4 missing elements the Mariners desperately need to find again in 2027

As much as we'd all like to move on, we're ultimately still closer to the nightmare that was the Seattle Mariners' 2026 season than we are to the 2027 season. And with so much uncertainty surrounding the franchise and MLB in general, one can only hope that next year will be better.

It would help if Jerry Dipoto checks all the boxes he needs to check this winter. The right manager to succeed Dan Wilson is a big one. The roster needs a few upgrades, too.

One way or another, the idea is to sweep away this year's ugliness and get back to something more like what the Mariners were in 2025, when they won 90 games and fell one win short of the World Series. That team had a legitimate identity, and some aspects of it will hopefully return even if the clubhouse culture gets a makeover.

So, let's dive into some stats. Specifically, stats for which the Mariners were a top-five team in the American League in 2025 and then not a top-five team this year.

4 qualities from the 2025 Mariners that need to make a comeback in 2027

1. The offense needs to hit more home runs

It's the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series right now, and both clubs finished in the bottom 10 of MLB in home runs during the regular season. They're an argument for a more holistic approach to scoring runs, and the Mariners would do well to take note.

When it comes down to it, though, it's easier to hit one home run than it is to string multiple baserunners together. And the long ball formula worked just fine for the Mariners in each of their last two playoff seasons. In 2022, they ranked fifth in the AL in home runs. In 2025, they ranked second.

This year? They ranked eighth after a 56-homer fall from the previous season. Cal Raleigh was merely the main offender. The Mariners didn't replace the 26 homers that Jorge Polanco gave them in 2025, in part because Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor regressed with their slugging. And now, Randy Arozarena is a likely goner as well.

In 2027, Raleigh, Rodríguez and Naylor will simply have to do better. Lazaro Montes can also help, provided he doesn't succumb to his worst qualities as a hitter. Yet it's ultimately hard to imagine a return to form without outside help, whether it comes via free agency (i.e., Teruaki Sato) or the trade market (i.e., Elly De La Cruz).

2. The offense needs to take more walks

So, this one is a bit of a brain-breaker. In 2025, the Mariners walked at an 8.8 percent clip and finished second in the AL in walks. In 2026, they upped their walk percentage to 9.1 and finished… sixth in the AL in walks?

It should make no sense, but that's how much the environment changed in 2026. Whereas the team's walk rate went up by 0.3 percent, the AL's collective walk rate went up by 0.5 percent. Three of the five teams that finished ahead of the Mariners in walks made the playoffs.

More walks could come downstream of more power if the Mariners can get the latter back online in 2027. Yet there's no better way to more walks than through more patience. The Mariners' chase rate went from 28.3 in 2025 to 30.3 in 2026. It needs to come back down again in 2027.

Also, the whole team could stand to make better use of the ABS challenge system. In its debut season, Mariners hitters tied for last in the league with a 42 percent success rate on challenges.

3. The pitching staff needs to strike more batters out

It's hard to yada-yada away hitting home runs as the ideal way to score runs. It's even harder to do so with strikeouts as the ideal way to get outs. Maybe they're not good for pitch counts, but they are ultimately the purest outs. Something can go wrong on a ground ball. Nothing can go wrong on a strikeout.

In any case, Mariners pitchers ranked fourth in the AL in strikeouts in 2025. This year, they dropped to seventh.

This happened even though Mariners pitchers continued to pound the zone, but that turned into more of a curse than a blessing. Hitters essentially fought aggression with aggression. It proved especially effective against first pitches, generally, and first-pitch fastballs, specifically.

Thankfully, this situation is not calling out for major changes to the roster or the coaching staff. It could be resolved with something as simple as a new gameplan that shifts the strategy away from a formula that has gotten a bit stale.

4. Most of all, the Mariners need to play clean defense again

We're talking about errors, folks. Old school. Heck, arguably too old school. We've known for a long time now that judging a defense by how many errors it makes leaves out too much vital information.

And yet, the ugliness is right there for all to see. Last year, the Mariners made the third-fewest errors of any AL team. This year, they made the sixth-most. The decline in strikeouts was a factor there, but the damage is the damage either way. Even at best, more errors means more pitches for the guy on the mound. At worst, it means more runs allowed.

J.P. Crawford led the team with 11 errors this year, so it's a positive that he likely won't be a starter even if the Mariners bring him back as a free agent. Yet this was very much a team-wide problem, to a point where even Perry Hill losing his job felt as necessary as it did harsh.

A healthy Colt Emerson can change Seattle's defense for the better, while Julio and Naylor should be better in the field than they were this year. It's otherwise hard to see much improvement in 2027 unless the Mariners can import an impact glove or two, preferably for third base and/or left field.

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