The Mariners' biggest disappointment this season aside from Cal Raleigh

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The Mariners' biggest disappointment this seasonCal Raleigh‘s stunning collapse,  from a 60-homer, MVP-caliber 2025 to a .181/.293/.369 line in 2026, has rightfully dominated the conversation around Seattle’s disappointing campaign. But Raleigh hasn’t been the only star to leave fans frustrated at T-Mobile Park.

As the Mariners limp toward their first losing season since 2019, sitting well below .500 and ranked as MLB’s most disappointing team by multiple outlets, one other name deserves just as much scrutiny: center fielder Julio Rodriguez.

Julio Rodriguez‘s Quiet Regression

Rodriguez entered 2026 as one of the game’s brightest young stars, a former MVP finalist expected to anchor a lineup built for a deep playoff run after Seattle’s ALCS appearance in 2025. Instead, he’s delivered a season that looks fine on the surface but represents a real step back when measured against his own ceiling.

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Through 143 games, Rodriguez is slashing .241/.302/.394 with 21 home runs and a .696 OPS. His wRC+ sits at 106, down significantly from a career mark of 125, meaning he’s been barely above league-average offensively for a player the Mariners need to be elite.

The early-season numbers were even uglier. Seattle stumbled to a 4-9 start, and Rodriguez was a central culprit, managing just seven hits and no extra-base knocks through the first two weeks while whiffing on fastballs at a 32.8% clip, up from 21.6% a year earlier.

He’s cleaned things up since, but the damage to Seattle’s season was already done, and a player who should be producing at an All-Star level has instead been merely serviceable in a lineup that ranks dead last in the majors in runs scored.

Why It Stings More Than the Numbers Show

What makes Rodriguez’s season so deflating isn’t just the stat line, it’s the context. With Raleigh cratering and Josh Naylor also taking a “massive nosedive” from his 2025 form, the Mariners desperately needed Rodríguez to be the steadying force in the middle of the order.

Instead, Seattle got a center fielder who’s been fine, not transformative, in a year that demanded more. Injuries compounded the frustration; Rodríguez spent time on the injured list alongside a long list of teammates, disrupting whatever rhythm he might have found.

Add in a bullpen that’s been the worst in baseball since August 1, with closer Andres Munoz blowing a league-worst 10 saves, and it’s clear Rodriguez’s underwhelming year is just one thread in a larger unraveling. Still, general managers and fans alike expected Rodríguez to be the exception to Seattle’s collapse, not another symptom of it.

Instead, the 2026 season will be remembered as the year the Mariners’ two biggest homegrown stars, Raleigh and Rodriguez, both failed to deliver anything close to their expected impact, sinking a team that was supposed to be knocking on the World Series door.

For a franchise now bracing for its most disappointing season in club history, Rodriguez’s quiet regression sits right alongside Raleigh’s as the story nobody in Seattle wanted to write.

Related: This Mariners stat is almost too embarrassing to believe