New Mariner Cole Wilcox works on keeping it consistent

TEMPE, ARIZONA - MARCH 14: Cole Wilcox #43 of the Seattle Mariners pitches during the Spring Training game against the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium on March 14, 2026 in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) | Getty Images The Mariners made their first in-season roster move today, placing RHP Carlos Vargas on the 15-day IL with a lat strain and recalling RHP Cole Wilcox from Tacoma.

In December 2020, the Padres acquired Blake Snell from the Rays in a high-profile trade that sent highly-ranked prospect Luis Patiño, catchers Francisco Mejia and Blake Hunt, and 2020 third-rounder righty Cole Wilcox to the Rays in exchange for Snell. The Mariners are now halfway to acquiring all of the players from that trade in some form (Hunt spent time with the organization in 2024 and 2025), acquiring Wilcox—who was the last remaining member of that trade in Tampa Bay’s organization—from the Rays this off-season for cash. For Wilcox, who never threw a professional pitch for San Diego, Tampa Bay was the only organization he’d ever known.

“I’d been with the Rays for so long that it kind of felt like home,” he said this spring. “But I’m always open to a change of scenery…It’s always intimidating, going to a new spot, but there’s a lot of good people here, very friendly, very welcoming. So that made the transition super easy.

” In coming to Seattle, Wilcox had the advantage of meeting a friendly face from day one: fellow pitcher Emerson Hancock, who was Wilcox’s teammate at the University of Georgia, twin 6’5” hurlers who anchored the Bulldogs’ rotation; Wilcox a year behind Hancock, the #2 to Hancock’s #1. While both Wilcox and Hancock grew up in Georgia, they’re from opposite ends of the state: Hancock’s hometown of Cairo (pronounced “Karo,” like the syrup) is at the very southern edge of Georgia, flat terrain located 45 minutes from Tallahassee. Wilcox grew up in Ringgold, a small town in northeast Georgia nestled in the Appalachians about 20 minutes from Chattanooga (best known to me as where Dolly Parton married Carl Dean in 1966).