Bryan Woo won't start Thursday, but "feeling much better" after early exit for Seattle Mariners

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HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 19: Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo (22) walks to the visitors' dugout during the MLB game between the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros on September 19, 2025 at Daikin Park in Houston, Texas. (Leslie Plaza Johnson / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)

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SEATTLE - Bryan Woo will not make his scheduled start Thursday against the Colorado Rockies, but the Seattle Mariners still have no intention of putting their ace on the injured list.

Mariners general manager Justin Hollander sounded pretty positive about Woo's status after he left his last start against the Houston Astros early due to a tight pectoral muscle. 

"We're still taking it day-by-day. Zero plans to place him on the IL right now," Hollander said. "I believe tomorrow or Thursday he'll get a baseball in his hand again and see how that feels throwing, but beyond that, just going day by day, but he will not start on Thursday."

Hollander said the fact that Woo's routine has been disrupted by the treatment and evaluation process over the last few days is what led to the decision to keep him off the mound in the short-term. Woo has responded well to the work they've done to manage the issue and Hollander said Woo is feeling good. 

"He feels like it’s already feeling much better," Hollander said. "He’s in a really good mental place right now. He was very disappointed on Friday postgame, just with the uncertainty. He really wanted to go dominate for the entirety of the game, and he was on pace to do that. And the way he has felt the last couple of days has been very encouraging to him and us."

Woo told manager Dan Wilson he was feeling a bit tight after returning to the dugout at the end of the fifth inning in Houston. He went back to the mound to throw warm-up pitches ahead of the sixth inning, but pretty quickly signaled to the dugout that he wasn't able to continue.

Hollander said someone currently on the roster will start Thursday's game against Colorado, but they will make that determination as the game approaches, depending on usage of the next two days.

"It'll be a combination of people that pitch in the game, in all likelihood," Hollander said. "We haven't worked through that totally yet. And some of that depends on how the next two days go."

Hollander didn't rule out Woo pitching again before the end of the regular season, but that's going to be determined by Woo's health and what the team is playing for.

"I don't really know, and I've not allowed myself to get into beyond how he feels today," Hollander said. "We'll see [the], 'how he feels tomorrow' aspect of it, but would anticipate ramping it up as we get into the end of the week. And whether that means pitching in a game, or just throwing like a sort of a get-after-it bullpen, we'll see. But again, he’s doing really well."

Woo has been Seattle's best starter this season as he's posted a 15-7 record with a 2.94 ERA in 30 starts. He's thrown 186 ⅔ innings with 36 walks and 198 strikeouts. He's gone at least five innings in every start he's made, and went 25 consecutive starts to begin the season pitching at least six innings with two walks or fewer allowed. That streak was the longest streak to begin a season since Cy Young had 30 consecutive starts in 1905.

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