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Seattle Mariners

Analysis: Three reasons why the Mariners offense will improve in 2025

Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez (44) celebrates his solo home run with the team’s golden trident during a 2024 game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington. (Tribune News Service)
By Adam Jude Seattle Times

1. Strikeouts.

Between 2023-24, Mariners hitters struck out in 26.3% of their plate appearances, with 3,228 strikeouts in total, the most by one team over a two-year period in MLB history. Further, the Mariners had MLB’s worst batting average (.140) in two-strike counts through the first 128 games of the 2024 season.

Those numbers began to improve after Dan Wilson took over as manager in late August and brought in Edgar Martinez as the hitting coach. Mariners hitters dropped their strikeout rate to 23.7% – closer to the league average rate of 22.6% overall last season – and hit .162 with two strikes. (AL teams had a .170 batting average in two-strike counts overall in 2024.)

The refined approach under Wilson, Martinez and new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer has carried over into this spring, and the notion of wanting to “battle with two strikes” has been, well, it’s been a battle cry from Wilson. The Mariners, by all accounts, are serious in their commitment to cutting down their strikeouts, and fewer strikeouts should, in theory, lead to more run-scoring opportunities in 2025.

2. Bounce-back candidates.

The Mariners had too many good hitters have too many unproductive stretches last season, and they’re simply too good to all go through that again. The likes of Julio Rodriguez, J.P. Crawford, Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger and Jorge Polanco have proven track records, and it’s reasonable to expect most of them to be better than what their numbers suggested in 2024. Rodriguez and Crawford, in particular, have shown encouraging signs this spring – and Rodriguez looks primed for his best season at age 24.

3. Speed.

In 34 games, the Mariners stole 42 bases (in 47 attempts) under Wilson late last season, and Wilson has encouraged his team to continue to be aggressive on the basepaths coming into this season. Beyond just stolen-base attempts, Wilson would like to see more first-to-third sprints from baserunners, ideally to get runners to third with less than two outs as a way to manufacture more runs. “It’s like a symphony in a way,” Wilson said. “You’ve got all these movements going on, and the base running is a big part of that.”