Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Seattle Mariners are struggling in 2026 with both offense and bullpen issues, despite being in a wide-open AL West.
- Four players are identified as potential cuts to improve the team's chances of turning their season around.
- The decision to cut these players comes down to performance issues and the need for better offensive balance and pitching depth.
We'll get the bad news out of the way first: After a season in which they fell just one game short of the World Series, the Seattle Mariners have shown very little of that sort of championship upside so far in 2026. The offense has been stuck in neutral as its biggest names struggle, while a bullpen that had previously been the envy of the league begins to leak oil.
But hey, we've got some good news, too. It's still just the middle of May, after all, and the AL could not be more wide open right now — the AL West in particular, a division in which only one team is currently above .500. Seattle has plenty of time to right the ship, and the mediocrity around them has afforded more margin for error than anticipated. To get where they want to go, though, changes need to be made, starting with some difficult roster decisions.
SS JP Crawford
This one figures to be controversial. Crawford has been a mainstay at short in Seattle for years now, a solid two-way player and one of the game's most likable figures to boot. And he's off to a pretty solid start at the plate so far this year, with an OPS above league average and his usual strong contact metrics.
His defense, however, appears to have fallen off a cliff. Crawford is 31 now, not nearly the athlete he used to be, and it's hard not to notice the decline in his range when moving to either direction for a ground ball — the main reason he's in the second percentile in Statcast's Fielding Run Value right now. He's by no means a sinkhole, but his value proposition gets a lot dicier if he's not providing solid defense at a premium position; his bat, while fine, is nowhere near impactful enough to carry the profile, especially given how much he's beating the ball into the ground right now. At the very least, a position switch might need to be in the offing soon, and realistically he profiles better as a utility man at this point.
RHP Luis Castillo
Like Crawford, Castillo has earned his status as a fan favorite. But unlike Crawford, I'm willing to bet that a good portion of those fans are willing to move on from him in the rotation at this point. The righty's stuff simply isn't the same anymore, as his ugly 6.57 ERA and 4.55 FIP can attest. His four-seamer, in particular, is getting drilled, which doesn't allow any of his offspeed pitches to play in the same way.
Which would be palatable enough if the Mariners didn't have better options in house. But Bryce Miller's looming return, paired with Emerson Hancock's emergence in his absence, means that Castillo should by all rights be the odd man out once Seattle has its six best starters all healthy. Who knows, maybe he can find it in shorter spurts and provide some help to a bullpen that needs it.
INF Leo Rivas
Rivas was thrust into a role for which he was underqualified after Brendan Donovan landed on the IL. But even with Donovan back and Rivas relegated to being the team's fifth infielder, it still feels like Seattle can do better here. This team needs better right-handed bats who can help address a lack of production against lefty pitching, and Rivas' punchless 36 OPS+ isn't the ticket. His versatile defense can't fully make up for that lack of offense, especially not given Seattle's current needs.
OF Rob Refsnyder
The idea behind adding Refsnyder was sensible enough: Between guys like Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone, Seattle had a lot of lefty corner bats, and a righty platoon partner would provide much-needed balance. But while he's excelled in that limited role in the past, Refsnyder hasn't been up to the task so far this year, with a woeful .433 OPS in 57 plate appearances. Neither he nor anyone else the Mariners have auditioned for the role has been able to stick.
It may not seem like a huge problem, but considering Canzone and Raley's platoon splits, finding a part-time player who can mash lefties would really help this offense take off (and perform a bit better against southpaws moving forward, a bugaboo to date). This feels like an easily solvable problem at the trade deadline; Jorge Soler, anyone?
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