{"id":118836,"date":"2026-04-14T12:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=118836"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:31:08","slug":"this-years-breakout-star-mariners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/14\/this-years-breakout-star-mariners\/","title":{"rendered":"This Years Breakout Mariners Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

In years past, there has always been a breakout star for the Mariners. Last year, it was Cal Raleigh having an MVP-like season, and years before that, it was the young pitchers coming out and dominating on the mound. Every team needs a breakout star to help them when star players struggle or the team needs a push<\/a>. This season was off to a tough start for Seattle<\/a>, but it has picked up recently. Who on this team looks to be the breakout star this season on this Mariners roster? With the season so early, there is no definite answer, but some players are sticking out.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Year’s Breakout Mariners Star<\/h2>\n

Young Players Showing Promise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

With enough games to finally get a base on all the players, Cole Young<\/a> has looked very promising. However, his average doesn\u2019t look the best, being at .241. His OBP is sitting at a nice .333, and he’s getting on base in every game so far except for two. He has shown significant growth at the plate, displaying good patience. He has gotten hits and come through when the Mariners needed him\u2014continuing to show his great defensive ability at second base, making flashy plays, and being a great addition to the everyday roster. As the season goes on, he will continue to grow. He will definitely be one to watch on this team as a breakout star who can contribute to Seattle\u2019s success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Old Faces, New Stars?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Some familiar faces are really showing out for this M\u2019s team to start the season. Since joining the team in 2024, Randy Arozarena<\/a> has been a great addition to the offense. His defense may be questionable at times, but he has been a consistent bat in the lineup. This season, he has been one of the most consistent bats on the roster, leading the team in hits and second in OBP with .403. Luke Raley<\/a> has been another player standing out that others probably weren\u2019t expecting. Raley has been streaky for most of his time with Seattle, but this first part of the season, he has looked incredible. He is in the top three in just about every hitting category on this team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can They Keep It Up?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At the beginning of the year, we weren\u2019t even sure if Cole Young would be starting at second base<\/a>. Raley was thought to have been a rotation guy for the platoon set-up. Randy struggled last year and started to deteriorate on defense. No one expected these guys to carry this team, especially given the struggles the offense had at the start of the season. There is a lot of season left, and there will be some ups and downs, but these will be the guys to watch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Brendan Donovan<\/a> is a star as well and may be the best hitter on the team right now. But when the Mariners traded for him, that is what everyone expected him to be. Randy, Raley, and Young have been guys who struggled but have shown they have worked hard this offseason. When the rest of the offense couldn\u2019t hit the broad side of a barn, these guys kept them in games. They will struggle at times throughout the season; there is no doubt. But if there are any guesses to breakout stars for this team, these three guys should be at the top of the list right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In years past, there has always been a breakout star for the Mariners. Last year, it was Cal Raleigh having an MVP-like season, and years before that, it was the young pitchers coming out and dominating on the mound. Every team needs a breakout star to help them when star players struggle or the team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5781,"featured_media":118872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071],"tags":[5815,28399,1856,3286],"class_list":["post-118836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","tag-brendan-donovan","tag-cole-young","tag-luke-raley","tag-randy-arozarena"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118836"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118875,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118836\/revisions\/118875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}