No team in baseball may need the All-Star break more than the Seattle Mariners. On paper, the Mariners entered the season with the ability to run away with a weakened American League West. Instead, at the break, the Mariners find themselves 48-49, 1.5 games behind the Texas Rangers and just ahead of the Houston Astros.
There are plenty of places to point fingers for the team’s underwhelming first half.
The Front Office
The first is that practically every move the Jerry DiPoto made this offseason to improve the team has blown up in his face. The team brought in Brendan Donovan to play third base, just the sort of high-on-base percentage, low-strikeout player the team has been lacking. And he has been exactly as advertised…in the 25 games he has not been injured. Rob Refsnyder was brought in to serve as a right-handed platoon bat for the team’s left-handed outfield triumvirate of Victor Robles, Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley. Refsnyder was supposed to hit left-handed pitching. Instead, has hit no pitching of any kind and heads to the all-star break on the injured list as the second-worst-hitting player in the majors with over 100 at-bats.
The Manager
When the team hired Dan Wilson as manager late in the 2024 season, it didn’t even bother to search for candidates to replace Scott Servais. Wilson was given the full-time job. Wilson is a Mariners legend, part of the 1995 team that was the first to reach the playoffs, and a fan favorite through the following years. After his playing career ended, he eventually joined the team as a minor league instructor, and it was that role that he was plucked from to become the manager. While getting within two games of the franchise’s first World Series appearance can and should buy some goodwill, Wilson’s curious bullpen decisions and slavish devotion to righty-vs.-lefty and lefty-vs.- righty hitting matchups have cost the team numerous times this season.-righty hitting matchups have cost the team numerous times this season. As a franchise icon, Wilson would not be easy to dismiss, leaving a team with World Series hopes facing a tough decision if it becomes clear change may be needed.
The Players
In 2008, the Mariners were preseason darlings, widely picked to get back to the playoffs and a dark-horse World Series pick. The problem was that the roster the team had assembled was essentially a mirage, built on hopes and dreams rather than an actual plan. Many players were wish-cast into roles they were ill-suited to fill, and the team’s performance matched that reality as they plummeted to a 101-loss season.
The 2025 Seattle Mariners are not that team. While it can be easy to criticize the front office for having a plan blow up in its face, the team did have a plan coming into the season, and it was not a bad one. It also hasn’t just been the team’s new acquisitions struggling.
Last season, Cal Raleigh carried the team on his back with a historic performance that arguably should have won him the American League MVP award. After a season like that, some regression was expected. However, Raleigh skipped regression on his way to plummeting off a cliff and into the earth’s core. He’s currently hitting .169, with just 9 home runs and an OPS+ of 67. Josh Naylor, resigned to play first base after proving to be a crucial midseason acquisition last year, has a WAR of -0.2. 2. JP Crawford is hitting just .218 after moving to third base due to Donovan’s injuries, making room for highly touted prospect Colt Emerson at shortstop. However, Emerson and fellow young middle infielder Cole Young have hit a wall after strong starts. The entire team’s offense has been struggling almost top to bottom. The team relies on home runs to score but ranks second-to-last in the American League in slugging percentage. They are also tied for second-to-last in on-base percentage and second-to-last in batting average.
How can they fix it?
To fix the offense, the team will have to look outside the organization and will probably also need to be willing to leverage its surplus of starting pitchers. The problem is there are not a lot of teams out there that have what the Mariners need.
Some potential options:
Taylor Ward, Baltimore, OF: The 32-year-old Ward is making $12 million in the final year of his contract. Baltimore acquired him from the Los Angeles Angels in the offseason, and he has been an above-average player each of the last six seasons. He hit 36 home runs last season, can get on base, and is running a strikeout rate near his career low this season.
Willi Castro, Colorado Rockies, Utility: The switch-hitting Castro is under contract through next season. He wouldn’t bring much power, but he’s decent at getting on base and shouldn’t require a significant investment to acquire.
Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, OF: This deal will almost certainly never happen, as the team shares a division and Trout has a no-trade clause and around $160 million left on his contract. The Angels are not going anywhere and need pieces to build around. The Mariners have plenty of those and have playoff dreams. If they could offload the contract of fading starter Luis Castillo in the process, this would be an easy win-win for both teams. When there are few right-handed bats available on non-contenders, the Mariners may have to make some teams an offer they can’t refuse.
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