Mariners' lifeless offense resembles the bad old days in 1 alarming way

It might still be April, but how much longer can you continue to reassure yourself it's early, when we're now effectively one-sixth of the way through the 2026 season? As much as we're nowhere near close to giving up on this Mariners team, it's at least time to have an uncomfortable conversation about their struggling offense, with one aspect in particular standing out.

While appreciating a .219 batting average which ranks 27th in the majors looks ugly, we can live with this considering the M's are tied-last in this area over the past five seasons combined, but also one of only four clubs to win 85-plus games each year over the same period.

No, what we're bothered about is the lack of slugging.

At .355 following Tuesday night's frustrating 5-2 home loss to the Athletics, the Mariners rank 26th in the majors in slugging percentage. However, what's really disheartening is that this is also the sixth-lowest slugging percentage in the 50-year history of this franchise through the first 25 games in a season. (Heck, they were actually better in their inaugural season, at .364.)

Power surge? More like power outage!

It's not uncommon for the Mariners to struggle in this area through April, ranking 23rd in the majors with a .393 slugging percentage since 2000. Yet even without Jorge Polanco, hitting for power was supposed to be a strength for a team which finished third in baseball last season with 238 home runs.

Cal Raleigh is understandably a focal point for these struggles given he's last season's AL MVP runner-up, and certainly a .333 slugging percentage which is well below his career average of .477 simply isn't good enough. It's not just on him though, with the likes of Julio Rodríguez (.301), Josh Naylor (.261) and Randy Arozarena (.400) not hitting for enough power either.

Even allowing for the aforementioned point about the Mariners often struggling with their slugging percentage through April, we're still slightly unnerved just based on recent history. Consider the following table and compare this season to 2024 in particular:

Even though it's true that statistics can often be manipulated to support any argument, it's tough not to at least draw parallels with 2024, when they had their lowest win total and finished one game out of a playoff spot. This was despite having a rotation which ranked first in a whole host of categories, but just couldn't get things going offensively.

Not time for Mariners fans to activate the sirens yet, but it's getting closer ...

That the slugging percentage and by extension the average runs scored this season are both worse than in 2024, must surely have some alarm bells ringing around the Pacific Northwest. Now throw in that the team ERA is actually even lower so far this season compared to a couple of years ago, and there might be a temptation to also activate the sirens.

We truly don't want to come across as trying to alarm people, despite the fact we literally just made reference to alarms (along with sirens). However, at some point the M's traditionally starting the season slow offensively isn't going to hold water anymore, especially when you have a slugging percentage which compares unfavorably for the franchise in a historical context.

The Mariners' 10-15 start is their poorest through 25 games since 2020 and also the second-worst since the Jerry Dipoto era began in 2016. This is still the same roster which entered this season as favorites to win the AL, but it's not going to mean much if the likes of Raleigh and Rodríguez don't start showing an uptick in their slugging percentage sooner than later.

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