Shocking statistic won't make Mariners fans feel any better about T-Mobile Park

Never mind status quo - it seems as if things are as tough as ever when it comes to the Seattle Mariners' bats producing at home.
Philadelphia Phillies v Seattle Mariners
Philadelphia Phillies v Seattle Mariners | Ben VanHouten/Seattle Mariners/GettyImages

They say home is where the heart is. But in the case of the Mariners, a 20-19 record at T-Mobile Park doesn't exactly allude to home cooking being the best recipe for success in Seattle. This represents just the 21st-best winning percentage in the majors this year for a team playing in its own ballpark, but what's at the heart of the issue to win consistently in the Pacific Northwest?

Well, back in January MLB.com's Mike Petriello wrote an in-depth article about the challenges of hitting at the offense-sapping and most extreme ballpark in the majors that is T-Mobile Park. Whether it was the temperature, the marine layer, the stadium actually creating strikeouts, the batter's eye, or whatever, Petriello did a tremendous job of anaylzing the factors which impact the Mariners' attempts to be consistently productive with their bats in Seattle.

Sodo Mojo's Curtis Christian followed this up by writing about how the Mariners should be aiming to make playing at T-Mobile Park an advantage as opposed to a weakness. However, despite their familiarity with the setting compared to visiting teams the lineup continues to struggle in Seattle, as highlighted by this damning statistic:

The Mariners lineup isn't great overall, but still

It seems barely believable that a lineup containing the likes of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena and, heck, we'll even include Jorge Polanco is in such a position. And yet here we are — the 2025 edition of the Mariners is currently projected to have the highest away-home disparity in OPS at T-Mobile Park since 2000. Since that original post, it has actually grown even further to 122 points.

Now yes, as the table above shows the home OPS for 2025 isn't actually the lowest, but it still isn't exactly great either at eighth-worst out of the 26 seasons in question. In any event, it's not helped by this year's road OPS of .793, which in contrast is third-best and shows how productive the Mariners have been offensively on the road in comparison.

As per FanGraphs, the Mariners' offensive success on the road compared to in Seattle is also highlighted by their wRC+. Ahead of Monday's slate of games, the M's 125 wRC+ away from home is the best in the majors, while their 102 wRC+ at T-Mobile Park is ranked just 17th.

No excuses - the Mariners needs more at T-Mobile Park

Despite the more consistent offensive success on the road so far in 2025, unfortunately for the Mariners this hasn't translated into substantially more wins as evidenced by a record at 19-18. At the same time, in a classic example of perception being reality, this near-.500 record actually ranks as the tied-sixth best road winning percentage in the majors.

We recently wrote about the Mariners' improved injury situation giving them at least one clear advantage over the Houston Astros in the chase for the AL West title, and to a lesser extent you can conceivably include having the best road winning record in the division. However, these two factors can only help to a certain extent, if the M's don't find a way to start producing better with their bats at T-Mobile Park.

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