Seattle Mariners' Key Starter to Begin Year on Injured List with Worrisome Ailment

The Seattle Mariners received some very tough news on Monday in that young starting pitcher Bryan Woo will open the year on the injured list because of an elbow inflammation problem.

However, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports that Woo has avoided the most disastrous outcomes and could begin throwing soon.

Per Divish:

He didn’t feel great while warming up for his last bullpen and couldn’t get loose.

He underwent a MRI and it came back clean with no damage to the UCL repair.

Mariners GM Justin Hollander said this is similar to when Woo went on the IL last season.

With no structural damage, the hope is that Woo can get the inflammation out of the elbow in 7-10 days and resume throwing

Even though Woo's MRI came back clean, it's still troublesome to see this injury rear its head for the second consecutive season. Seattle traded away both Robbie Ray and Marco Gonzales this offseason and has built the roster on the strength of its pitching, so an immediate testing of that depth is not ideal.

Woo, 24, made his Major League Debut last season, going 4-5 with a 4.21 ERA. After injuries to Ray and Gonzales prompted his call-up, he threw 87.2 valuable innings that helped Seattle stay in playoff contention until the final weekend of the regular season.

In his absence, the Mariners figure to insert Emerson Hancock into the rotation. He'll join Luis Castillo, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert.

The Mariners open up the season on Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox at T-Mobile Park.

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