Are Mariners Being Dragged Down by 'Loser' Offseason?

The Seattle Mariners led the American League West for a good part of this season and are still in striking distance of the first-place Houston Astros.

The Mariners are also squarely in the Wild Card race despite lost 15 of their last 23 games going into Sunday. Struggles aside, Seattle appears to be in solid playoff position as the season nears the halfway point.

Sure, the M’s wish they had a few more wins under their belt, but the season is hardly lost. As for the last offseason, well, that’s a different matter.

An article from Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller asked how the offseason winners and losers are currently faring? The Mariners were in the “loser” category for their lack of activity before the 2025 campaign.

Miller pointed out the additions of Donovan Solano, Rowdy Tellez and Miles Mastrobuoni as less than inspiring:

We all rather thought/hoped that would spark some offseason aggression for a change, with talk of Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, Christian Walker, Gleyber Torres or Hyeseong Kim being bats they could go get in free agency.

Instead, they opted to run it back with more or less the exact same lineup, save for a Rowdy Tellez/Donovan Solano platoon as the "solution" to what has long been a first base problem in Seattle.

Fast forward to this season and the offense remains an issue, save for superstar catcher Cal Raleigh. Per Miller:

Things looked good early when Jorge Polanco was enjoying an April for the ages, but the Mariners scored just 106 runs in 31 games played from May 7 through June 12, during which time Polanco had a .434 OPS, looking more like the Polanco who was almost unplayable for the Mariners last season.

Julio Rodríguez has his shining moments, as does J.P. Crawford. But take Raleigh's numbers out of the equation and Seattle has a team-wide OPS that ranks around 24th in the majors.

The Mariners aren’t sunk, so there is plenty of time to make a run. The trade deadline coming next month could be the catalyst to add some firepower, much like the M’s tried to last season. They obviously didn’t do it this offseason.