MLB analyst weighs in on Mariners’ offensive problems

The Seattle Mariners’ hitting struggles have been the story of their season.

Dipoto answers big questions about sliding M’s in article by The Athletic

The Mariners sit at or near the bottom of the majors in nearly every major offensive statistical category, including 27th in runs per game, dead-last in batting average, 29th in slugging percentage and 28th in OPS.

The hitting woes have overshadowed a brilliant season by Seattle’s pitching staff, which leads the majors with a 3.51 ERA. And the lack of offensive production is the reason the reeling Mariners find themselves at 64-63 and clinging to the fringes of playoff contention, trailing the American League West-leading Houston Astros by 4.5 games and sitting 6.5 games out of the AL’s final wild card spot.

Perhaps the most jarring aspect of Seattle’s hitting struggles is how widespread they are throughout the lineup.

Among the 10 hitters who have logged at least 300 plate appearances with the Mariners this year, nine have a season OPS that’s below their career OPS. That includes five hitters – Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger, Julio Rodríguez, Jorge Polanco and the since-traded Ty France – whose season OPS is at least 100 points below their career mark.

Four of those 10 hitters – Haniger, Rodríguez, France and J.P. Crawford – currently have the worst OPS of their career. And two more – Garver and Polanco – have the second-worst OPS of their career.

On Tuesday, former Baseball America senior writer Kyle Glaser delved into the Mariners’ offensive struggles during an appearance on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

“I don’t think this was ever going to be a top-10 offense in baseball,” Glaser said. “But you looked at some of the names in here and you thought they could certainly be, at the very least, in the middle tier. Obviously you have Julio Rodríguez. You have Cal Raleigh. Jorge Polanco is an accomplished big leaguer. I mean, coming into the year, you feel good about Ty France hitting. Mitch Haniger. Mitch Garver.

“These are guys with track records of being productive performers at the plate – (and) every single one of them has just cratered and had more or less a career-worst year all at once. And I think when you have all of these guys struggling this badly in conjunction, you have to look at what’s being taught – whether it’s approach-based, whether it’s mechanics-based. This isn’t a coincidence. Something is very, very wrong here. There’s a symptom here of a larger problem.”

Later on in the conversation, co-host Michael Bumpus followed up by asking Glaser what the Mariners would look like if all their hitters were playing up to their career averages.

“I think if everyone is their average selves, this is a team that is firmly in wild card position, at minimum,” Glaser said. “I still think the Astros are the better team, just when you look at the combination of what they have in their lineup and their starting rotation. But it’d be close – the Astros at 91-71, the Mariners at 89-73, something around there. That’s what it would look like if everyone was playing like they’re capable of.

“But everyone’s not playing like they’re capable of. And as such, the Mariners are are hovering around .500 and trying to keep their season alive.”

Listen to the full conversation with Kyle Glaser at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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