The Seattle Mariners rotation saw more changes this past season than has been the norm over the last half-decade or so.

The "rotation of aces" comprised of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo and Luis Castillo was finally broken up.

Castillo, the most veteran pitcher in the team's rotation and the highest-paid player on the roster, was traded to the Chicago White Sox before the trade deadline.

Emerson Hancock, after multiple years of being the team's "No. 6" starter, which included a stint in the bullpen last year, secured a permanent spot on the rotation after posting a career-best season.

Hancock finished his 2026 campaign with a 3.57 ERA and struck out 126 hitters in 138.2 innings pitched across 25 starts.

The team's top pitching prospect and one of the best prospects in baseball, left-hander Kade Anderson, was promoted to the major league roster and finished with a sub-4.00 ERA across seven starts. That was just one year after he was selected third overall in the 2025 MLB Draft out of LSU.

Anderson finished his month-long stint in the big leagues with a 3.79 ERA and fanned 32 batters in 35.2 innings pitched.

Currently, Seattle has six starting pitchers who could be legitimate factors in the major league rotation next season: Gilbert, Kirby, Woo, Hancock, Miller and Anderson.

This leads to a question as to what the Mariners plan to do with another top 100 prospect, right-hander Ryan Sloan.

Sloan currently ranks as the 11th-best overall prospect in the game, per MLB Pipeline. He spent all of 2026 with the organization's Double-A affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers.

The 20-year-old right-hander finished his first full season in Double-A with a 3.73 ERA and struck out 128 batters in 101.1 innings pitched across 22 starts.

Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, Ark., is considered the most one-to-one comparison to the team's major league home of T-Mobile Park in Seattle due to park factor and favorable settings for pitchers vs. hitters. Due to that, Arkansas is often the benchmark the Mariners look at before judging if a prospect is major league-ready.

At the moment, Sloan likely profiles as the No. 7 starter in the organization. Since he's not on the 40-man roster currently, he'll have the ability to pitch in the minor leagues next season should the major leagues miss games because of the probable lockout.

That would help his development as well.

There could be another pitcher in the organization that would bump Sloan down to eighth on the rotation.

Right-hander Logan Evans, who made 15 major league starts in 2025, spent all of last year injured due to Tommy John surgery. He posted a 4.32 ERA and struck out 59 hitters in 81.1 innings pitched across 16 total outings in his rookie year.

Evans is expected to be ready to be ramped up by the time spring training is currently scheduled to begin.

If Evans is ahead of Sloan on the depth chart, and no trades happen, it doesn't mean that the latter won't make his major league debut in 2027.

If Evans is healthy and does make major league appearances, he'll likely be under an innings restriction. Including his time in the minor leagues in '25, the former Pittsburgh Panther pitched a total of 125.1 innings. That's the most he's pitched in a single year since being selected by the M's in the 12th round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

So, even if he's ahead of Sloan right now, his workload limits may dictate that Sloan still gets chances above him eventually.