Mariners GM subtly answers a huge question hanging over 2026 roster

It has been a busy past few days in the world of baseball. Two big free agents in Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette were taken off the board, another three-team trade occurred, and the Mariners weren't involved in any of it. Their passivity in the waning weeks of the offseason have left some uncertain about whether the organization has done enough to take a step forward in 2026. That's the biggest question that has to be answered before Spring Training begins but in the meantime, the front office is happy to answer smaller but still important inquiries.

Justin Hollander finally clarifies how he plans to leverage the team's surplus of outfielders

Of the three positions in the outfield, two have clear starters. Center field will be patrolled by Julio Rodríguez as expected and Randy Arozarena will hold down the fort in left field, despite his imperfections. Right field is a different story and although the top spot should belong to Víctor Robles, he has more to prove than one might expect.

In a recent conversation with Seattle Sports 710, Justin Hollander clarified how the team planned on using Robles along with Rob Refsnyder, Luke Raley, and Dominic Canzone.

"Luke and Dom would play a ton against right-handed pitching. Victor and Rob Refsnyder would play a lot against left-handed pitching...those four guys together, in sort of pairs of two and two, I think make a ton of sense on our roster."

Justin Hollander

Statistically, this makes a lot of sense. Raley has always hit much better against right-handed pitching, posting a .786 career OPS compared to a .528 OPS against southpaws. Canzone bats left-handed so it makes sense that he would have better splits against right-handed pitching.

Rob Refsnyder was brought in for the primary purpose of hitting left-handed pitching but Robles actually has pretty even platoon splits for his career. In fact, in 2024, he posted much better numbers against right-handed pitching (.901 OPS) than he did against left-handed pitching (.648 OPS).

Because there can be only one player in right field at a given time, the second member of each pair will probably end up as the designated hitter in the lineup. Raley and Robles are the stronger defenders so while they take the field, their counterparts will be relieved of their defensive duties.

None of this means that the Mariners will be enforcing strict rules on who can play on what day, but at least fans have an idea of what the general plan is. Signing Rob Refsnyder and extending a contract to Luke Raley instead of non-tendering or trading him may have been a surprise, but it seems like the Mariners plan on relying on a "next man up" type of lineup.

It may seem like overkill to use four players to fill one or two positions, but it's actually not a terrible move. They've already committed to another year of having Robles around and the combined cost of these four players is a drop in the bucket compared to what it would've taken to pay for one year of someone like Kyle Tucker's salary. It's an intelligent financial and baseball move and although aiming for success in the aggregate isn't the most exciting form of success, it's been proven to work.