The Seattle Mariners closer has had a very up-and-down season, just the same as the team.
On Sunday, the Seattle Mariners were beaten by the Athletics 8-7 in West Sacramento, Calif. The loss was a crippling one as it:
1) Marked the second walk-off loss for the M's in three games vs. the A's
2) Dropped the Mariners to 70-80 on the season, assuring they need to win each of their final 12 games in order to avoid finishing under .500 for the first time since the COVID 2020 season.
3) Took the team's playoff chances down to 4.2 percent, also costing the M's a chance to get within four games of the first place Houston Astros with 12 games to play.
Unfortunately, a blown save is nothing new for Munoz this season. One of the most dependable relievers in baseball over each of the last two campaigns, this year has been a different story. He's gone 5-6 with a 4.25 ERA, and he has a whopping 10 blown saves.
Let's dig a little deeper first.
Some of the raw numbers
On the surface? Munoz's data looks really, really good still.
He has 86 strikeouts in 55.0 innings. He's in the 100th percentile of whiff rate. He's in the 99th percentile of strikeout rate. He's in the 98th percentile of chase rate. His fastball has regularly gotten back over 100 mph, and that's made his slider better.
His 10 percent walk rate is too high, but it's actually a full percentage point better than his All-Star 2025 season (11.0) and 1.2 percent better than his All-Star 2024 season (11.2).
His FIP of 3.18 suggests he's gotten unlucky as well, as his ERA is more than a full run higher than that number.
The big difference? Munoz is allowing a .304 average on balls in play, which is higher than his career norm of .276. He's also allowed eight home runs, which is the same as each of the last two years combined. He had 124 appearances in 2024-25, allowing eight blasts.
His eight this year have come in 58 appearances.
Is that something that can easily be fixed in the offseason? Does it just require better luck? Only time will tell.
About those 10 blown saves...
Get ready to go down a painful memory lane, M's fans. I had to look them up, so you have to re-live them with me.
1) April 22: Munoz surrendered a ninth-inning solo home run to Nick Kurtz of the Athletics, tying it at 4-4. The Mariners won in the bottom of the ninth by a score of 5-4.
2) May 2: Emerson Hancock struck out 14 over seven innings against the Kansas City Royals, only to see Munoz allow a game-tying single to Jac Caglianone. The Mariners lost in 10 innings by a score of 3-2.
3) May 19: Most remembered for being the piggyback game in which Luis Castillo got to pitch into the ninth inning, Munoz gave up two hits against the Chicago White Sox. Seattle led 1-0 in the ninth inning, only for Chase Meidroth to tie the game on a single and Andrew Benintendi to give the White Sox the lead on an infield hit.
4) May 29: The rough first half continued for Munoz as he allowed a game-tying fielders choice against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth inning. The Mariners won it 7-6 in 10 innings.
5) June 7: Munoz's third blown save in a two-week period was arguably his most devastating of the season. The Mariners led 4-1 in the seventh inning before giving up two runs to make it 4-3. In the ninth, Munoz walked two and allowed a walk-off single to Kevin McGonigle. He threw only eight strikes in 19 pitches.
6) Munoz converted 11 straight saves until his next blown one, which came on Aug. 2 against the Minnesota Twins. He allowed a leadoff homer to Luke Keaschall in the ninth inning, but the Mariners eventually won 7-6 in the game before the trade deadline.
7) Another crusher came on Aug. 14 when the Mariners rallied from 5-2 down to tie the Astros at 5-5 in the eighth inning. They took a 7-5 lead in the top of the 10th, only for Munoz to allow five runs with two outs, including a walk-off three-run homer by Christian Walker.
8) The Mariners beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5 on Aug. 21, but not before Munoz turned a 5-4 lead into a 5-5 tie courtesy of an Alex Bregman homer in the ninth.
9) Oh, yes, another crusher. On Aug. 31, the Mariners blew an 8-5 lead against the Boston Red Sox. In the eighth inning, the Sox got two runs off Eduard Bazardo, and then in the ninth, Munoz surrendered a leadoff triple that Julio Rodriguez misplayed poorly, and then a sac fly tied the game at 8-8. The Mariners eventually lost in 10.
10) And then there was the masterpiece on Sunday, in which Butler hit a walk-off homer to right field on a fastball at 101.1 mph.
The conclusion
I really do think Munoz has pitched better than his numbers will indicate in the second half of the season. He hasn't gotten a lot of help from his defense (as with the above Rodriguez play), he has had some bad luck (as evidenced by Jose Altuve's hit before the Walker homer in the Houston game), but the home run ball has been a real problem, and it's got to be corrected moving forward.
That's really all you can say.
Up next
The Mariners will play the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night at 6:38 p.m. PT. Kade Anderson will pitch against Reid Detmers.
