CHARTS: Mariners’ offensive and pitching trends since 2010

Published 10:45 am Sunday, July 16, 2017

In 2010 the Seattle Mariners had one of the worst offensive seasons in Major League Baseball history. That year Seattle scored just 513 runs, which is 3.17 per game. That compared to an American League average of 4.45 runs per game. The Mariners had a team batting average of .236, on-base percentage of .298 and slugging percentage of .339, all far and away league lows. The team basically had Ichiro Suzuki, then no one else who was an effective bat in a substantial sample size.

But since then Seattle’s offense has improved every year, and at the All-Star break the Mariners were averaging 4.79 runs per game versus a league average of 4.71. The team was slashing .263/.332/.418 and every regular had an OPS+ of 92 or better, with five players (Nelson Cruz, Jean Segura, Mitch Haniger, Ben Gamel, Robinson Cano) at a robust 117 or better (100 is league average).

Here’s Seattle’s numbers since 2010, with the 2017 numbers being through the All-Star break (90 games for the Mariners). Keep in mind that the AL increased from 14 to 15 teams in 2013:

Unfortunately for the Mariners, the pitching hasn’t cooperated. With the pitching staff riddled with injuries, Seattle allowed 4.83 runs per game through the All-Star break, the most the Mariners have given up during this stretch. While Seattle’s pitching numbers haven’t had the same consistent downward trend that the offense had in the upward direction, it’s still generally going the wrong direction. Here are those numbers:

So unfortunately for the Mariners, just as the offense began figuring things out the pitching faltered. That has to make it frustrating for general manager Jerry Dipoto, who has to figure out what to do with the roster as the July 31 trade deadline approaches.