The 2025 Seattle Mariners came innings, not games, away from clinching the franchise’s first-ever berth to the World Series. Seattle’s crop of young pitchers, coupled with a loud offense, won 90 games and clinched the team’s first division title in over 20 years. It’ll go down as a great year, albeit one with an uncomfortable ending.
The Offense
StatNumberRankRuns Scored766t-9thHome Runs2383rdOPS.74010thWhiff%27.5%28thHard Hit%42.8%4th
The Pitching
StatNumberRankStarters’ ERA3.9713thRelievers’ ERA3.729thStrikeouts1,4267thWhiff%25.2%16thChase%28.6%10th
The Good
The year 2025 was the year of Cal Raleigh, who just narrowly missed out on winning the American League MVP. Nonetheless, it was a record-breaking year for the 28-year-old.
Raleigh, one of the “torpedo bat” adopters, broke Salvador Perez‘s single-season record for most home runs by a catcher and Mickey Mantle‘s mark for most home runs by a switch-hitter in a season with 60. It was a number good enough for most in the Majors, besting Kyle Schwarber by four.
Sure, Raleigh chased and whiffed a lot. However, it didn’t matter much as far as his run production was concerned. He helped lead a prodigious offense — which I’ll get more into in a second — and hit well equally against lefties and righties. In fact, Raleigh had a higher SLG (.681) and OPS (1.032) against left-handed pitching than right-handed (.547 SLG, .909 OPS).
That’s worth noting, given that Raleigh preferred to use the torpedo bat as a left-handed hitters.
His excellence didn’t stop there, as Raleigh was also one of the best framers (+7 Catcher Framing Runs) in the game. And, he didn’t concede a passed ball until the playoffs.
Raleigh was one of four Mariners to have 25+ home runs this season. The other three were Randy Arozarena, Jorge Polanco, and Julio Rodriguez.
Rodriguez shook off a cold April to finish with 32 home runs, the second tiime in three season he had a 30+ home run season. Arozarena, in his first full season as a Mariner, had 27 home runs.
Then, there’s Polanco. Polanco returned to Seattle late in the winter after an injury-worn 2024 season. He returned with a bang, as Polanco cracked 26 home runs. It was somewhat of a streaky season, given he hit eight home runs in April before cold spells in May & June. However, he had a great second half and played the hero in Game 5 of the 2025 ALDS.
As for the pitching staff, Bryan Woo took charge of the Mariners’ rotation. Woo struck out 198 over 186.2 IP, as he became an All-Star and narrowly missed out on a 200-strikeout season. One could partially attribute that to a pectoral injury that occurred in mid-September and kept him out until the ALCS.
Woo possesses one of the most deceptive, yet electric four-seamers that just gets on hitters fast. That helps set up the rest of his arsenal.
The rest of the pitching staff was fine, as well. Logan Gilbert navigated some turbulence to strike out 173 over 131 innings. George Kirby struggled badly early on but turned it around, becoming an important postseason arm. Kirby struck out 21 over 18 playoff innings.
As for the bullpen, Andres Munoz, Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier, and a healthy Matt Brash formed a powerful, deep bullpen.
The Bad
The Mariners struck out over 1,600 combined times in 2024 and 2025, finishing in the bottom two of that category in the Majors each season. While that number came down (1,446) came down, Seattle still ranked as among the league’s worst strikeout offenders.
Granted, the Mariners’ lineup became more diverse with the addition of Josh Naylor, the ex-Diamondback who can hit for power but also put the ball in play. Naylor hit nine home runs and struck out just 34 times over 54 games.
Nonetheless, there was a lot of swing-and-miss in that lineup. Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez will strike out, and that element likely won’t go away. And in the playoffs, all that swing-and-miss and strikeouts were an issue. The Mariners struck out 27.6% of the time this past October.
As for other issues with the lineup, it didn’t help that the Mariners couldn’t get much production from Mitch Garver. Garver slashed .209/.297/.343, the second straight year where he had problems producing offensively.
Overall, Garver, who was signed in December 2023 by Seattle, slashed .187/.290/.341.
Moving to the pitching staff, Bryce Miller had an injury-riddled season. Miller only made 18 starts and didn’t pitch well in the regular season. Miller gave up 17 home runs in 90.1 IP and posted a 5.68 ERA.
Early Projected Lineup for 2026
C: Cal Raleigh
1B: Josh Naylor
2B: Cole Young
3B: Ben Williamson
SS: J.P. Crawford
OF: Randy Arozarena (LF), Julio Rodriguez (CF), Victor Robles/Luke Raley (RF)
DH: Dominic Canzone
SP: Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Luis Castillo, Bryce Miller
RP: Andres Munoz, Matt Brash, Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier, Carlos Vargas, Robinson Ortiz, Casey Legumina, Jackson Kowar
The Mariners have already begun work on assembling their 2026 roster. Seattle re-signed Josh Naylor, who was considered a top priority, in November. As noted above, Naylor fit in very well with the Mariners and gave their lineup a different look.
As for the rest of the lineup, it’ll be interesting to see what is done between now and March. Jorge Polanco went to market after a fantastic 2025, while Eugenio Suarez is a free agent after his three-month reunion with the M’s.
Seattle has the luxury to get creative. The Mariners have young players like Cole Young and Harry Ford, both of whom made their MLB debuts last year. Young didn’t strike out a lot in 77 games with the big club — but didn’t get on base as much as he did in the Minors.
Ford, meanwhile, figures to get a fair amount of playing time to keep Raleigh’s bat in the lineup. Raleigh started 38 games in the DH slot last year.
For the pitching staff, the clock on this mostly homegrown pitching staff continues.
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