Struggles by Mariners’ Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Josh Naylor not a concern | Commentary

SEATTLE – Need an out facing the Mariners right now? It’s as easy as 2-3-4.

Seven games into this Seattle season, the lineup’s lions have been mainly lambs.

Catcher Cal Raleigh, the No. 2 hitter in the order, is 4-for-25 with 15 strikeouts and no home runs. Center fielder Julio Rodríguez, who bats third, is 2-for-26 with 10 strikeouts and zero dingers. Josh Naylor, hitting cleanup, is 1-for-27 with five strikeouts and, yes, no long balls. The heart of the order is in cardiac arrest.

It was much of the same Wednesday in the Mariners’ 5-3 loss to the New York Yankees, as Raleigh, Naylor and Rodríguez went a combined 1-for-12. This comes a day after the trio went 2-for-11 in a 5-0 loss to New York.

Should it be concerning? Considering there are 155 games to go, probably not. Is it a box score eye sore? You bet your Dumper it is.

There is little reason to be bearish on the Mariners (3-4) a week into a season in which they’ve hosted two teams (the Guardians and Yankees) that reached the playoffs last year. They are healthy, and they boast potent lineups and A-list rotations.

But the buzz going into what feels like a World Series-or-bust 2026 has been tempered by a lack of production from the team’s best hitters. If you haven’t done the math yet, they’re a combined 7-for-78.

Your thoughts, skipper?

“We faced some really tough pitching, and no question about it, we’ve faced some tough starters with the Yankees and they’ve kept us a little quiet,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “But again, seeing some of the at-bats later in the ballgame today and the way the guys have continued to make their adjustments, you know, I think we’ve got good things to come for sure.”

A few notes.

1) The stat lines from Raleigh and Rodríguez aren’t that dissimilar to what they posted through the first week last season. After seven games in 2025, Raleigh was hitting .125, slugging .250 and had yet to hit a ball out of the park. He ended up with 60 home runs and finished second in the American League MVP voting. Rodríguez – a notoriously slow starter – was hitting .182 through seven games last season while hitting just one homer. He ended up sixth in the MVP voting. Naylor, on the other hand, has had historically strong starts. This is an outlier. But it’s sooooo early in the year.

2) It’s not as if there haven’t been clutch moments. In the Mariners’ 2-1 win over the Yankees on Monday, Raleigh hit a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth. And with his team trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the eighth Wednesday, Raleigh socked a two-run single with two outs. It’s just that – almost on cue – Rodríguez struck out swinging on the following at-bat.

3) Raleigh, Rodríguez and Naylor all played in the World Baseball Classic. Whether this is actually having an effect on their starts can be disputed, but it’s not as if they’re the only participants who have struggled. Last season’s AL MVP, Aaron Judge, is hitting .150. And last season’s NL MVP, Shohei Ohtani? He’s hitting .200 with no homers (although he also pitched six scoreless innings for the Dodgers on Tuesday.)

The truth is that a player’s historical statistics are almost always the best way to gauge how he will perform in a season – not a sample size through seven games. And though Raleigh’s 60 home runs last year were 26 more than he’d hit previously in a season – his track record suggests he’ll still have an impactful year in the batter’s box.

“It’ll be OK,” Raleigh said after his walkoff heroics Monday. “I know a lot of guys across the league are fighting the same thing. Guys are trying to find timing. It’s under a microscope, more so now, than it is in the middle of the season just because it’s the start of the season, everybody’s excited. It’s not a big deal. I don’t think it’s going to last like that.”

No, it’s unlikely to last. MLB teams and players should be evaluated on a month-to-month basis, not week-to-week. The game is too fickle to take anything substantial from a seven-day stretch.

The Mariners’ biggest sticks were reduced to twigs in that opening homestand, but it’s not worth sweating yet. You can hit your forehead if you want, but hitting the panic button would be foolish.