Andrés Muñoz's fatal flaw has his reputation under fire as Mariners’ season sinks

Seattle Mariners fans were treated to the full 2026 Andrés Muñoz experience this past weekend. On Friday, they got burned by Dan Wilson refusing to use his closer for a third day in a row. On Sunday, they got burned by Muñoz spotting Lawrence Butler a middle-middle fastball on his walk-off homer.

At least the fateful fastball to Butler lit up the radar gun at 101 mph, which speaks to the way that the 27-year-old Muñoz's season has been going more and more right as time has gone on. He was only averaging 98.3 mph on the fastball in April. He's been averaging over 100 mph since the calendar turned to July.

With closers, though, all anyone cares about are the results. His aren't pretty. We're talking a 4.75 ERA and eight home runs allowed. Each represents a career-worst, and the same goes for 10 blown saves that are the most of any reliever in MLB.

A Reddit user pointed out that nine of Muñoz's blown saves have come when he's entered a one-run game, as was the case on Sunday. It was also the fifth time that one of his blown saves coincided with a home run. While there is a chart to prove as much, you probably don't need us to specify that all but one of the homers Muñoz has allowed has been in the strike zone.

Are these mistakes? Or are they evidence of a design flaw?

Both can be true, yet the latter can't be counted out as the true culprit. As Ryan Rowland-Smith pointed out to a user on X, Cal Raleigh generally sets up to receive Muñoz's pitches in the middle of the zone, with the idea being that such a clear target makes it easier for him to "let it eat" with his fastball, slider and changeup. When it works, it works. But when you aim down the middle, you can't avoid missing down the middle.

It seems as if the book is out, and that hitters have read it cover-to-cover. At 80.8 percent, Muñoz's in-zone contact percentage is the highest it's been for a full season.

Mariners should be in the market for Andrés Muñoz insurance this winter

If we're going to take some heat off Muñoz, let's grant that the Mariners' bullpen problems go far beyond him. Eduard Bazardo has gone full Brad Lidge since George Springer's homer in last year's ALCS. Because of that and many other issues, it's damning that Muñoz was even needed yesterday after the Mariners blew a four-run lead.

Even so, 10 blown saves is 10 blown saves. Just imagine if those were wins instead. The Mariners wouldn't be 70-80 and in third place in the AL West. They'd be 80-70 and in first place in the AL West.

Even if the Mariners don't need to find a new closer this winter, this weekend gave them another reason to circle late-inning relief help as a key need. The bridge to Muñoz must get stronger, and ideally feature a viable Plan B for the closer's role in case he can't shrug this season off.

To this end, that Muñoz still in the 99th percentile for strikeout rate and the 100th percentile for whiff rate is real cause not to lose hope. Yet if he makes it a priority to work on actually hitting spots next spring, I think we'll all feel better about him looking ahead to 2027.

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