Mariners News: Andrés Muñoz to IL, Julio Rodríguez speaks, Rick Rizzs honored

With two games left on their schedule, there's only so much string for the Seattle Mariners to play out in their lost 2026 season. So, perhaps it's for the best that Andrés Muñoz will be spared from any further pain, literally and figuratively.

The flame-throwing closer's season seemed over when he left last Sunday's game against the Colorado Rockies, and the Mariners made it official on Friday. Muñoz was placed on the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his right knee.

It's a period at the end of the worst season Muñoz has had since he established himself as a key part of the Mariners' bullpen in 2022. He had a 1.73 ERA, 2.5 rWAR and an 84 percent conversion rate on saves in 2025. This year, those numbers regressed to 4.24, 0.1 and 74. Though dominant at times, he could never sustain it for very long.

The damage of Muñoz's bad season is very real, as the team would still be alive in the AL West race if he hadn't blown 10 saves. Looking ahead to 2027, though, cause for concern is minimal. Imaging on his knee revealed “nothing serious, nothing structurally concerning,” in the words of Justin Hollander. And as bad as Muñoz's results were this year, his underlying metrics hint at a lot of bad luck.

In a corresponding move, the Mariners called up Troy Taylor from Triple-A Tacoma to take Muñoz's place in the bullpen.

Julio Rodríguez becomes the latest Mariner to take accountability for 2026

It wasn't long after the Mariners were eliminated from postseason eligibility on Thursday that laments began rolling out of the clubhouse. Cal Raleigh, for example, spoke of a "collective failure" in remarks that somehow felt both refreshing and empty at the same time.

On Friday, Julio Rodríguez took his turn.

“Results-wise, I could have done more,” he said, as per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. “I could have impacted the team a little bit more. I know we cannot control results. That this is a game of process and all that, but I believe in my talent. I believe in the way that I play the game, and I just think I have more in the tank. That’s something that I’m gonna try to bring more next year.”

As with Raleigh, the sentiment is appreciated. Even if Julio didn't regress as drastically as Raleigh from 2025 to 2026, the 25-year-old is still going to come out of this season with career lows pretty much across the board.

Julio specifically spoke of how he began to get late on pitches, as well as how he got too prone to expanding the strike zone. No lies detected there, and the question for 2027 will be if he can make the leap to become a more complete hitter. He has exceptional bat speed and he doesn't strike out as much as he used to, but it's past time for him to lock in and make pitchers work harder to get him out.

The Rick Rizzs tributes just keep coming ahead of his final Mariners sign-off

The Mariners arguably haven't been worth watching at any point this season, but that isn't the same as not being worth listening to. How else was anyone supposed to enjoy Rick Rizzs' 41st and final season as the radio voice of the team?

He deserved better than to go out with a losing season, but the honors are rolling in all the same. Cal Raleigh's custom chest protector is an amazing touch, and then there's the tribute video that the team revealed on Friday:

Yeah, that's a tear-jerker. And while it is just a six-minute clip, Rizzs should know that the tributes he heard from those fans amount to a drop in an ocean-sized bucket. Many, many Mariners fans have come and gone during his decades at the mic, and his voice means something to all of them.

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