How Have the Mariners Switched the Bats On to Start 2025?

The Seattle Mariners have been known for their underperforming offense in recent seasons, but in 2025, they’ve had some of the hottest bats in all of baseball. Whereas their strong pitching staff had to carry them to wins in previous years, this year’s Mariners are doing it on both sides of the ball.

In 2024, Seattle ranked second-last in batting average by hitting just .224 as a team, to go along with being tied for the league lead in strikeout rate at 26.8%. If the Mariners from last season represented the rate stats of a single player, it would be a player you’d prefer not to have in your starting lineup.

The Mariners are tied for fifth in all of MLB in home runs thus far in 2025 with 53. They’re third in wRC+ with a mark of 119. They also lead the league in walk percentage (10.6%) and rank seventh in stolen bases (43).

This massive offensive turnaround is not exclusively due to the performance of a few players, but there are a few key pieces in the Mariners’ lineup that are blowing their past performances out of the water.

Cal Raleigh

The Mariners’ switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh has already amassed 2.2 fWAR on the young season, good for third in the American League behind reigning MVP-winner Aaron Judge and last year’s MVP runner-up Bobby Witt Jr.

Easily sitting as the best catcher in baseball so far in 2025, Raleigh has been a stalwart contributor to Seattle’s offense’s success on both sides of the baseball.

He leads all MLB catchers in major offensive counting stats like home runs (12), runs (23), and runs batted in (25) and is even tied for the positional lead in stolen bases with four already this year. A quick glance at Raleigh’s Baseball Savant page shows just how elite he’s been in nearly all aspects of his game, as his stat sheet is dominated by red upper-percentile rankings.

Coming off a season in which he led the Mariners in home runs, RBIs, and most other hitting statistics, as well as taking home Gold Glove and Platinum Glove honors, Raleigh was certainly projected to be one of the best catchers in baseball this season.

His incredible performance so far would typically garner some MVP consideration, given his contributions to the Mariners’ 22-17 record this season, although Aaron Judge’s unbelievable start might make for some tough competition.

Raleigh hit two home runs in a game twice in the first month of the 2025 season and has been responsible for single-handedly carrying Seattle’s offense in certain games.

Jorge Polanco

Jorge Polanco was acquired by Seattle via a trade with the Minnesota Twins in early 2024, and his first season in the navy and teal was below expectations, to say the least. Slashing a mere .213/.296/.355 at the plate with the lowest BABIP and highest strikeout percentage of his career, his switch-hitting prowess at the plate became a hole in the Mariners’ struggling lineup.

However, Polanco seems to have righted the ship so far in 2025, as his triple-slash line has improved to an incredible-looking .327/.373/.653, and he has nine home runs, 28 RBI, and a minuscule 10.8% strikeout percentage.

He’s all but completely eliminated swings and misses from his game, dropping his strikeout rate by more than 18% compared to last season. Appearing largely as a designated hitter in 2025 for the Mariners, he’s doing just that – he leads the team in batting average, runs batted in, and OPS, so it’s clear he’s doing plenty of things right at the plate.

His lack of performance in 2024 is what makes this breakout even more spectacular for Polanco, and he’s showing that a former All-Star can always make a difference.

Dylan Moore

Dylan Moore is a relatively unsung hero for the Mariners, and he has been for quite some time. Known mostly for his positional versatility and his decent glove, he’s quietly notched 111 stolen bases since his debut in 2019, topping noted speedsters like Fernando Tatis Jr., Victor Robles, and Jorge Mateo in this area.

Coming into 2025 with a single-season career best batting average of .255, Moore has slashed a strong .282/.330/.553 with seven home runs and six stolen bases to start the year.

Moore returned from a brief stint on the 10-day IL to notch a stolen base and an RBI in a 1-for-4 effort against the Athletics on Tuesday. He has stayed hot, going 2-for-4 on Wednesday and hitting a home run against the Blue Jays on Sunday. He’s proving to be a very important piece in this lineup, especially as the kind of depth piece the M’s will need if they want to be competitive this season.

Moore is slugging .553, and his barrel rate is a huge improvement from last season. If he can swing a consistently hot bat as the season progresses, the Mariners can expect much more success on a daily basis. He’s walking less than last season, but as long as his swing decisions are turning into solid contact, the Mariners certainly won’t argue with the results.

J.P. Crawford

J.P. Crawford is entering his seventh consecutive season as the starting shortstop for the Seattle Mariners, and so far, he’s been a lot more consistent at the plate than in previous seasons. He is coming off potentially the worst season of his career, in which he only had an 89 wRC+.

In 38 games in 2025, he’s already off to a 137 wRC+ start, with 17 RBIs and pretty similar strikeout and walk percentages (14.6% BB%, 17.8% K%). He’s improved his batting average by eighty points from .202 to .282 so far and is already coming close to matching his entire fWAR total from 2024 through the first month and a half of the season.

One difference to look at between his contrasting 2024 and ’25 seasons is his performance against certain pitches. According to Baseball Savant, in 2024, Crawford hit .167 on sinkers and .152 against changeups – both pitches that tend to break away from a left-handed batter’s swing path. In 2025, he’s hitting .292 on sinkers and .375 on changeups (as of Sunday).

His approach at the plate is also playing into these improvements, as Baseball Savant notes his decisions to swing and/or take pitches in the shadow of the strike zone (area along the borders of the zone) were worth -19 runs in 2024. In 2025, he’s at a -1 value. That’s not necessarily amazing, but much better than last season.

Overall, these four guys have been contributing very well to the production of the Mariners thus far in 2025, and their season-to-season improvements are an indication of things coming together in Seattle.

Whereas last season this offense was among the league’s worst and in need of a strong boost, the solution has largely come from internal options whom the Mariners have trusted for quite some time. They’re 22-17 to start the season and sit in first place in the AL West…the Mariners might be a threat for playoff teams to watch out for when October comes along.