Mariners' league-best leadoff hitters are ironic with mediocre start to 2026 season
Seattle starts games better than anyone, but it isn't finding success in the win/loss column.
Mariners' league-best leadoff hitters are ironic with mediocre start to 2026 season originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Seattle Mariners are off to a very mediocre start to the 2026 MLB season, at 16-19, and not far out of the top spot in the AL West.
While things aren't going well to start the season, the same cannot be said for how the Mainers typically begin their games this season. Seattle's offense typically gets the ball moving, as Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report identified how great the Mariners' offense can be right from the beginning of games this season, thanks to their league-best leadoff hitting. "Seattle's first batter of the game - a role that has bounced around between J.
P. Crawford, Brendan Donovan, Rob Refsnyder and Luke Raley - has gone 7-for-25 with three home runs, eight walks, two HBPs and just four strikeouts, good for a 1. 246 OPS," Miller writes.
Miller notes how that's over 200 points higher than the next-closest team's production from the leadoff spot. No team in baseball has been better from their first batter of the game than the Mariners. Mariners' elite leadoff hitting is ironic with mediocre start to 2026 While Seattle's offense can get the ball moving right at the start of games better than any team in baseball, the production afterwards leaves a lot to be desired.