MINNEAPOLIS -- Some observations from inside the Mariners’ clubhouse after their series win in Minnesota:
ASSESSING APRIL
Bit of a roller coaster that first month of the season was, yeah? Such is life when you’re a club with expectations as high as any in the sport.
As the Mariners flip the calendar, they do so at .500 (16-16) and tied for the American League’s fifth-best record. They’d fallen as far as five games under on April 17 after a season-worst four-game losing streak. But since then, they’ve won eight of 11.
More telling is that their offensive numbers are climbing towards where most envisioned they’d be.
Seattle ranks 20th in runs per game (4.19), 18th in OPS (.705), 13th in homers (34), seventh in wRC+ (106, where league average is 100) and tied-seventh in FanGraphs’ WAR (4.0).
It’s no coincidence that this stretch has come as a few strugglers have turned things around. And the most dramatic has been Josh Naylor, who also summed things up best.
“Some days are going to be really, really good,” Naylor said. “Some days are going to be really, really bad. That's just the name of the game. But if you can control and have a professional at-bat every time, the results will come eventually.”
The pitching has taken a few hits as the offense has caught up; Luis Castillo’s struggles have been glaring and Matt Brash’s right side injury is suboptimal.
But ebbs and flows in April aren’t necessarily the worst outcome. After all, this is the time of year where front offices assess where things stand before progressing to trade season.
A fair assessment of the Mariners after one month would be good but not great.
YOUNG’S SPOT IN THE LINEUP
No one -- absolutely no one -- could’ve seen Cole Young being the Mariners’ top run producer through the season’s first month. Hogwash to anyone who says otherwise.
With his game-tying then game-winning moments on Wednesday, Young passed Cal Raleigh for the team lead in RBIs (19). Sure, Raleigh (18) scuffled in the early weeks, but consider this: Young is in the neighborhood of Mike Trout (21), Aaron Judge (20) and Bryce Harper (19).
What’s wild, too, is that Young is primarily doing so out of the No. 8 spot -- and don’t expect him to move out of there any time soon.
The 22-year-old is thriving because he’s in an environment that’s allowing him to. Coming out of Spring Training, pressure on him was low, expectations modest and the runway to opportunity wide open.
Batting lower in the order is part of that calculus.
“We talk about a lot about flipping the lineup over to get to the top again,” manager Dan Wilson said, “and you've got guys down there like Cole, who's not only able to draw a walk if you need him to, but he's going to hit the ball hard somewhere when you need him to. And he's going to pick up his share of big RBIs.”
Fun sidebar: Wilson said this before Young’s epic game Wednesday, the morning of.
TRIPLE-DOUBLE FOR JULIO
When analyzing the statistical milestones for Julio Rodríguez’s power-speed combination, it’s typically in the homers and stolen bases. The 30-30 seasons, mostly.
But watching him spray three doubles on Tuesday offered a reminder of how much this type of production can elevate his game.
“That's when I feel like my best, when I'm able to hit the ball to all fields and put together really good at-bats like that,” Rodríguez said.
A three-double game might not seem like a milestone. But it was for Rodríguez. The first of his career.
He now has six this season, and Tuesday’s game was the Mariners’ 31st of the season. Here’s how long it took for him to reach six doubles in previous years: 50th team game in 2025, 67th in 2024, 26th in 2023 and 41st in 2022.
Part of this ties into the larger narrative of him being a slow starter.
But consider this: Rodríguez debuted on the same day as Bobby Witt Jr. in 2022, yet Witt’s 160 career doubles far outpace Rodríguez’s 116. It’s probably why Witt’s 432 runs scored are well above Rodríguez’s 382, despite the Mariners consistently being better than the Royals.
Yes, Witt is faster (30.4 ft/sec sprint speed) -- but not by a mile (Rodríguez is at 29.4 ft/sec).
If Rodríguez can find himself on second base more regularly, with his wheels, he’s going to score on virtually any base hit that follows. Just take Tuesday, as he came around to home on two of his three doubles, and on the one he didn’t, he drove in two runs.
NAYLOR’S EVEN KEEL
He’s only 28 years old but looks, plays -- and more so, behaves -- like a veteran. A rugged one. The wiley guy who’s seen more than most. That includes the designation as the least valuable hitter in the sport over the first two and a half weeks.
No, seriously. Naylor’s -0.8 WAR ranked 188th of 188 qualified hitters after 16 games.
Yet, you wouldn’t have known it by the way he carried himself.
It’s the early work at 1 p.m. PT before 6:40 p.m. home games. It’s the intentionality of his pregame routine, where the oft-verbose postgame Naylor is nonexistent, making him one of the most difficult players to track down -- because he’s always doing something. It’s the card games after wins and the late night video games with Young. It’s the constant NFSW wisecracks.
This is Naylor, every day -- during that brutal stretch, and in the 14 games since, over which he has four homers and a .976 OPS.
“Take your little wins and move on,” Naylor said, “and then understand your losses and try to go back to the drawing board and see what you could change.”
These vibes aren’t at the audible volume of Eugenio Suárez. But the essence of Naylor’s demeanor is very similar: Be the same guy every day.