If the Mariners are going to look more like their 2025 selves in 2027, the first order of business is pretty clear: get back the edge they lost in 2026.
That 2025 club won 90 games and came one win shy of the World Series, and it had a real identity. The 2026 team, by comparison, left too many of the same traits on the table.
Jerry Dipoto still has work to do this winter, including finding the right manager to replace Dan Wilson and patching up the roster. But beyond the obvious front-office moves, there are four specific team traits Seattle has to rediscover if it wants to get back on track.
The most obvious one starts with power. Seattle has done this before, and it worked.
The Mariners ranked fifth in the American League in home runs in 2022, then second in 2025. This year, they fell to eighth after a drop of 56 homers from the season before.
Cal Raleigh was the biggest name in that decline, but he wasn’t alone. The Mariners never made up for the 26 homers Jorge Polanco provided in 2025, and both Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor backed up in the slugging department.
With Randy Arozarena now likely gone as well, the burden only gets heavier. In 2027, Raleigh, Rodríguez and Naylor need to produce more.
Lazaro Montes could help if he avoids the worst parts of his offensive game, but Seattle probably needs outside help too, whether that comes through free agency with Teruaki Sato or via a trade for someone like Elly De La Cruz.
Power and patience go hand in hand, and the Mariners need more of both. In 2025, they walked at an 8.8 percent clip and finished second in the AL in walks.
In 2026, their walk rate actually ticked up to 9.1 percent, yet they slipped to sixth in the league because the rest of the American League walked even more. Three of the five teams ahead of them in walks made the playoffs.
The more useful trend, though, is at the plate discipline level. Seattle’s chase rate jumped from 28.3 in 2025 to 30.3 in 2026, and that has to come back down.
The Mariners can also do a better job with the ABS challenge system after tying for last in the league with a 42 percent success rate on challenges in its debut season.
Seattle’s pitchers need to get back to missing bats, too. In 2025, Mariners pitchers ranked fourth in the AL in strikeouts.
In 2026, they dropped to seventh. That happened even while the staff kept attacking the strike zone, but hitters answered with aggression of their own and did more damage against first pitches, especially first-pitch fastballs.
This one doesn’t sound like it requires a roster overhaul or a coaching purge. It sounds more like a strategy tweak, a way to move away from a formula that has gone stale.
And then there’s the cleanest of all the clean-up jobs: defense. Errors may not tell the whole story, but they tell enough.
The Mariners made the third-fewest errors in the AL in 2025. This year, they had the sixth-most.
Fewer strikeouts played a role in that decline, but the end result is still the same: more extended innings, more pitches for the pitcher, and sometimes more runs. J.P.
Crawford led the team with 11 errors, which at least points to a likely change if Seattle brings him back as a free agent. But this was a teamwide mess, one that made Perry Hill’s firing feel as necessary as it was harsh.
A healthy Colt Emerson could help stabilize things, and Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor should be better defenders than they were this season. Even so, the Mariners may need to import a real glove or two, with third base and left field looking like the likeliest spots for an upgrade.
In Other News...
Mariners Face A Tough Trade Call On A Much-Needed Defensive Fix
The Mariners are once again looking at a familiar trade-market question: how much should they be willing to pay for a player who could solve a glaring need on the roster? According to a report from Robert Murray at FanSided, Steven Kwan is expected to be available after Clevelands ALCS exit, and the appeal is obvious for Seattle. He is a four-time Gold Glove winner with a reputation for elite outfield defense and steady production at the plate, the kind of player who can raise both the floor and the ceiling of a club trying to tighten up its run prevention.
The hesitation is just as real, because this would not be a simple rental-style add for a contender. Kwan is entering the final year of arbitration before reaching free agency, which gives any acquiring team a relatively short window to maximize the return. For the Mariners, the bigger question is whether the price in prospects and long-term flexibility would be worth it for a player who fits so neatly on paper, even if the fit comes with real cost. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Fans Will Have Mixed Feelings About Mitch Garvers Next Step
Mitch Garvers time in the majors is over after a 10-year run that included stops with the Twins, Rangers and Mariners, with his most recent seasons coming in Seattle. The veteran catcher said he is retiring and moving on to focus on family and golf, closing the book on a career that gave the Mariners a steady, experienced presence behind the plate and in the clubhouse.
Garvers decision will land differently for Seattle fans because he arrived as a known commodity from earlier stops and spent his final stretch in a Mariners uniform. His retirement leaves one more familiar name off the roster, and while the next chapter is now personal rather than professional, the reaction from Mariners followers figures to be split between appreciation for what he brought and regret that his career ends here. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Fans Just Got A Brutal Reminder About That Offseason Trade
Ben Williamson is the kind of player Mariners fans expected to forget after he was shipped to Tampa Bay in a February three-team deal, but his name is back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in Seattle. Williamson gave the Rays defensive help down the stretch, and Tampa Bay rode that roster to the American League pennant and a trip to the World Series, a run that has only sharpened the hindsight around a trade the Mariners once viewed as a way to reshape the roster.
Seattles side of the move has not offered much comfort. The Mariners did acquire Brendan Donovan in the deal, but injuries kept him on the field for only 39 games, leaving the club with little to show for a transaction that now looks even tougher in October. For a team that missed the playoffs in 2026, watching a former piece thrive while the return was constantly unavailable has made the trade sting all over again. [Read more 🡒]