Editor’s note: This story was written as part of our Mariners special section prior to news that pitcher Bryan Woo will start the season on the injured list with elbow inflammation.

PEORIA, Ariz. — They stood in various poses behind the “six pack” of pitching mounds, talking and watching as other pitchers, hopeful of someday joining their cool crew, threw bullpens.

While they didn’t stand shoulder to shoulder, Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo never moved very far apart. If they don’t travel in a pack, they will eventually congregate into one. It’s part of a code instilled by past pitchers Marco Gonzales, Chris Flexen and Robbie Ray — be there for each other, invest in the successes, learn from the failures and push to get better.

“It’s something that started with Marco and Robbie,” Gilbert said. “And we’ve just continued it. It’s important to us.”

They are an eclectic mix of shapes, sizes, backgrounds, pitch mixes and personalities.

The group is like a band — five men playing different instruments in their own way that still somehow makes a cohesive sound in the end.

“Ohhhh, I like it,” Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth said with a wide smile. “You look at them and their personalities. They are different. You don’t want everyone throwing from the same arm slot or throwing the same shape on their breaking pitches. You want teams to see something different every night.”  

Woodworth spent hours playing bass guitar in a band with his high-school buddies, trying to hone a sound that never led to fame or fortune. Now he spends hours with this quintet of starting pitchers, teaching and tormenting, counseling and cajoling, pushing and prodding to produce a combined performance that might carry the Mariners into places they’ve never been as an organization.

And like bands, the composition can change. A year ago, Miller and Woo were just hopeful members with plenty of talent but zero major-league experience. Season-ending injuries to Ray and Gonzales thrust the duo into starting roles with the Mariners. Their unexpectedly strong performances allowed the Mariners to move on from the two veteran pitchers in the offseason.

If the Mariners want to return to the postseason, win the AL West for the first time since 2001 or reach the World Series for the first time in franchise history, it will require the starting rotation to live up to the lofty expectations of being one of the best in baseball.

La Piedra

Castillo is “smooth.” No not that awful song by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana.

“He’s like a merengue,” Woodworth said, simulating dance moves. “It’s just how he moves.”

There is a grace and rhythm with which he carries himself. Whether it’s his mechanics on the mound or even as he walks along with the other starters, it’s like he’s moving to a beat and a sound that no one else can hear.

He fronted the rotation last season, posting a 14-9 record with a 3.34 ERA in 33 starts. In 197 innings pitched, he struck out 219 batters with 56 walks. He was named to the AL All-Star team and finished fifth in the Cy Young voting.

Acquired at the trade deadline in 2022, Castillo’s playful personality has emerged as he’s grown more comfortable with his teammates. It’s a camaraderie he didn’t find in his time in Miami or Cincinnati. He uses the word “familia” often. This feels like a family to him.

“We’re very close and we always try to be there for each other,” he said. “It’s having that confidence to give each other advice. We all try to be there to show some encouragement, or whatever it is. Just be there.”

While he can make the game seem easy, it hasn’t always been that way. And he’s been more open about offering his insight and experience.

“He always tells me, ‘Don’t think, don’t change who you are, don’t try too hard,’” Gilbert said. “He’ll see me getting in my own head and sort of spiraling, and he’ll tell me that.”

Castillo fell into similar traps at Gilbert’s age.

“I can see him get frustrated and that’s when I tell him,” Castillo said. “No one taught me that. But it comes from experience and learning myself. He asked me about it once, and I told him, ‘Don’t think, just throw.’”

Furious George

When Kirby discussed his offseason throwing program that rarely included a catcher or even people while listening to dubstep music, his pitching coach wasn’t surprised.

“He is definitely what he said he listens to,” Woodworth said. “He’s like Skrillex, only more intense. It’s loud, electronic chaos.”

Indeed, while Kirby might look like your certified public accountant or local golf pro, there is a brooding fire inside of him that earned the “Furious George” moniker.

“I hold the losses over my head a lot more than other people,” he admitted.

He loathes walks, missed calls and losing games.

“He pitches angry,” Woodworth said. “It works for him.”

The tempo and pace that he likes to work is the pounding bass line that he doesn’t want interrupted. What might sound like chaos to Woodworth and the rest of the rotation seems orderly in Kirby’s mind. Like an artist listening to dubstep and ripping paint across a canvas, Kirby does it with fastballs and off-speed pitches in the strike zone.

“George has a constant intensity about him when it comes to pitching,” Woodworth said.

It has served him well. Last season, he made 31 starts, posting a 13-10 record with a 3.35 ERA. In 190 2/3 innings pitched, he struck out 172 batters with only 19 walks. He made the All-Star team and finished eighth in the Cy Young voting.

“George is George,” is often said by teammates and it’s not an insult. Kirby is true to who he is and what he likes.

Cal Raleigh called Kirby’s music “a little creepy,” and Gilbert admitted that listening to Kirby’s playlist while stretching before a start got him a little too pumped up.

“He told me to be careful because that I might fall in love with it,” Gilbert said.

Has that happened?

“We’ll see,” Gilbert said.

While they might not love his music, they all wish they had his savant-like ability to make a baseball do what it’s supposed to do.

“He’s special that way,” Woodworth said.

Walter

College teammates decided Gilbert was a different person when he pitched. They dubbed his alter-ego “Walter,” largely based on the complex character Walter White from the TV show “Breaking Bad.”

