Jeff Passan breaks down Mariners’ miserable season

The Seattle Mariners are just 4.5 games back from first place in the AL West, as the division is one of the most wide-open races in MLB. Although the playoffs are well within reach, it’s still been a rather miserable year for Seattle. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke down what’s going on with the franchise and how the team has played so poorly in 2026.

In the latest episode of the “Sources Tell Jeff” podcast, Passan goes over several stats that explain why the franchise has struggled this season. Between being dead last in several categories and being unable to produce runs when players are in scoring position, it’s no wonder the Mariners are spiraling.

“Since the beginning of the season, the Mariners have 462 runs, dead last in baseball. Since June 1st the Mariners have 207 runs, dead last in baseball,” Passan said. “There’s some bad batted ball luck here admittedly. They are last in all of baseball with .272 batting average on balls in play. Since 2012, when the Mariners last brought up the rear in scoring in baseball, the lowest scoring team has ranked 28th or worse in OPS+.

“The Mariners right now are 20th… But they have a WRC+ of 99. They’re almost league average,” Passan continued. “So, why can’t they score? Well, they’re not good on the base paths, but they’re particularly not good in clutch situations. The Mariners, with runners in scoring position this year, are batting .216. You want to talk about ugly.”