LOS ANGELES — Bryce Miller’s next scheduled start has been pushed back one day to Friday’s series opener against Minnesota, and the Mariners instead will turn to Bryan Woo to start Thursday’s series finale against the Dodgers.
That’s notable on two fronts.
Woo has extreme home/road splits this season. He’s pitched like a Cy Young contender in Seattle (6-0, 2.20 ERA) and a BP pitcher on the road (1-7, 6.52 ERA), and facing baseball’s most expensive lineup at Dodger Stadium would appear to be a daunting ask.
Miller, meanwhile, has seen an overall velocity dip in his last three starts, during which he’s allowed 11 earned runs in 16 innings. He generated a season-low five whiffs in his most recent start, last Friday at Texas.
Miller missed half of the 2025 season because of a bone chip in his pitching elbow, and he had missed the first six weeks of the season with an oblique strain. Since his return in mid-May, he has been the most consistent of the Mariners’ six starters, posting a 2.75 ERA in 12 appearances (11 starts).
He was quick to shrug off any injury concern Wednesday evening.
“I’m all right,” he said. “I’ll be good to go Friday.”
M’s manager Dan Wilson downplayed the rotation swap, too.
“Bryce just needed an extra day,” Wilson said.
After Miller starts Friday, Logan Gilbert is scheduled for Saturday against the Twins and George Kirby will go Sunday.
Castillo on trade rumors
Luis Castillo has been traded (and, even, un-traded) five times in his career, so he’s no stranger to the sort of rumors that often come with the trade deadline this time of year.
He said he’s gotten pretty good at blocking out the noise.
“It’s something that I really don’t pay that much attention to,” Castillo said Wednesday. “I’ve been traded a couple times in my career. So you just try to focus and do your work here. And when the deadline comes and it’s your turn to go somewhere, you’ve just got to focus on your new spot.”
In what could turn out to be his final start for the Mariners, Castillo allowed five runs in five innings in the Mariners’ 7-6 victory over the Dodgers on Tuesday.
With a rotation of six proven starters, the Mariners are known to be open to trading a pitcher before Monday’s deadline, and they are listening on the 33-year-old Castillo, according to industry sources.
Castillo, the Mariners’ highest-paid player, is owed roughly $30 million through the 2027 season, and he has a $25 million vesting option for 2028 if he reaches 180 innings pitched next season.
The Mariners, industry sources have suggested, would likely need to pay down some of Castillo’s salary or include a prospect to facilitate a trade.
In July 2022, the Mariners acquired Castillo from the Reds in a blockbuster deal that ranks as one of the best deadline acquisitions in club history.
Before he established himself in Cincinnati, Castillo had been traded four times as a minor-leaguer. In one of the more surprising twists in recent memory, Castillo was part of a package going from Miami to San Diego — along with now teammate Josh Naylor (plus Carter Capps and Jarred Cosart) — for pitchers Andrew Cashner, Tyron Guerrero and Colin Rea.
Three days later, Castillo was traded right back to the Marlins after Rea went down with an arm injury in his Marlins debut.
Castillo could be on the move again in the coming days.
“For me,” Castillo said of rumors, “it’s something normal. But for another guy that might not have the experience, I can see why there might be a little stress, maybe a little frustration of having maybe your name out there. What I would tell them is just continue doing your work and if you’re part of a trade or something and you’ve got to go somewhere new, just continue doing the same thing.”
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