Mariners' Yusei Kikuchi: Looking good to start Thursday

Manager Scott Servais said after Kikuchi (neck) completed a bullpen session Tuesday that he's "pretty confident' the left-hander will be ready to start Thursday against the Dodgers, Greg Johns of MLB.com reports.

Barring a setback in the next 24 hours, Kikuchi will be ready to make his first start since Aug. 7 after neck spasms prevented him from making his last scheduled turn Friday in Houston. Kikuchi has posted a 5.28 ERA through his three outings this season, but a big uptick in velocity from 2019 to go with strong underlying numbers (2.23 FIP, 16.1 K-BB%, 57.5 GB%) could make the southpaw worthy of a pickup if he's sitting on the waiver wire.