Canzone's breakout a key to Seattle Mariners' success

The Seattle Mariners wouldn’t be sitting in a tie for first place in the American League West if it wasn’t for some contributions coming from unexpected sources.

Seattle Mariners return to first place in AL West, close in on first-round bye

A role player stepping up in big moments throughout the season is key for any team, and it has been especially been so during Seattle’s run of 11 wins over its past 12 games.

Some of the recent major contributions from role players the Mariners have received include Leo Rivas’ walkoff, two-run homer in extra innings Sept. 10, and Mitch Garver’s game-deciding solo blast just two days later.

Outfielder Dominic Canzone has made his share of contributions to this year’s Mariners club, too.

The 28-year-old Canzone continued what’s been a breakout campaign with a massive five-hit, three-homer game in Seattle’s win Tuesday. In a career-high 73 games played, he’s sporting career-best numbers with a .300 batting average, .842 OPS and 10 home runs.

Yahoo Sports MLB writer and co-host of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast podcast Jordan Shusterman highlighted Canzone’s impact on the Mariners during his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Wednesday.

“He’s arguably been one of the unsung heroes of this offense all season,” Shusterman said. “This is a player that really seemed to be struggling to kind of establish himself with a few fairly substantial samples of playing time (in the majors) over the last couple of seasons. It just didn’t seem like it was going to happen.”

Canzone came to the Mariners in the 2023 trade that sent closer Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The left-handed-hitting outfielder had just 15 games of MLB experience at the time, but had been tearing up the Pacific Coast League while with Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate in Reno.

As often is the case for players going from the PCL to the majors, Canzone’s success in the hitter friendly league didn’t translate to the majors. He batted .215 with a .655 OPS in 44 games with Seattle in 2023.

Things got worse in 2024. He hit just .196 with .652 OPS and ran a 28.2% strikeout rate, up from 17.6% in his 59 total MLB games the season prior. He ended up bouncing between the majors and minors, which included being left off Seattle’s roster for all of September.

However, Canzone started to put it all together this year. He tore Triple-A and eventually got his chance at playing time in the majors when the Mariner designated outfielder Leody Taveras for assignment. And he made quite the immediate impression upon rejoining the big league club, mashing a game-tying, pinch-hit, two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning against the Diamondbacks squad that had traded him away two years prior.

At the time, Canzone’s 450-foot homer in Arizona was the longest hit by a Mariner in 2025.

Canzone hasn’t left the majors since, and he’s essentially replaced the production Seattle hasn’t gotten from Luke Raley – one of their best hitters last year – as the left-handed side of a platoon in right field.

Categorizing Canzone as platoon player at this point may not be quite accurate, though. He has started to show he’s capable of holding his own against southpaws with a .288 average and .742 OPS in 61 plate appearances this year. And there was perhaps no better indicator of that than his first career home run off a lefty during his massive performance Tuesday.

“I think what was so impressive and exciting about (Tuesday) was the homer against the lefty,” Shusterman said. “… Now how much is he going to be facing lefties as these games get more and more important? Who knows? But I think that speaks to kind of the improvements that he’s made across the board offensively. Obviously, the power has always been in there, but he’s clearly been able to cut down the strikeouts (21% rate in 2025) to just be an overall better hitter all season long.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

Canzone’s breakout a key to Seattle Mariners’ success

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