The Mariners closed June with a pair of wins over the Angels and climbed back above .500, but the month still left plenty of bruises behind. The offense never found a rhythm, the results were ugly, and the bigger picture still points to a team that has to do better if it wants to be taken seriously in September.
What stands out most from June is how little went right. The Mariners posted a .294 wOBA for the month, but their xwOBA sat at .312, a -.018 gap that was the worst in the majors. That kind of split tells the story of a team that kept hitting balls in the air and kept getting little for it, including last Wednesday in Pittsburgh, when a string of warning-track fly balls turned into empty innings.
The lack of production wasn’t just a short-term problem either. The Mariners ranked 23rd in runs per game, 26th in batting average, and 25th in OPS.
June was even rougher: they were tied for the fifth-fewest runs in baseball and had the third-worst OPS in the majors. At one point, they went 13 straight games scoring three runs or fewer, which set a franchise record nobody wanted.
Even with all that, they still managed to go 13-14 in the month. That’s the part that may be easiest to overlook.
The Mariners were dealing with a brutal run of bad luck, and it wasn’t confined to June. Their -.018 wOBA-xwOBA gap in the month was the biggest negative split in the league, and for the 2026 season overall they now have the second-biggest negative gap in the majors.
That context matters when you look at where they sit now. The frustration hit a season-high after Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Guardians, when questionable bullpen moves helped the Mariners throw away the rubber match in Cleveland. But despite all of that, they’re still just half a game out of first place in their division and 2.5 games out of the second overall seed in the AL.
And this isn’t new territory for this club. Around this same time last year, morale was just as low.
The Mariners went to Detroit before the All-Star break after getting swept by the Yankees and finding themselves 7.0 games back in the AL West. Then they swept the Tigers in three straight and turned things around.
That’s the hope now: better consistency, better results, and at some point, a change in fortune at the plate. The roster talent is there.
The Mariners just need the production to match it. If the luck finally evens out, they might start looking more like the team plenty of preseason media picked to win the AL Pennant.
In Other News...
Mariners May Have A Strange Answer To Dan Wilsons Bullpen Problem
The Mariners have already shown a willingness to get creative with pitching usage this season, and that history is part of why a new bullpen wrinkle does not sound far-fetched. With Dan Wilson trying to keep his relief group fresh over the long haul, Seattle has at least entertained the idea of leaning on arms from Double-A in a way that would give the staff more length and help take some pressure off the usual late-inning mix.
The names in the conversation are Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan, two starters by trade who have been stretched out for four-to-five inning outings. Moving them into a multi-inning relief role would be an unusual path, but it fits the Mariners broader habit of treating pitching depth as a puzzle to solve rather than a fixed chart. The question now is whether that kind of super bullpen setup becomes a short-term fix, or something the club is willing to test in a more meaningful way. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Suddenly Face A Brutal New Injury Question After Angels Game
A tense night in Anaheim left the Mariners juggling more than the scoreboard. Julio Rodrguez and Victor Robles both exited against the Angels after separate injury scares, forcing Seattle to reshuffle the outfield in real time and leaving the club waiting on the kind of postgame update nobody wants to hear after a game already full of contact and chaos.
Rodrguez was struck in the back of the helmet during a double-play sequence, while Robles was hit on the forearm and later replaced in the fifth inning. Weston Wilson came in for Robles, and Luke Raley shifted to center field, a reminder of how quickly one game can turn into an availability issue for a team that can ill afford to lose more everyday pieces. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Bliss Is Heating Up But Seattle Has A Bigger Problem
Ryan Bliss has spent the season doing what players in his position are supposed to do: forcing the issue. After a slow start, the Mariners infielder found his rhythm in June, showing the kind of contact, speed and extra-base pop that can make a depth piece suddenly look a lot more useful. Seattle even gave him a brief look in Baltimore before sending him back to Tacoma, a reminder that the organization is keeping him close even if there is not an obvious lane for him yet.
The problem is that a hot stretch does not always change the depth chart, and Bliss is still fighting for a role on a roster that already has established answers in the middle infield. If the Mariners cannot carve out regular at-bats for him, the conversation could shift from how he fits in Seattle to what kind of value he might have elsewhere. For a controllable upper-minors player who is starting to look like more than just insurance, that is the kind of decision front offices do not take lightly. [Read more 🡒]