A slow start to the season for the Seattle Mariners was made worse this week with the loss of two players — outfielder Victor Robles and utilityman Ryan Bliss — to serious injuries on freak plays.
Robles, who finished 2024 with the Mariners and posted a career-high .307 average and an .814 OPS across 91 games (19 with the Washington Nationals), suffered a dislocated left shoulder after crashing into the right-field wall in foul territory Sunday at Oracle Park in San Francisco. The 27-year-old also suffered a small fracture in the humeral head of his shoulder on the play. It is not yet known whether he will need surgery to repair the fracture. He will miss at least 12 weeks even if he doesn’t have surgery. Robles, signed to a two-year contract that includes a club option for 2027, also stole 34 bases last season.
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Bliss, 25, tore the biceps in his left arm on a swing Tuesday against Houston Astros left-hander Framber Valdez. The team announced Thursday that he will have surgery and will miss four to five months. Bliss had been expected to get the majority of the innings for the Mariners at second base this season. Bliss made his major-league debut last season, appearing in 33 games. He was the Mariners’ No. 10 prospect, according to Keith Law, going into the 2024 season. The 5-foot-7 infielder has plus speed and stole 50 bases in 93 games in Triple A last season.
The Mariners have scored only 44 runs in 13 games so far this season, and their team OPS is eighth-worst in baseball at .636. They have the top-ranked farm system in baseball, but they don’t have a lot of immediate answers to their offensive woes, with Robles and Bliss slated to miss significant time.
Infielder Jorge Polanco is dealing with knee soreness and is limited to DH duties, leaving veterans Donovan Solano and Rowdy Tellez sharing time at first base. They called up infielder Leo Rivas when Bliss landed on the injured list, but he hit just .233 in 43 games for Seattle last season, though he was off to a good start for Triple-A Tacoma.
Outfielder Dominic Canzone, acquired along with Bliss from the Diamondbacks in 2023, was recalled Monday to replace Robles. He’s only had three at-bats in two games since joining the team from Triple A, where he had an .861 OPS in 32 plate appearances.
Tyler Locklear (.916 OPS in 35 Triple-A PAs) has swung the bat well thus far this season, but he’s limited to first base and DH. Samad Taylor can play all over the field and is hitting well for Tacoma but is a .215 hitter in 65 career MLB at-bats, though he does have speed. Top prospect Harry Ford (No. 79 on Keith Law’s top-100) is off to a slow start in Triple A and has spent most of his time defensively behind the plate, though he started getting reps in left field last season.
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FanGraphs and PECOTA project that the Astros, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners all will finish within two games of each other at the top of the division (FanGraphs has the Mariners winning, PECOTA the Rangers).
Combined with their offensive woes, the Mariners have received a roughly league-average pitching performance, leading to a 5-8 start and a last-place spot in the AL West. They boast perhaps the best rotation in the game, but they are without All-Star workhorse George Kirby. With three starts each, Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert boast sub-3.00 ERAs. But Bryan Woo has a 3.75 ERA after two starts, and the rotation as a whole ranks 20th with a 4.55 ERA after posting the best ERA in the majors last year.
The Mariners’ offense could use a return to form from Julio Rodríguez. He has not yet broken out, but he had a big hit in Wednesday’s game — a bases-loaded double with one out in the ninth that drove in two runs to tie the score against the Astros at 6. The Mariners went on to beat the Astros for a series win.
Seattle extended Cal Raleigh right before the season, two years after he commented, “We’ve got to commit to winning, we have to commit to going and getting those players you see other teams going out (to get).” His contract includes a no-trade clause, signaling his commitment to the team.
The question now: What will the Mariners do to overcome these early-season obstacles and try to chart a path back to the postseason?
(Photo of Ryan Bliss: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
