The 2025 Mariners home run curse is real, and it's even effecting former players

Anyone who has followed the Seattle Mariners for any length of time knows the anxiety-inducing history of this team. Even allowing for the current franchise-best streak of five consecutive winning seasons, there are plenty of fans who believe the team is cursed after five decades of mostly disappointment and heartbreak.

As much as sports fans are not exactly renowned for being the most rational and level-headed group of people, you can appreciate why the Mariners fanbase would feel like they do about the only active franchise to never even play in the World Series. And now, it seems like any perceived curse surrounding the team is even lingering with players who are no longer in Seattle.

Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suárez both wishing they could turn back time

Following on from a disappointing first year with the Mariners, Jorge Polanco bounced back impressively last season, highlighted by his 26 home runs being the second-most of his career. He proved to be an important part of the lineup and earned his reward with a two-year, $40 million deal with the Mets.

Unfortunately for the Mets, Polanco has been dire so far through 10 games, including not hitting a single home run. Even with it turning out that he's dealing with an Achilles tendon issue, this isn't the type of return which was anticipated in New York, with him looking more like the injury-prone player who had a career-worst season with the M's in 2024.

Another former Mariners player struggling so far this year is Eugenio Suárez, although he has managed two home runs in 13 games. Still, one season on from a career-high 49 homers he's currently projected to hit half this at 25, and that's only if he plays all 162 games. (Although to be fair, he did achieve this feat in 2023 with the M's.)

Of course, such is the life of being a Mariners fan that they aren't even allowed to focus on being thankful for not re-signing either Polanco or Suárez, with their own team struggling as a whole to produce home runs so far in 2026. They have 11 through 13 games to project to 137 in a full season, which is well off the pace for last year, when they finished third in the majors with 238 homers.

Mariners "Big 3" playing more like the diminutive trio

Cal Raleigh is unsurprisingly getting the lion's share of the attention on an individual level with just one home run in 13 games, which would be only 12 over a full season. We should point out he only had two homers through his first 13 games last year before going on to make history with 60, but aside from the reality he's unlikely to do that again, his current productivity is a concern in general.

At least Raleigh has a home run, unlike Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor with big fat zeroes, with Rodríguez in particular looking nothing like the player who equaled his career-high of 32 last season. All in all it's proving to be a rough time for a host of usually productive players, whether they're still wearing a Mariners uniform or not.

In fact, it 's probably best summarized by the members of last year's Mariners team having a 3.8 home run rate (HR/PA), compared to just 1.7 by the same players so far in 2026. It's almost certainly a fluke and we'd like to think it's not going to continue indefinitely, but it's still a weird situation which is worth keeping an eye on.