The Mariners lost today’s game against the Rangers, 9-4, and are now 3-6 in spring training, which will happen when half your roster is off at the WBC. But despite the absence of regulars, today’s game offered plenty of intrigue for those who know where to look.
Before he left for Team USA, Cal Raleigh extracted a promise from the beat writers that they would text him updates on what his pitchers were up to when not under Cal’s steely gaze. Logan Gilbert – perhaps responding to Cal’s unprompted heckle of him yesterday about his own spring training debut – immediately decided to test out the babysitter of Andrew Knizner behind the plate. His first two pitches of the game whistled in at 96 mph before he promptly followed that up with a cutter, one of two pitches (the other being the slider) that he likes to play with during spring training and then leave in Peoria. It probably should have gone for an easy out, but Logan, enjoying his personal Rumspringa of being away from the watchful eyes of his regular catcher, decided he would try to field his position. It, uh, did not go well.
“It went really well in my mind,” said Gilbert mournfully postgame. “I thought I got him. was like. Oh. I’ve got this.”
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[Narrator: he did not, in fact, Got This.]
“MAN DOWN!” cackled Luis Castillo from across the clubhouse.
(An inning later, Gilbert also made a halfhearted attempt at another grounder that rolled past him, but smartly let it go for Cole Young – whose defense looks much improved this spring – to hoover up for him. Perhaps Cal made a mid-inning phone call to the dugout.)
That wasn’t Gilbert’s lone time straying from Cal Raleigh’s light. He flashed all his usual pitches, sitting 96 on his four-seamer and dutifully mixing in his slider, splitter, and curveball, but he also threw two sinkers and six of the cutters, including the one he would have gotten the out on to Osuna, one for a swinging strikeout on Kyle Higashioka, and one for a flyout to Josh Smith. So will the cutter finally make its way to T-Mobile Park?
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Probably not, says Gilbert, Cal or no Cal, although not for lack of effort. “I’ve been trying for six years.”
The only damage against Gilbert was a solo home run, when Rangers prospect Cam Cauley ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Gilbert, a solid choice, given that Gilbert threw nine of ten first-pitch strikes today.Working with a 50-pitch cap, Gilbert was able to get through the lineup one time plus one batter, seeing Alejandro Osuna twice.
Gilbert’s outing on the mound impressed his manager.
“I thought Logan was really good today,” said Dan Wilson postgame. “I thought he came out with a different mindset today, used all his stuff, was ahead in the count, and we just saw an intensity today that was something we haven’t seen in a little bit.”
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He was less impressed by Gilbert’s fielding.
“He’s gonna hear about that one for a while, I think, from the bench,” said Wilson wryly.
The positives weren’t only on the pitching side, either. The game got off to a good start for the Mariners thanks to Cole Young. In the game preview I said Young drew a tough left-on-left matchup today, facing Rangers starter Jacob Latz. I was corrected by staffer Zach Mason, who accurately observed that it cannot be a tough matchup when one of the participants is bad at their job. Nevertheless, this was no cheapie, going 442 feet at 106 miles off the bat, as Young continues to piece together a solid spring.
Also encouraging: that home run scored Victor Robles, who was on base with just his second hit of the spring. Robles figures to get some more playing time while his outfield-mates are with their WBC teams, so hopefully this is the second of many to come.
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Following Logan was the spring debut of Ryan Sloan, and if you were wondering why so many prospect-knowers have been saying Sloan is “untouchable” in Seattle’s system when trade discussions were heated, this outing probably answered that for you. Sloan was absolutely dominant in a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 inning where he got eight swings, only two of which the Rangers trio of Higashioka, Smith, and Ezekiel Duran – so not exactly spring training cannon fodder – were able to touch. He opened up against Higashioka with a four-seamer that came in at 98.9 mph and didn’t let up from there, firing a hard slider before going back to the heater at 97 for a soft-contact flyout. He then took apart Josh Smith on a three-pitch strikeout that included a hard (91.7 mph) changeup Smith whiffed over and a generous strike three call on a heater (again at 98.9) that was a touch above the zone. Sloan finished his day by throwing a 94 mph cutter for a first-pitch ball that Duran was ruled not to have swung at (it sure looked like a swing) before eventually getting him to ground out softly on a slider.
Sloan’s outing had everything you could want: big velocity, filthy secondaries, weak contact, ugly swing-and-miss. This is why that word “untouchable” was thrown around in pre-season. There’s just only so many freshly-minted 20-year-olds who haven’t reached Double-A yet who can make a big-league hitter look this bad.
Speaking of bad, the rest of the game. Maybe just go back and watch Gilbert and Sloan’s innings again rather than watch the rest of this game, which devolved into the Rangers stacking up a seven-run sixth inning. I was in the clubhouse talking to Sloan while it happened, so I choose not to recognize it. The Mariners’ younger players fought for a pair of extra runs in the bottom of the eighth, stacking three walks against Rangers reliever Robby Ahlstrom before Spencer Packard connected for a two-run single, but the damage was done, and the Mariners lost, 9-4.
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However, even in a game of bad results, there are good processes to celebrate. Gilbert’s outing was a familiar reminder of the dominant pitcher he is; Sloan’s was a glimpse of the dominant pitcher he might very well be. Cole Young continued to build on what’s been a solid spring for him and reminded everyone that he might usually be a contact merchant, but he can still put a charge into a lousy pitch (sorry for all the strays, Jacob Latz). And even Troy Taylor, who has had a rough spring so far coming off a disappointing 2025, had one of his best outings in a long while, giving up a leadoff hit on a first-pitch fastball but coming back to strike out the next three hitters, punctuating his last K with a nasty sweeper.
It’s a reminder that baseball careers are built slowly, a little at a time, and the end result one day doesn’t necessarily determine an overall arc. It was the youngest member of the team today, Ryan Sloan, who reflected on the trap that good results can be:
“When you’re going through periods of success, it’s so easy to kind of get away from what you know works, just because results are good, process is good, and it just makes it really easy to get away from it. I’ve never felt like it’s so easy to get away from my routine, just because things have been going well. So I came up with the motto, just get better today. I just think, one day at a time, just do what I know works, get better today, and continue to do that week in and week out.“
Despite the final line, many Mariners did get better today, in big ways and small ways and ways that aren’t even in this recap. And in spring training, that’s all you can ask for.
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