Can Mariners’ Victor Robles repeat breakout success?

The Seattle Mariners are looking for better offensive production this season.

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The 2024 campaign was yet another tough one for the M’s offense. Until the final six weeks of the season, it was among one of the worst groups in the majors. The offense turned things around from there on out and was one of the league’s best, which is what the team is hoping to see more of in 2025.

In order for that to happen, Seattle will be relying on a number of players to either have bounce-back seasons, continue success they haven’t sustained for a large sample size or reach a new level of production.

“Even Julio (Rodríguez) is an if. I don’t think there’s a single position player on the team who’s a certainty,” CBS Sports MLB writer Matt Snyder said during a conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. “I think every single one of them has an if attached. Even if some of them are smaller like (Cal) Raleigh and Julio, there’s still ifs attached to them. The certainties are in the rotation, and some in the bullpen.”

One of the bigger uncertainties for the lineup heading into the season is whether or not outfielder Victor Robles can sustain the breakout he had in 77 games with the Mariners last year.

Robles was revelation for Seattle and a major factor in the team hanging around in the playoff hunt until the end of the season. After being released by the Washington Nationals, Robles joined the Mariners put up the most productive stretch of his career. The 27-year-old outfielder produced a 3.1 WAR and slashed .328/.393/.467 with 20 doubles, four home runs, 26 RBIs and 30 stolen bases.

Robles impressed his new team enough to warrant being a part of the future. In August, the Mariners gave him a two-year contract extension with a team option for 2027.

It all came after a disappointing few years for the former top-five prospect in the nation’s capital. After helping Washington win the World Series with solid rookie season in 2019, Robles had an OPS of .608 or lower for three straight seasons (2020-22). He then missed most of the 2023 season with back spasms and played just 36 games. Before he was cut by the Nationals last season, he was hitting a meager .120 with just three singles in 25 at-bats.

Snyder was asked what he expects from Robles after his turnaround season in Seattle.

“It’s interesting because he’s somebody that you could be optimistic about when you look at all the ifs on this team. I don’t think he’s gonna hit .328 with an .860 OPS again or anything like that,” Snyder said. “It’s interesting because if you go back and look when he was in the Nationals’ system – and this is true, people can go back and look at the prospect rankings – he was a higher-rated prospect than Juan Soto.”

Snyder also pointed out that one of the reasons the then-19-year-old Soto was called up by the Nationals in 2019 was because Robles was on the injured list.

While Robles has more bad seasons than good on his resume so far, Snyder believes he’s still an age where he could be reaching the potential he was touted as having as a prospect.

“If he was that highly touted when he was a kid, the talent was always in there,” Snyder said. “The scouts saw that he had that kind of talent, and sometimes it doesn’t come out for a few years, and sometimes you need the right situation. He was only 27 years old last year. It’s perfectly reasonable for a player to finally break out at age 27.”

“It seemed like everything had clicked last year,” Snyder added. “While it was a small sample, that talent’s always been in there. There was a reason he was rated higher than Juan Soto.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Wyman and Bob from 2-6 p.m., or find the podcasts on the Seattle Sports app.

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