Mariners GM addresses 3 players who had down years in 2026

Among the many things to point to as contributing to the Seattle Mariners’ losing 2026 season are three key hitters who fell well short of their performance in the team’s banner 2025 campaign: Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor and Julio Rodríguez.

GM Justin Hollander details what the Mariners have to do better in ’27

A year after Raleigh broke records left and right with the first 60 home run season ever by a catcher or a switch-hitter, Seattle’s star backstop was a below-league average hitter with a 95 wRC+ and 91 OPS+ (100 is league average for both statistics).

Naylor was also sub-100 in wRC+ (95) and OPS+ (93), and the first baseman finished with just 10 home runs, his career low for a full season.

Rodríguez, the three-time All-Star center fielder, at least was slightly above league average in wRC+ (104) and OPS+ (103), but he posted career low numbers in batting average (.247), on-base percentage (.307), slugging percentage (.401) and OPS (.708).

With the Mariners entering a soul-searching offseason that will include a search for a new field manager, general manager Justin Hollander addressed those three players when he joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk in studio on Tuesday.

“I think they’re all very accountable. … They all understand where they’re at,” Hollander said. “I want to give credit to each of them in their own way.”

Here’s what Hollander said about each of Raleigh, Naylor and Rodríguez.

Cal Raleigh

When you’re having a bad year, it’s really hard to pull yourself off the mat. I think Cal’s, like, the greatest example of that. He’s coming off one of the best seasons ever. Not like the best season ever for the Mariners or for a catcher. Like, in the history of baseball, he’s coming off one of the most unique seasons ever. And basically from the moment (the 2026 season) started, it was really rough.

He wasn’t aligned mechanically, he felt out of sorts, his timing was off, and then he deals with injury issues. He’s having the kind of season that nobody wants to have, and for him to be mentally tough enough to pull himself out of it and show us what he showed over the last five, six weeks of the season is really a huge credit to him and his work ethic, his toughness, etc.

We’re really confident that we’re going to get Cal Raleigh back as Cal Raleigh. And I don’t know what that means, if it means he’s going to hit 60 homers again, probably not – there’s a reason nobody had ever done it before. But really feel good about where he’s at.

Josh Naylor

‘Naylz’ had a really slow start. Obviously, I think he dealt with some physical maladies that made it tough for him to get into his power. He’s frustrated. I will give him credit, he found a way to get hits. From May 1 on, he was one of the leaders in hit for average in the league. He found a way to contribute to the team in a positive way, in a very Luis Arraez kind of way with a lot of hits and a lot of stolen bases and trying to do the best he could.

Julio Rodríguez

I think the guy that I’m most excited to see next year and what we can do to help him is Julio. Julio is the most talented player on the field on almost every day when he walks on the field, and he can affect the game in some way every day, whether it’s on defense, on the bases, in the batter’s box, and I think we haven’t seen the best of Julio yet. He’s 26 this coming year. There’s a lot of great years ahead of Julio. I think we just saw the worst year he’s ever going to have, and he knows that he needs to take steps to get better and push himself further.

Catch Brock and Salk live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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