A little less power? A little more contact? Perhaps.
In 2025, the Seattle Mariners rode their power all the way to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
The M's finished third in baseball in home runs (238), but they were 20th in average (.244) and 12th in on-base percentage (.320).
But after letting Eugenio Suarez (49 homers) go in free agency and after seeing Jorge Polanco (26 homers) leave in free agency, will the M's play a different style of offense in 2026?
Let's examine:
The M's have always wanted to be varied
Make no mistake, the Mariners have always wanted a varied offensive approach. By the time the M's got to October, they were a power-driven lineup, but they didn't build a homer-happy lineup by true desire, it just kind of happened. Cal Raleigh, Suarez and Randy Arozarena are impact-driven players, but they were supposed to be balanced out by contact driven-players, while also having the ability to get streaky hot themselves. J.P. Crawford and Cole Young went into massive second-half slumps, while Victor Robles was hurt most of the season.
Suarez and Arozarena were also ice cold in the season's final two months, meaning that the M's, sans Polanco, Julio Rodriguez and Josh Naylor, were generally left with a lot of power-first and little-contact players by the end of the regular season and the playoff run.
The Mariners were third in baseball (161) in stolen bases in 2025. They want to put the game in motion and create havoc on the bases. They didn't have that ability as much at the end of the season because of how the lineup was performing, but they'll certainly try to do it again in 2026 - especially with more contact-driven players like Naylor and Brendan Donovan in the lineup.
Donovan only struck out 13 percent of the time in 2025, while Naylor only fanned 13.7 percent of the time.
The experts weigh in
We asked Buster Olney of ESPN on the latest 'Refuse to Lose' podcast if the M's were going to play a little different style this season, and here's what he said:
"They absolutely will because that's now more the makeup of their lineup. And it's interesting because after the success of the Toronto Blue Jays I think the sport has been trending in that direction. You saw the other day the Giants making the the move to get Luis Arraez into the lineup after hiring away a Toronto Blue Jays coach.
It's a copycat league and I think that a lot of teams recognize where the big swing-and- miss might be good during the regular season, but if you actually want to make a dent in October, and that's where the Mariners are now. They've been to October. The question is whether or not they can have success in that month. And having guys who put the ball in play, who stress opposing pitchers, who get on base, that's the recipe that we've seen."
Also need to know
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