Stuart Fairchild’s brief 2026 run with the Mariners looked less like a season and more like a statistical oddity. He appeared in one game, scored one run, and never stepped into the batter’s box. That lone run ended up winning Seattle the game.
Seattle designated Fairchild for assignment on September 8, only five days after the club selected his contract from Triple-A Tacoma when Victor Robles went on the family medical emergency list. It was the second time the Mariners had DFA’d Fairchild since August 4. He cleared waivers the first time, went back to Tacoma, returned to the majors, and this time mostly sat on the bench.
Fairchild, 30, is out of minor-league options, which made his role straightforward from the start. The Mariners needed a player who could run, handle all three outfield spots and cover for Robles while he was away. That part of the job is over now that Robles is back.
The strangest part is that Seattle twice brought up a hometown player who was hitting .288 with a .961 OPS at Tacoma and never gave him a chance to swing. Fairchild’s only big-league appearance in this latest stint came on August 2, when he entered for Josh Naylor as a ninth-inning pinch runner and scored the deciding run in a 7-6 walk-off win over Minnesota.
Robles, though, is the bigger story. When Seattle gave him a two-year extension in 2024, it felt like an easy call.
He had hit .328/.393/.467 in 77 games for the Mariners, stolen 30 bases in 31 tries and brought a burst of life to a lineup that needed it. He was fast, he got on base, and he made things happen.
That version of Robles has been hard to find since.
This season, Robles has a .260 average and a .632 OPS in 62 games. He has no home runs, nine RBI and 10 stolen bases.
The speed is still there, and he still covers ground in the outfield, but a $9 million club option demands more than that. Seattle has to decide whether the 2024 version is still buried somewhere under the injuries that have piled up over the last two seasons.
The Mariners also can’t treat the rest of September like a feel-good exercise. They were 67-77 entering Tuesday, 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with 18 games left.
As long as the math keeps them alive, Robles’ starts matter for the standings. But they matter for 2027 too, because the front office needs something real to evaluate before it makes a decision on that option.
And there are other names waiting. Michael Arroyo and Lazaro Montes need at-bats as well. If Seattle does fall out of contention, and many suspect that’s only a matter of time, there’s no reason for September to turn into a string of courtesy appearances.
Fairchild’s line is one of the weirdest of the year. Robles now gets the chance to write the next one, and it’s the one that could decide whether he’s back in Seattle in 2027.
In Other News...
Mariners Offseason Bet Looks Worse As Playoff Hopes Fade
Seattles playoff picture has thinned to the point where even a strong finish would have to do a lot of heavy lifting. At 67-78 and 6.5 games behind the Guardians in the Wild Card race, the Mariners are staring at an uphill climb, and the season-long issues on offense have been a major reason why.
Josh Naylor was brought back on a five-year deal as part of the clubs attempt to add dependable production, but his numbers have not matched the standard he set in his best year with Cleveland. In a season where the lineup has already fallen short of expectations, that kind of underperformance has only made the Mariners offseason bet look tougher to justify as the games run out. [Read more 🡒]
Josh Naylor Has Become A Real Mariners Offseason Dilemma
Josh Naylors first season with the Mariners has given the front office a real winter conversation to have. The 29-year-old has still done a lot of the contact-driven work that has defined his game, but his overall offensive output has slipped from the levels hes established in the past. Home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS are all down, and for a lineup that expected more impact from that spot, the gap has been hard to ignore.
The odd part is that the underlying shape of his at-bats has not changed all that much. Naylor is still making plenty of contact and keeping strikeouts low, but his aggressive style has led him into more pitches outside the zone, and the quality of the contact has suffered because of it. For Seattle, that creates a tricky offseason question: how much weight to give the steadiness of his approach versus the reality that the production hasnt matched it. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Raleigh's Surge May Not Be Enough To Avoid Mariners History
Cal Raleighs late-season surge has given the Mariners something to feel better about, even if it arrived after a long stretch of offensive frustration. Through Aug. 1, his season had been dragged down by a 70 wRC+ slump, but since then he has looked much more like the middle-of-the-order threat Seattle needed, with a 169 wRC+ and 10 home runs along with four doubles.
Still, the bigger picture has not disappeared. Raleigh is sitting at .184 after 458 plate appearances, and the Mariners are staring at the possibility of one of the rarest kind of club history if that number holds. Evan White remains the only qualified Mariner to finish a season below .200, and Raleighs recent improvement may be enough to keep him from joining that particular list, but the margin is thin enough to keep the question alive. [Read more 🡒]