Cal Raleigh’s Season-Long Slump Is Far From the Mariners’ Only Problem

After marching to their longest postseason stay in franchise history in 2025, reaching Game 7 of the ALCS before falling one game short of the World Series, the Mariners have been one of MLB’s most disappointing teams this year. Forget the World Series; Seattle is dangerously close to falling out of the playoff race altogether.

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With a tough schedule looming throughout the rest of August, Seattle entered Tuesday with a 56–63 record, 4 1/2 games out of the AL West lead and four games back from the AL’s final wild-card spot.

One of the main components of the Mariners’ collapse has been the downfall of Cal Raleigh. Last year’s AL MVP runner-up, Raleigh enjoyed a historic campaign that saw him become the first catcher ever to hit 60 home runs in a single season. He owned a .948 OPS, logged 125 RBIs and had a career-high 161 wRC+, which was fourth-best in MLB.

To say he’s failed to replicate that production in 2026 would be a vast understatement. His OPS has plunged more than 300 points, currently sitting at a dismal .571. He’s hit just 12 home runs in 85 games and has seen his strikeout rate rise to an unsightly 32%, seventh-highest among all players with at least 350 plate appearances. Raleigh accumulated 7.2 bWAR in ’25, second-most among MLB position players, but that figure has cratered to -0.3 this season. As SI’s Tom Verducci broke down, Raleigh has been unable to time up fastballs, and pitchers are using that to their advantage when he steps into the batter’s box.

Essentially, the Mariners lost an MVP-caliber talent and replaced him with someone below replacement level in what has been one of the most glaring statistical drop-offs ever. Of the 54 seasons in which a player hit 50 home runs, none fell the next year to an OPS lower than the .704 OPS of Chris Davis in 2014, according to Verducci. Not until Raleigh, anyway.

But is Raleigh’s season-long slump the Mariners’ only problem? Comparing last year’s roster to this year’s, Raleigh isn’t the only player who’s struggled to get things going at the plate for Seattle.

First baseman Josh Naylor, who was outstanding after being acquired at the trade deadline last season, has been underwhelming in 2026. In 54 games last year, Naylor hit nine home runs, logged 33 RBIs and had a .831 OPS for the Mariners. This season, he’s appeared in 111 games and has just 10 homers and 42 RBIs, and owns a .700 OPS. Statcast rated Naylor in the 85th percentile for batted run value in ’25, but he’s in just the 12th percentile this season.

Center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who hit 32 homers with 95 RBIs last season, has seen his OPS drop from .798 to .746––not a massive slide but still notable. His production has plummeted further still in clutch situations. Rodriguez’s OPS is .638 with runners in scoring position. Of his 20 hits in those situations, only three of them have gone for extra bases.

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J.P. Crawford, who recorded 3.6 bWAR while batting .265 with a .722 OPS in 157 games last year, is batting .212 with a .675 OPS and 0.7 bWAR in 87 games this season. He’s been on the injured list for a couple of weeks with a wrist injury but is expected to return soon, and when he does, Seattle could use the more productive version of him. Rookie shortstop Cole Emerson, who pushed Crawford to third base, has been even worse at the dish, slashing .196/.253/.346 in 66 games. The move has improved the defense at both positions while lessening Seattle’s offensive output.

With critical components of Seattle’s lineup failing to live up to the standards they set last season, it’s not a huge surprise to see that the Mariners have produced the fewest runs in all of MLB (462), have the league’s third-lowest OPS (.683) and are tied for the lowest batting average (.229). They’ve also been among the worst hitting teams with runners in scoring position. A team batting .229 doesn’t get all too many opportunities to produce with runners on second or third base. The Mariners have the fewest plate appearances with RISP in all of MLB (1,017), and also have the worst batting average (.216), fewest runs scored (318) and fewest extra-base hits (64) in such instances. Seattle wasn’t great in those scenarios last season, but their OPS was 19th in MLB and they ranked sixth in MLB with 54 home runs. This year, they’ve been nothing short of dreadful in that regard, regularly missing out their opportunities to get runners home after doing the work to get into scoring position.

The Mariners’ pitching has been a top-10 unit despite a less productive season from the likes of Bryan Woo and Luis Castillo, the latter of whom was offloaded to the White Sox at the trade deadline. The team’s 3.78 ERA ranks ninth in MLB after ranking 13th (3.87) last year, and the starting rotation has largely been the organization’s saving grace, keeping them competitive even when their offense can’t muster anything.

Ultimately, the offense and its inability to generate runs on a consistent basis has been Seattle’s biggest weakness. In a season where the AL West was the Mariners’ to lose, they dropped the ball and now find themselves chasing the Astros and Rangers, neither of whom have been particularly impressive.

With series against the Yankees, Astros, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, Blue Jays and Red Sox awaiting, Seattle will need its offense to find a spark if they’re to stay afloat against those clubs. Whether that requires a resurgence from Raleigh, or just other underperforming stars to put things together, something needs to change if Seattle is going to qualify for the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2001.

This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cal Raleigh’s Season-Long Slump Is Far From the Mariners’ Only Problem.

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This story was originally published August 12, 2026 at 4:00 AM.