3 slumping Mariners hitters who already have fans sweating

Every year you repeatedly hear about how the baseball season is a marathon as opposed to a sprint, so people shouldn't be too concerned if their team goes though rough patches when there's 162 games to be played in total.

This is easier said than down, though, particularly if you are a Seattle Mariners fan.

Known for getting off to slow starts in recent seasons, the prime example came just two seasons ago when the Mariners struggled to even stay at .500 throughout the first half of the 2023 campaign. Although they were much more consistent over the second half of the regular season, the team ultimately fell one agonizing game short of the playoffs.

We appreciate that effectively the exact opposite happened last season, with the Mariners ultimately still falling one game short, but the reality is that it usually helps if you come out swinging from the get go. On the subject of swinging, here is a look at three hitters who already have fans concerned in Seattle.

No. 1: Julio Rodríguez

At the risk of being accused of piling on, how can we not begin with Julio Rodríguez? Now in his fourth season, the reality is that the Mariners, their fans and MLB in general are all waiting for him to take up his mantle as a bona fide five-tool superstar, a la Ken Griffey Jr.

When Rodríguez burst onto the scene in 2022 he electrified baseball, being named an All-Star, Silver Slugger and AL Rookie of the Year. Since then, however, he has seen his productivity drop in consecutive seasons over a variety of categories, including WAR, his slash line, OPS, OPS+ and rOBA.

There have been periods of dominance, with the prime example coming in August of the 2023 season, when Rodríguez's superior .429/.474/.724 slash line and stunning 1.197 OPS contributed massively to a 21-6 record for the Mariners. With this level of potential in mind, belief has remained strong and even had Will Leitch of MLB.com boldly predicting the center fielder would be named AL MVP this season.

Instead, Rodríguez has pulled his usual act of starting slowly, with just four hits in 22 at-bats. He actually has more walks (five) than hits, resulting in a 143 OPS+ which is only four points behind his career-high in his rookie year.

Overall, the talent has never been in question, but at some point he has to start producing more consistently with moments such as his moon shot in the series finale against the Athletics, if the Mariners are to get back into the playoffs and become a genuine contender.

No. 2: Cal Raleigh

Last season was a tough one for the lineup, as the Mariners ended up ranked second-worst in batting average, 22nd in OPS, first in strikeouts, and 21st in runs. However, the one positive constant throughout all of this was Cal Raleigh.

No matter what was going on around Raleigh, he continued to produce finished the 2024 season leading the Mariners with personal bests of 34 home runs, 100 RBI and a 4.7 WAR. As most fans will be aware, the home run mark was particularly special as it took him to 93 for his career, which surpassed Hall of Famer Mike Piazza as the most ever by a catcher in their first four years.

With Gold and Platinum Gloves also being awarded to Raleigh, he deservedly received a six-year, $105 million contract extension from the Mariners in late March. Unfortunately, however, he still seems to be suffering a hangover from the celebrations (in a manner of speaking), with just three hits in 24 at-bats and a .500 OPS.

This has some fans sweating. No matter how bad the rest of the team is doing, the struggles don't usually extend to Raleigh, and yet here we are. We will end on a positive with the clubhouse leader though, in that he has at least extended his streak of reaching base safely to 20 games, just four behind a certain Shohei Ohtani for the longest active streak in the Majors.

No. 3: J.P. Crawford

The last two seasons were like night and day for J.P. Crawford at the plate, with results which couldn't have been more different. Whereas in 2023 he set single season highs in OBP, OPS and rOBA, last year saw him produce career-lows in those same categories.

It really was quite a dramatic fall from grace for Crawford in 2024, one season after compiling career-bests of 19 home runs, 65 RBI and 94 walks, and even receiving some consideration in AL MVP voting. This led to the understandable question ahead of this season, as to which version of the shortstop from the past two years was closer to the truth?

Unfortunately for the Mariners, the answer appears to be the 2024 version, with Crawford struggling to get anything going through seven games. He has only managed two hits in 18 at-bats, resulting in an unsightly .111 batting average and .415 OPS which would both easily be career-worsts over the course of a full season.

There is some minor solace in Crawford being tied with Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena on a team-high five steals and contributing three runs, but he needs to do a lot more to prove he can return to being the player who took the field back in 2023. We suspect that the real answer to what version of him is the reality might actually be found somewhere in the middle, and at this moment in time fans would probably settle for that when compared to what they're currently seeing.

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