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Most teams are fiercely protective of their starting pitching depth. But not the 2026 Seattle Mariners, apparently. All they had to do to keep Randy Dobnak in reserve was clear a spot for him on the 40-man roster, but they couldn’t even be bothered to do that.<\/p>\n
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As a result, the 31-year-old right-hander is on his way out of town via an upward mobility clause in his contract<\/a>. He’s headed to join the Kansas City Royals, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Wednesday:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Kansas City Royals are acquiring right-hander Randy Dobnak from Seattle, sources tell ESPN. Dobnak exercised an upward-mobility clause in his contract and will be added to Kansas City\u2019s 40-man roster, starting at Triple-A Omaha.<\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n <\/p>\n This is a good thing for Dobnak, precisely because Kansas City offers a clear avenue to major league innings. He’ll be a phone call away at Triple-A Omaha, and that call may come soon. With Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic and Cole Ragans all on the injured list, injuries are really taking a toll on Kansas City’s pitching depth<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Dobnak’s Mariners wake are 13 starts for Triple-A Tacoma in which he posted a 4.24 ERA with a 1.443 WHIP over 70.0 innings. Those numbers paint his departure as no great loss for the Mariners, which is indeed no different from the conclusion one could draw from his major league track record. In 140.2 innings at the big league level, Dobnak owns a 4.86 ERA and -0.1 rWAR.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even so, the loss of Dobnak means the Mariners have one less emergency option for their rotation. Underneath their active roster, they now have exactly as many starters in reserve on their 40-man roster as they did before: zero.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the time being, this is not a big deal. The Mariners indeed have more starters at the major league level than they need, hence their decision to ditch their recent experiment with a six-man rotation so they can return to a piggyback<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The only difference this time is that everyone<\/em> will be taking turns, not just Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo. And honestly? It doesn’t take effort to spin that positively. This was reportedly a group decision, which alone makes this new piggyback iteration better than the one that came before<\/a>. And if we’re strictly talking physical well-being, fewer pitches for everyone can’t hurt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Injuries can and will happen out of nowhere, however, and it bears noting that the Mariners’ preferred next men up are not in the plans for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or\u2026 well, you get the gist. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times<\/em> says that top prospects Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan are being eyed for late-summer contributions<\/a>, and that’s still a while away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As such, the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency list at the moment is down to guys like Dane Dunning, Casey Lawrence and Jhonathan D\u00edaz. Maybe the list didn’t look that much better with Dobnak also on it, but it at least didn’t look as thin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
The Mariners now have that much more riding on an overcrowded starting rotation<\/h2>\n