It’s started to become a tradition within the young core of the Seattle Mariners starting rotation to add a new pitch each season.
In 2023, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby added splitters to their repertoires. Last season, Bryce Miller followed suit with a splitter of his own and Gilbert started using a cutter
Add Emerson Hancock to the list of starting arms experimenting with new pitches.
Hancock, Seattle’s first-round pick in 2020, spent the offseason in his home state of Georgia refining his secondary pitches and adding to his array of options.
Seattle’s right-hander shared what went into his offseason work during a conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Friday.
“They kind of wanted me to develop all of them,” Hancock said of his arsenal of pitches. “(It) was like just start with (the) curveball and then go to (the) sweeper, then go to (the) cutter and then go to a different grip on the gyro (slider). It was a lot of fun, to be honest, to just kind of have that time and just kind of work through all these pitches.
“I was kind of joking with (director pitching strategy) Trent (Blank) that my warmup takes a lot longer because I got a lot more pitches to go through.”
Hancock, who started 12 games for the Mariners in 2024, threw a four-seamer, sinker, changeup and slider last season, according to Baseball Savant. So a curveball, sweeper and cutter would all be new pitches for the University of Georgia product. Whether or not those pitches actually make it into his arsenal during the regular season is yet to be seen, but he noted that the biggest things he was working on were the sweeper, cutter and refining his slider.
The slider in particular was a troublesome pitch for Hancock in 2024. Batters hit .300 with a .600 slugging percentage against the pitch, and it was tied for the lowest run value of his four pitches at minus-five.
The goal for Hancock in developing his gyro slider is to get more late-breaking, downward movement on the pitch, as opposed to the horizontal break that sliders are generally known for. It’s a similar style to the slider that teammate Luis Castillo throws, and pairing it with a sweeper would essentially give Hancock two different types of sliders to show batters. Miller is an example of a pitcher who uses both.
“I think it’s kind of different for everyone,” Hancock said of developing the pitch. “For me, it’s just kind of like a spike grip, and the spike for me was really hard at the beginning, but now it’s gotten where it’s comfortable. And the spike actually kind of just helps it kind of get the movement downward that you need.”
The waiting game
Hancock finds himself in a unique spot as the No. 6 option for the Mariners’ talented five-man starting rotation. As the No. 6 overall pick in 2020, he was the third straight first-round pitcher selected by Seattle. Logan Gilbert and George Kirby were taken in the first rounds of the previous drafts and have since established themselves as frontline starters, but Hancock has been leap-frogged by Miller and Bryan Woo, who went in the fourth and sixth rounds, respectively, of the next draft.
Hancock, who was once the No. 31 prospect in all of baseball, would likely crack the starting five on most teams.
“I think the biggest thing is just embrace whatever role you’re given, and at the end of the day, I want to win. I want to help us win. I want to help our organization any way that I can,” Hancock said of waiting for his turn to be a regular in the rotation. “Being a part of this group is a lot of fun. It is special, especially for me. I came through the system with all these guys. We’ve spent a ton of time together and having everyone kind of as a group is so much fun, and I can’t really state it any better than that.”
With Woo hurt at the start of last season, Hancock broke spring training with the big league club as the No. 5 starter. He ended up going 4-4 in the majors with a 4.75 ERA and 1.34 WHIP over 60 2/3 innings. However, he’ll likely start this season in Triple-A, barring an injury in the rotation during spring training.
Co-host Mike Salk asked Hancock if he thinks he could switch to a relief role if the team needed, which would give him another path to the majors.
“I think I could definitely adjust to it,” Hancock said. “Now, I think I am a starter. I love starting. It’s what I’ve always done, but I definitely think if it was one of those things where we needed to do it or we needed to make that change, I definitely think I could adjust to it.”
Hear the full conversation with Seattle Mariners starter Emerson Hancock at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.