The 2025 Mariners are a clutch-hitting abomination (but there's hope)

Last year, the consensus was that the Seattle Mariners had a top-tier pitching staff and a total inability to provide them with the run support necessary to win. It was cited as a prime area for improvement in the offseason and, despite the front office's apparent reluctance to agree, Seattle actually got off to a hot start by their standards this season.

Now that we're approaching the halfway mark of the season, and the results seem to confirm that the underlying problems were never fixed.

The Mariners are up to their old trick of not hitting with runners in scoring position

The team's combined OPS of .722 is pretty good and places them 11th in MLB. However, their OPS of .670 with runners in scoring position drops them to 24th and may explain your constant frustration while watching the team. In fact, it's the fourth-lowest OPS with runners in scoring position for any single season in franchise history and the lineup's batting average of .224 is better only than the team's 2011 season. You know, the year the team won 67 games and their best hitter was Mike Carp.

Still, it's not like all hope is lost. Sure, the team still gets a lopsided amount of run production from their 89 home runs (7th in MLB) and more than a quarter of those can be attributed to one man, but marginal improvements seem to be coming.

The return of Dominic Canzone to replace a lackluster Leody Taveras seems to have been the right move, at least for now. J.P. Crawford is having the best offensive year of his career, hovering at a 141 OPS+ for the season so far. Heck, even Donovan Solano is at a .914 OPS over the past month. It's always good to have the offense clicking, but things are starting to mesh at what could be the perfect time.

The Mariners are currently fighting tooth and nail to remain in the postseason race as the trade deadline looms and teams are forced to decide whether which side of the market they'll be on. Despite being below .500 prior to the start of the Cleveland Guardians series, the prevailing sentiment seems to be bullish on Seattle's chances of a playoff run with hardly any discussion of selling prized assets. Teams that will more likely end up waving the white flag have already been discussed as possible trade partners and even teams in the same division could provide the help the team so desperately needs.

If the team wants to keep their postseason hopes alive, they'll need to make more out of the opportunities they're given to create runs. With their pitching still good but not nearly as dominant as it was in 2024, it's long overdue for the bats to step up to the plate.