Mariners are doing everything they can to ruin ESPN's 'Watchability Index'

Last year the Mariners were box office among baseball fans as a must-watch team, at a level arguably not experienced in Seattle since they were chasing the all-time wins record in 2001. Individually, Cal Raleigh had people on the edge of their seats with his quest for 60 home runs, while the charismatic Julio Rodríguez dazzled on a regular basis. This took people back to a time when other M's stars dominated the headlines, including the likes Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson and Alex Rodríguez.

Throw in the Mariners being earmarked as one of the favorites to win the World Series in 2026, and it makes sense that they would rank high in ESPN's third annual MLB Watchability Index. Based on several categories including star power and young talent, David Schoenfield placed them sixth, but the only problem is they've so far done little to justify this, with an underwhelming 4-8 start to the season.

The pitching's been tremendous -- especially the rotation -- but the other areas of the team? Not so much. The offense, defense and baserunning have combined to produce (or not, as the case may be) far too many "Yikes!" moments for so early in the season, with the offense in particular standing out for its ineffectiveness.

The Mariners "Big 3" has mostly been AWOL so far in 2026

Raleigh is off to a tough start and didn't hit his first home run of the season until Monday night, with the context that his longest such drought last year was eight games. Rodríguez is in his now traditional (and frustrating) annual slow-start to the campaign, while Josh Naylor is hitting like someone who gave away his favorite bat to best friend Tucker, to use as a chew toy.

As a trio they're hitting an atrocious and barely comprehensible 19-for-139, for a .137 batting average. Sure Brendan Donovan looks good, Cole Young has developed into an excellent hitter and Randy Arozarena gets on base every night, but weighed down by the collect efforts of the so-called "Big 3", the Mariners sit rock bottom in the majors with a .191 batting average.

The result of all this has been some pretty damning reviews by media members who cover the Mariners on a regular basis, with it no surprise that Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times is at the top of the list. Never one to hold back with his true thoughts, Divish was at his best when delivering the post-mortem for Sunday's series finale in Anaheim, using words such as "sloppy", "careless" and "unnecessary" to describe the extra innings 8-7 loss to the Angels.

Once again, we will stress that it's still way too early in the season to be declaring the sky is falling and that it's all over for the Mariners, with them often taking Rodríguez's lead in starting slowly. This includes also beginning 4-8 last year and then getting within eight outs of a first World Series berth.

In the long run the Mariners will probably turn it all around and start displaying their star power on a regular basis. In the meantime however, box office is out the window, with them more likely to go straight to video, DVD, or whatever the heck the modern day equivalent is.