5 Mariners players who need to get it together in 2026 before it's too late

Strip away everything else, and the good news for the Seattle Mariners at the midpoint of their 2026 season is that they're in first place. And while they have three teams within 3.0 games of them in the AL West, none resembles a particularly potent threat.

However, not a single person will say that the 2026 Mariners are living up to the hype. They were supposed be a runaway favorite in the AL West, not barely hanging on at 40-39. They were also supposed to be a leading World Series contender, not one whose championship odds are at best stuck in neutral.

Injuries haven't helped, specifically with regard to the everyday lineup and the bullpen. There has also been a steady drumbeat of anxiety, generally captured in 24 one-run games in which the Mariners are 11-13.

The question all this leads to is what must happen for things to get better for the Mariners. And that inevitably filters down to a handful of players who haven't been pulling their weight.

These are the Mariners who need to quit slacking off if the team is going to run away with the AL West

Even though they're barely over .500, the Mariners do have their fair share of bright spots in guys like Randy Arozarena, Dominic Canzone and most members of an overloaded rotation. It's otherwise hard to ask for more from injured guys, while others (most notably Julio Rodríguez) haven't been bad, necessarily.

As such, the following list is meant to hammer the five guys whose first-half performances are hard to square with their reputations.

Cal Raleigh, C

Through the Mariners' first 79 game of 2025, Raleigh had a 1.039 OPS and the first 32 of his eventual 60 home runs. He now has a .560 OPS and seven homers, and he has yet to live up to the hope of a post-IL explosion after a month-long recovery from a strained oblique. Albeit with six walks and a clutch game-winning knock last Tuesday, he's 3-for-18 in six games.

So yeah, we're firmly in "any day now" territory with Raleigh. It's a small miracle that his injury and his poor form haven't tanked the Mariners' season, but nobody wants to push this stress test any further. He needs to hit, plain and simple.

Josh Naylor, 1B

Maybe it's because his awkward toss to Logan Gilbert is still fresh, but we really need to talk about Naylor's defense. It's been wonky all season, and it shows in how he's slipped from the 80th to the 25th percentile in Outs Above Average relative to 2025.

That's not ideal, and then there's the fact that Naylor is only batting .250/.312/.366 with a below-average 94 OPS+. He has been better (.778 OPS, 8 HR) since a two-homer game on April 13, but the Naylor who propelled the Mariners to the 2025 playoffs and then signed a $92.5 million contract is still only showing up in spurts. At this point, the frustration is getting harder to shrug off.

Andrés Muñoz, RHP

To his credit, Muñoz has been better lately in converting three straight save opportunities. Yet even in these, a pair of hits and walks apiece have resulted in traffic on the basepaths, thus continuing the general theme of his season. He has a 1.427 WHIP to go with his 5.27 ERA.

Muñoz has a whiff rate in the 100th percentile, so it's not like he's lost his ability to miss bats. He's more so been allergic to the strike zone, which should be fixable to a certain extent. Or so the Mariners must hope, as Matt Brash's lat injury nixed the in-house pivot they could have made with the closer role. If Muñoz can't figure it out, the front office might have to expend prospect capital on a trade.

George Kirby, RHP

If you look at his Pitching+ metric at FanGraphs, Kirby is throwing the ball as well in 2026 as he ever has. And he still looks the part. It's a six-pitch mix led by a 97 mph fastball, and he pounds the strike zone.

Yet when a guy starts his career with a 7.6 K/BB ratio through his first three seasons, even a 4.3 K/BB ratio over his next two is going to feel disappointing. That speaks to how Kirby has been just a little off since returning from an early-season shoulder injury last May. And now he's in a slump, as even better outings his last two times out have only lowered his ERA since May 17 to 6.27.

Rob Refsnyder, OF/DH

Might as well end with the obvious one. After a 1-for-10 showing in this past weekend's set against the Boston Red Sox, Refsnyder is 14-for-101 with 31 strikeouts through 47 games this season. In no universe is that acceptable production, and least of all for a hitter whose only job is to hit lefties.

Because he alluded to a bothersome right knee issue back in May, it's possible that Refsnyder is playing through more pain than he's letting on. It's also possible that, at 35 years old, he's just plain washed. Either way, the Mariners need to be questioning what to do with him right now. Once Arozarena and/or Brendan Donovan is back, his spot on the roster officially needs to be in jeopardy.

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