after the road trip or if the team will opt to go back to the piggyback arrangement with Miller and Castillo. However, an ESPN insider seems like the team is gearing for the former situation.

"The first thing that you do, I think, is you are the Mariners is you go to your big dog, and that would be Bryan Woo," ESPN insider Buster Olney said on the Refuse to Lose Territory podcast. "He's the preeminent guy in your rotation, you ask him, 'How are you feeling about this? Are you comfortable doing this?' You go to Logan Gilbert, who's either (No. 1 or 2), depending on how you want to look at it, say 'How are you feeling about this?' A lot of teams in recent years have gone to six-man rotations because they feel like it gives their guys a better chance at being effective at year's end. We saw the Milwaukee Brewers really become one of the first teams to do this. The Dodgers have done this. And the reasons the Dodgers do it is because of Shohei Ohtani. Everything is dictated by what Ohtani wants, which is to pitch every Wednesday, apparently. ... And then everyone else sort of falls into place around him.

" ... It can work. But you do have to have buy-in from the guys at the top and I suspect, given what we have seen, the fact that they're lining this up, tells you that for Woo, for Gilbert, maybe a little bit of a break, a little extra rest in June is something that's gonna benefit them later in the year." 

The team has had a split of health and injuries over the last two years. In 2024, Seattle had the only rotation in baseball that had four pitchers start 30 or more games. Last season, Kirby, Woo, Gilbert and Miller all missed respective amounts of time with injury.

Woo missed his final two starts of the regular season last year and was unavailable until the American League Championship Series.

The Mariners were unable to see how their health played out in the postseason in '24 as they were unable to make the playoffs. With World Series aspirations, the team seems to be attempting to keep the rotation as healthy as possible for if it enters the postseason.

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