Seattle Mariners pitcher George Kirby throws during a game against the Texas Rangers on Sept. 20 at Globe Life Field. / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

The Seattle Mariners starting rotation last season was the only one that had four pitchers start 30 or more games in 2024. And one of those pitchers will likely miss the beginning of the season with the first injury of his career.

Per a tweet from Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, fourth-year pitcher George Kirby has been "shut down" due to right shoulder inflammation. A subsequent tweet from Divish said that Kirby wanted to keep throwing, but the Mariners elected to keep him out. An MRI revealed no structural damage, but Kirby will likely be put on the injured list to start the year.

Seattle general manager Justin Hollander spoke to the media about Kirby's injury during a news conference on Friday.

"George Kirby has not been feeling great after his outings. Any outing he's throwing the ball well, same velocity as you would expect. He just hasn't felt like he's bouncing back great. We did an MRI -- MRI looks great. No structural concerns whatsoever, and I'll repeat that, zero structural concerns. There is some inflammation in there that we need to get out. Much to George's chagrin, we're gonna take the ball out of his hands. George wants to keep going and he's going to lose this argument. We need the inflammation out. So we will shut George down and work on getting the inflammation out. This is more like a week-to-week thing than a day-to-day thing. We just want to make sure we're doing the right thing from the big picture of the whole season as opposed to worrying about opening day. George will likely start the season on the IL, just with not having pitched a full buildup of spring. We don't think this is anything long-term concerning whatsoever."

Kirby has dealt with inflammation occasionally in career, but Hollander made it clear that the decision was made to have Kirby healthy enough to pitch as much as possible throughout the season.

Kirby's shoulder will be reassessed weekly but Hollander said that the anticipation is that Kirby will miss at least the first 10 days of the regular season. Based on the current perceived depth of the rotation, Emerson Hancock will likely step in to pitch in Kirby's stead.

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