KIRBY'S DREAM WORLD

George Kirby has as much helium as any prospect in baseball. Along with Emerson Hancock, he headlines a wave of power pitchers making their way to Seattle.

- JOSH NORRIS

Long before they worked together, righthander George Kirby was on Sean McGrath’s radar.

“He was in Rye, N.Y., pitching at Rye (High), and I was at Iona in New Rochelle,” McGrath said, “so I had seen him a handful of times throughout his high school career, which is pretty cool.

“Fast-forward to the fall of 2017 and I get the opportunity to coach the guy I never thought I’d be able to get at Iona.”

The fall of 2017 is when Kirby landed at Elon, where McGrath had become the pitching coach. At that point, McGrath saw the same intriguing qualities in Kirby that were on display as a high schooler.

“He was athletic and super coordinated,” McGrath said. “He was a strike-thrower in high school, and at the time (his fastball) was 88-90, 91-92 (mph). And it was almost like he had an attachment to the strike zone at times, like an unwillingness to leave it.”

Even as Kirby’s stuff ticked up during three years at Elon, his attachment to the strike zone never wavered. He walked six batters in 14 starts as a junior and earned the nod as having the best control among college pitchers in the 2019 draft class. The Mariners drafted him 20th overall.

“Kirby is pretty simple,” a scout said at the time. “He fills the zone and can throw strikes with every pitch.”