The Seattle Mariners offense is succeeding in one advanced metric

The Seattle Mariners offense has been struggling, and that could be an understatement. When you look at the MLB statistical leaderboards, you may tear up but there is surprisingly one statistic that the Mariners are actually doing well in.

But before we get to the good, we always have to start with the bad.

The Seattle Mariners offense has almost been non-existent

So, the Seattle Mariners aren’t hitting below the Mendoza Line (.200) anymore but they are still at the bottom of the league. As a team, Seattle is hitting .208 which is actually very close to the second-worst team batting average which belongs to the Milwaukee Brewers (.211).  What’s funny is that the Brewers are actually in first place in their division despite having the second-worst batting average in the MLB.

The Mariners are also last in OBP, wOBA, and xBA. They are struggling in slugging, wOBACON, hard-hit rate, exit velocity, and xWOBA.

Surprisingly, the Seattle Mariners are actually in the top 10 for barrel percentage

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But even with all that, the Seattle Mariners are in the top 10 for barrel percentage. The M’s have a team 9.4% barrel percentage which is the sixth-best in the league. It’s interesting right?

Barrels as defined by Baseball Savant is “a batted ball with the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle.” You would expect teams with a good barrel percentage to have a high batting average or xBA right? But for the Seattle Mariners, that isn’t the case.

It is also worth noting that the Seattle Mariners have the largest average launch angle in the MLB, at 15 degrees. Launch angle is an important advanced metric but when you are not hitting balls hard consistently, launch angle means nothing.

The Atlanta Braves are a good example of high launch angle but consistent hard contact. They have the second-highest launch angle in the MLB but also are third in average exit velocity, which equals the seventh-highest xBA in the league.

That being said, having a high barrel rate and launch angle doesn’t always lead to results if a team isn’t succeeding in other areas. But, it is a good sign that the Seattle Mariners offense is doing some things well, rather than nothing at all. Now, if the team can hit balls harder more consistently, we could see a huge turnaround.

To be honest, it is quite amazing that the Seattle Mariners are 30-31 right now with all of the injuries going on so things can only get better from here in my opinion.