SEATTLE — After coming up just short of the postseason in 2023, the Mariners seemed to make it the offseason priority to cut down on strikeouts from its lineup.
Players like Teoscar Hernandez and Eugenio Suarez were jettisoned as Mariners executives zeroed in on being more efficient at the plate.
It is a very small sample size (2.47% of the season to be exact) but the Mariners are striking out at a much higher rate through four games than they did in 2023.
In the opening four-game series against the Cleveland Guardians last season, the Mariners struck out 35 times. Through the first four games of the 2024 season, the M's struck out 45 times against the Boston Red Sox.
Only the Pittsburgh Pirates, widely considered to be among the worst teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) this season, have struck out more times in the same number of games as the Mariners.
It's not as if the Mariners were playing a much stronger team to begin 2024 than they did in 2023. Former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber was one of the starters in that opening series a year ago, along with solid starters like Aaron Civale and Cal Quantrill.
The Red Sox rolled out Brayan Bello, 24, as the team's Opening Day starter. After him came three other middle-of-the-road starting pitchers from a team that finished in last place in its division in 2023.
The team's worst offenders so far, ironically, are two of the new faces who were touted as better fits for the lineup. Jorge Polanco struck out seven times, while fan favorite Mitch Haniger has struck out six times. Haniger at least has a home run and three runs batted in (RBI).
The Mariners have also scored two fewer runs in their first four games than they did in 2023.
Strikeouts are not the be-all, end-all of offensive statistics in baseball. But the Mariners did emphasize throughout the offseason that it was the most critical area of improvement for the team going into 2024.
To reiterate, four games are an extremely small sample in the grand scheme of a 162-game season. There is no need to panic for Mariners fans at this stage.
If the trend continues in this direction, on the other hand, there could start to be cause for concern.
The Mariners have been strikingly close to President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto's long-term goals on the win/loss front. The team won 53.6% of its Spring Training games and is 2-2 through the first four games of this season.