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Given the chance, go all-in on the Seattle Mariners.
While the 2026 team, at least through its first 50 games, seems to lack the same spark as the group that made it all the way to Game 7 of the 2025 American League Championship Series, several indicators point to better things ahead for the Mariners.
First, and most importantly for fantasy purposes, the Mariners sport one of the game’s richest and deepest rotations, even if their mediocre 3.95 starters’ ERA doesn’t reflect it. In Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, the team has three of the 20 pitchers with an actual ERA at least two-tenths of a run below expected, while Emerson Hancock has arrived as a genuine fantasy star, scoring 129 points across his nine starts. The healthy return of Bryce Miller, too, gives them another potentially mixed league-relevant starter.
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Woo’s 2026 line is lackluster only because of the six home runs he surrendered in back-to-back starts at the start of the month. He has otherwise been a Cy Young-caliber, top-10 fantasy starting pitcher and should be valued that way.
Gilbert has been shakier. He’s had more starts of two-or-fewer fantasy points (3) than those of at least 20 (2), but he’s still throwing 95 mph-plus with his fastball and has three additional 30%-plus whiff offerings. He’s probably the biggest bargain candidate on the trade market of any Mariners pitcher.
Kirby is getting more ground balls than ever (a 55.2% rate) and his pinpoint control elevates his statistical floor, making him one of the safer bets among top-20 fantasy starting pitchers.
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Hancock is an entirely different pitcher this season, thanks in large part to his leaning more heavily upon his sweeper and cutter. His 27.1% strikeout, 4.8% walk and 68.6% first-pitch strike rates would all easily set new career bests. Hancock might seem like a prototypical “sell high” candidate, but unless the return is someone with a firmer guarantee of a top-50 starter’s valuation, it’s a firm “no” from me.
Finally, Miller’s return to the rotation last Wednesday saw him average a career-high 97.4 mph with his fastball and he exhibited good control similar to his 2022-23 best years. He’s currently in a fantasy value-limiting piggyback role with Luis Castillo, but if Miller can pave his way towards a regular starter’s workload — and last night’s 5 2/3 innings of one-hit, shutout ball is a great step closer to that goal — he’d place somewhere in Hancock’s valuation range. In a deeper-than-standard league, that’s the kind of pitcher worth trying to acquire now.
At the bullpen’s back end, closer Andres Munoz‘s raw stuff has looked as filthy as ever — his 39.0% strikeout and 43.6% whiff rates would both set new career highs. Unfortunately, that’s come with a bit of gopheritis. He has already allowed more home runs this year (3) than last (2), which has helped his ERA balloon to 5.00. As with the starters, Munoz’s expected ERA is a solid step below that number: 4.63. And, as the Mariners improve from a team-wide perspective, so should his number of save chances increase.
It’s the lineup that has caused much of the Mariners’ trouble, as their 4.16 runs per game average ranks just 22nd in baseball. But even there, they’ve got plenty of reasons to expect improvement over the coming weeks.
One thing that should help the Mariners is the schedule. Between now and the All-Star break (using opponents’ 2026 winning percentages), they have the fourth-easiest schedule in the majors. They won’t face a single team currently better than .500 until June 23 and they’ll play 16 of their next 23 games in road ballparks that lean noticeably more hitter-friendly than their own pitchers’ heaven, T-Mobile Park.
Twelve of the Mariners’ next 29 games will be played against teams that have averaged even fewer runs per game on offense than they have — that’s more benefit for the pitchers — but 14 of their next 26 will be against one of the six teams that has a 4.50 team ERA or worse.
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Julio Rodriguez, a notorious slow starter, seemed to pick up the pace in May’s early days, but he still hasn’t seemed to hit his groove yet. He has a history of outstanding second-half performances, having averaged 209 fantasy points and 3.13 per game from July 1 forward over his first four MLB seasons. The softer schedule might be all Rodriguez needs to recapture what should be top-20 overall fantasy status — whether points-based or rotisserie scoring — the rest of the way.
Josh Naylor‘s increased aggressiveness on the basepaths — he has eight stolen bases over his last 13 games — elevates his profile in both scoring formats, though he’s still generally underappreciated in fantasy. His expected wOBA is 35 points higher than his actual number, which would represent by far the widest such differential of his career, so this seems like a good time to trade for him.
Even Cal Raleigh could warrant a trade inquiry while he nurses an oblique strain, as it seems unlikely that a player who has hit 30-plus home runs in each of the last three seasons will continue to underperform to the level that he has. His absence alone could coax any antsy fantasy managers to consider making a move to address other roster weak spots.
These are not the only Mariners hitters who could warrant a look. Rookie Colt Emerson, who was recalled over the weekend and hit his first career home run on Monday, is a worthwhile pickup in all formats — you can read more about him here. Dominic Canzone is one of the game’s more underrated platoon players — a valuable thing in ESPN’s daily game play — with a 4.4% HR rate and .202 ISO against righties in his career.
Consider making a move for one or more of these Mariners, because two to three weeks from now, Seattle might be buzzing just like last September and October.
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