Kikuchi will be limited to one inning every few starts in the coming season in order to preserve his arm during his first major-league campaign, Greg Johns of MLB.com reports. "The whole key with Yusei is to get him through the entire season healthy," manager Scott Servais said. "I can't tell you if it'll be the fourth start or fifth start or sixth start or seventh start. I don't know when exactly, but it's definitely something we want to stay on."
The Mariners will deploy the unique approach with the goal of having Kikuchi steer clear of the arm issues that often plague Japanese pitching transplants once they're exposed to the more accelerated pitching schedule stateside. The team also plans to utilize most of those abbreviated starts as opportunities to have a Triple-A prospect such as Justus Sheffield or Erik Swanson work as a long reliever and thus get experience against big-league bats. Following a solid major-league debut versus the Athletics in Japan last Thursday, Kikuchi is slated to next take the mound against the Red Sox on Friday night.