The World Baseball Classic has become part of the conversation around the Seattle Mariners’ uneven season, and for good reason: several key players came back from the tournament and have looked nothing alike since.
That point was sharpened by the quote that set off the debate in the first place:
"The more people I talk to, the more that I believe that (the WBC) was a huge factor for the Mariners, for the Kansas City Royals, for the Boston Red Sox, for the Toronto Blue Jays... Hitters are creatures of habit.
They got into spring training and they're used to having - you show up at (7 a.m.), you have your breakfast, you go out, you take some rounds of hitting, maybe do some defense, and then you take some more swings and more swings and you gradually work your way in. What changed this spring in the WBC is the hours available to players to prepare.
Cal (Raleigh) was affected by that. I'm absolutely convinced of that.
I think (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) was affected by that."
Not everyone agreed with that take as it related to Seattle, but the Mariners’ WBC group has made the discussion hard to ignore. The club played deep into October last season, which meant the players who took part in the tournament did not get a full offseason of rest and recuperation. Whether that matters to you is one thing; it’s still part of the story.
Cal Raleigh is the clearest example of how this can go sideways. He played only half the games for Team USA, then got hurt while trying to get back up to speed with Seattle.
He played through the injury before eventually landing on the injured list, and he still hasn’t found his form. Raleigh is hitting .169 with nine home runs and a .271 on-base percentage, with an OPS+ of 67.
That’s a massive drop from last season’s 60-homer explosion.
Randy Arozarena has gone the other direction. He’s been the lone Mariners player named to the All-Star team and is putting together a strong year at .286 with 11 homers, 45 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. His OPS+ sits at 140.
Josh Naylor, who suited up for Team Canada after signing a five-year deal with Seattle, has seen his production dip almost everywhere you look. He entered the season as a career .269 hitter and is batting .252 now.
His career on-base mark was .329 and has fallen to .317. His OPS+ has dropped from a career 116 to 93, and he has only eight home runs despite a career 162-game average of 22.
Julio Rodriguez’s case is a little different. He’s hitting .259 with 14 home runs and an OPS+ of 113, which is solid enough on paper.
But the numbers hide the shape of his season: a huge May carried him, June was rough, and he’s missed the last eight games after going on the concussion injured list. Because of the way his year has unfolded, it’s hard to pin his struggles on the WBC.
He’s streaky, and that’s just part of who he is.
There have been bright spots, too. Dominic Canzone played for Team Italy and has been one of Seattle’s best hitters, batting .264 with 15 homers, 40 RBIs and an OPS+ of 144. He’s performed so well that the Mariners are now using him more regularly against left-handed pitching.
Not every WBC story has been clean, though. Miles Mastrobuoni also represented Team Italy and got hurt during the event, then missed multiple months because of a calf issue.
One of the organization’s top prospects, 21-year-old Michael Arroyo, played for Team Colombia and was the best offensive player on that team. He’s kept hitting in the minors, where he’s batting .293 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs, and he has now been promoted to Triple-A Tacoma.
On the pitching side, Andres Munoz pitched for Team Mexico and has had a shaky first half after back-to-back All-Star seasons. He is 3-4 with a 4.19 ERA, with 16 saves and 51 strikeouts in 34.1 innings, but he has allowed four home runs, already more than he gave up all of last season.
Gabe Speier’s tournament was rough as well. He pitched for Team USA, struggled there, and later landed on the injured list for Seattle in May. He has still put together a very good season overall, but the injury leaves the WBC question hanging over him.
Eduard Bazardo, who played for Team Venezuela, has given the Mariners solid work. He is 3-2 with a 2.40 ERA in 44 appearances.
So the answer isn’t simple. The tournament has clearly touched each player differently.
Some have handled it just fine. Others have struggled badly to match what they did before.
And in Raleigh’s case, the WBC directly led to the injury that sits at the center of a frustrating season for a Mariners club sitting at 48-49.
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