His current teammates immediately recognized the duality of his personality. Walter emerges on start days, and Logan is around the rest of the time. But even with that dichotomy, there is an overall consistency to him. Gilbert never waivers in his preparation and routine even when his teammates mock him about it. It’s constant.

“Logan is like classic rock, but like good hard classic rock,” Woodworth said. “It’s borderline heavy metal, but the kind that stands the test of time. He’s like Led Zeppelin. It’s timeless and always good, no matter what.”

Gilbert’s massive duffle bag of implements that he uses in a variety of exercises and drills between starts was an initial source of curiosity, and then ridicule. He just ignored the comments and sarcastic questions. It’s what he needs to do to stay healthy and be successful.   

“He wears it like a champ,” Raleigh said. “He’s just a big, goofy, gawky guy that can be an easy target. Half the time, I don’t think he hears what someone says to him cause he’s in la-la land. He’s just being Logan. I don’t even ask questions anymore.”

Gilbert was 13-7 with a 3.73 ERA in 32 starts last season. In 190 2/3 innings, he struck out 189 batters with 36 walks. He can throw six pitches and has continued to evolve as a pitcher.

Asked if he would ever use some of the stuff that Gilbert uses in between starts, Kirby chuckled and quickly replied, “No.”

“You know it works of him,” Kirby said. “Everyone’s different.”

L-I-V-I-N

Woodworth didn’t know there was such a thing as Texas laid-back. But Miller embodies it as he wanders around spring training wearing a knit beanie on 75-degree days and his glove on top of his head like a leather helmet.

“Bryce is straight Texas country,” Woodworth said. “He couldn’t be anything else.”

The simplicity of country music’s chord progressions and constant messaging fits Miller, who as Raleigh says “has five things that he says to everybody.”

“It’s the same words in every song,” Woodworth said. “And Bryce is, ‘I’m just going to chuck it in there, red dirt roads and a big truck.’”

He is a character straight out of “Dazed and Confused,” a movie about graduating seniors from a Texas high school in 1976. Miller’s easygoing personality, his wispy mustache and harmonic drawl is reminiscent of Matthew McConaughey’s portrayal of David Wooderson.

It’s easy to envision Miller saying the quotable line, “You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.”

But Miller is a serious tactician when it comes to honing his pitches and a competitor when he steps on the mound. He is as well-versed in the modern pitching technology as any pitcher. He understands pitch-shaping, tunneling release points and spin rates for success. He’s also gifted enough to adjust and adapt at the MLB level unlike so many pitchers.

Miller made 25 starts, posting an 8-7 record with a 4.32 ERA. In 131 1/3 innings pitched, he struck out 119 batters with 26 walks.  

“He’s so light when it comes to the off-the-field stuff,” Ty France said. “But when he gets on the mound, he just has that confidence and that belief that he belongs, that he’s better than that guy in the box.”

Woo who?

The least experienced of the five starters, Woo is sort of an amalgamation of the other four starters. He’s intense but not quite like Kirby or Gilbert. He’s confident but doesn’t have the same swagger of Castillo. He’s easygoing and outgoing, but he’s not like the ever-popular Miller.

It’s why Woodworth couldn’t quite pinpoint an exact music comparison for Woo.

“I know he listens to a lot of hip-hop from the Bay Area,” Woodworth said. “But he’s got that California laid-back feel to him. You know that surfing, beachy, SoCal, Hawaii vibe. He’s more like reggae, just chill music.”

Woo’s musical choices depend on his mood. But he never seems to be too high or too low. It’s why he didn’t panic after getting roughed up for seven runs on six hits in two innings vs. the Rangers in his MLB debut and giving up six runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings the second time he faced Texas on Sept. 24. It’s also why he wasn’t intimidated facing the Rangers five days later at T-Mobile Park. He tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits with three walks and five strikeouts, setting the tone for a combined shutout.

“These younger guys, they have this confidence to them where they feel like they belong right away, which they do,” France said.  

The others won’t admit it, but he’s also the best athlete of the group. If the Mariners needed a pitcher to hit in a game, he’d get the call. He was a solid two-way player coming out of Alameda High School with Cal Poly, the only school offering a scholarship to let him pitch primarily.

Due to injuries and COVID, Woo pitched a total of 69 1/3 innings over three college seasons. The Mariners still selected him in the sixth round of the 2021 draft, knowing he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. He had thrown a combined total of 101 minor-league innings before coming to the big leagues.

It leaves his teammates shaking their heads.

“It’s insane,” Gilbert said. “I couldn’t imagine. I need a lot of practice to go to the big leagues.”

A band without a name

There isn’t a nickname for the collective unit. “Best Rotation in the American League” is a little lengthy. “BRB” for best rotation in baseball isn’t quite fitting … yet.

“It doesn’t happen quickly or instantly,” Woodworth said. “It’s organic, but I think that’s why this group is so special They’ve all kind of gone through figuring out who they are together and helping each other in that journey.”

A year ago, they picked up an inconsistent offense and almost pushed the Mariners back into the postseason with 74 quality starts and a 14.4 FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement (fWAR) — the third highest in the American League.

They expect more this season.

“Everybody’s ready,” Castillo said. “Everybody’s hungry.”

According to FanGraphs ZIPS projections, all five of Seattle’s starters are projected to rank in the top 50 in fWAR for AL pitchers in 2024 with Castillo (2nd), Kirby (6th) and Gilbert (9th) in the Top 10.

“It’s a special group,” Woodworth said. “This is by far the best, but it kind of started the last couple years with the camaraderie, the care in that group. They just keep pushing each other and picking each other up.”