Whose stock is up, down after homestand

The Seattle Mariners are hitting the road for the first time this season.

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With the first homestand of the year is in the books, the M’s are leaving T-Mobile Park with a 3-4 record after facing a pair of American League playoff contenders to kick off the year. Next up are series with AL West rivals Los Angeles and Texas.

But first, let’s take a look at whose stock is up and whose is down after the first two series of the new campaign.

• Stock up: Emerson Hancock

Hancock is getting another opportunity to begin the season in the starting rotation due to Bryce Miller’s oblique injury. Unlike last year, he got off to about as impressive of a start as possible in his first outing Sunday with six no-hit innings and a career-high nine strikeouts against the Guardians.

It’s hard to take too much away from one start, but it’s also hard not to notice how effective Hancock was at keeping hitters off balance with his sweeper as his new featured secondary pitch.

Hancock threw his sweeper 25.8% of the time in his season debut, up from just 3.2% last season. The pitch generated three whiffs and two strikeouts. It also helped Hancock’s fastball play up despite a dip in velocity throughout the game, as he got nine whiffs on his four-seamer. In addition to getting more swing and miss, Hancock only gave up one hard-hit ball.

• Stock down: The big bats

The Mariners might consider themselves lucky to be leaving Seattle with a 3-4 record, because the meat of their lineup didn’t provide much over the first seven games.

Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor went a combined 7 for 78 (.090 average) with one extra-base hit and 30 strikeouts to 10 walks.

There were a couple big moments from the group: Raleigh hit a walkoff single on Monday against the Yankees and Rodríguez had a game-tying single with two outs in the ninth inning on Saturday against the Guardians. But the M’s need far more from their Nos. 2-4 hitters.

• Stock up: Bottom-half-of-the-order lefty bats

For as much as the group above struggled, the trio of Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone and Cole Young put together an impressive homestand.

Coming off an injury-plagued year where his numbers plummeted, Raley homered in each of the Mariners’ first three games, including one that he didn’t start. Raley collected five hits and six RBIs in total while playing in five games during the homestand. The three homers he hit nearly matched the four he hit in 73 games last year.

Canzone picked up where he left off during his breakout 2025 season with a two-homer game in the season opener against Cleveland. In six games during the homestand, he also had five hits and six RBIs.

Young was perhaps the most impressive of this group, showing improvement at the plate and in the field. After an up-and-down rookie season, Young was second on the team with eight hits during the homestand, including one homer and two doubles. And he seemed to come up with a defensive gem in just about each game.

• Stock down: Logan Gilbert

The knock on Gilbert last season was that even though he struck out batters at an elite clip, he wasn’t typically getting as deep into games as he showed he was capable of while leading MLB in innings pitched during 2024.

Getting deeper into games was a goal for Gilbert this season, but he didn’t complete six innings in either of his first two starts of 2026. The right-hander went 5 1/3 innings in both of his outings, allowing a combined eight runs over 10 2/3 innings.

The caveat here is that starters typically aren’t going to go as deep into games in their first couple of starts, but the flip side is that Gilbert’s two starts are the only ones so far where a Mariners starter didn’t complete six innings.

• Stock up: Brendan Donovan the hitter

Considering how long his name was linked to the Mariners before a trade finally materialized, the wait for Donovan’s team debut seemed much longer than the nearly two months between his trade and opening day.

He did not disappoint – at least at the plate.

Donovan started his M’s tenure in style with a leadoff home run in his first at-bat, becoming the first player in team history to hit a leadoff home run on opening day. He continued that success throughout the homestand and finished with a team-high 10 hits, two homers and two doubles.

• Stock down: Brendan Donovan the third baseman

Donovan showed one glimpse of why he won a Gold Glove in 2022 with a terrific sliding grab as he crashed into the wall in foul territory down the third base line. Outside of that, it was a bit of an adventure for him at the hot corner while committing three errors, including an attempt to throw to first base that was nowhere close to Naylor after fielding a bunt in the 10th inning of Saturday’s loss.

Donovan was touted for his ability to play all over the field when the Mariners acquired him, but it looks his defense may be a bit of a work in progress at third, a position where he had started just 29 games over four seasons entering 2026.

Whose stock is up, down after homestand

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