Mariners Release Veteran Outfielder Mitch Haniger

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger celebrates a play in August 2024. Haniger was released by the team on Sunday. Credit: Mitch Haniger/Instagram

After Mitch Haniger’s disappointing 2024 campaign, there were questions heading into the 2025 season about what exactly Haniger’s role would be.

It turns out, he won’t have a role with the Mariners at all, as the team announced Sunday morning that Haniger has been released.

The Mariners will still be on the hook for the $15.5 million Haniger was owed in 2025, as MLB contracts are guaranteed. It clears a spot on the 40-man and Opening Day rosters, but Seattle is essentially paying the outfielder to not play for them this summer.

And unfortunately, it’s understandable. Haniger had just a .621 OPS in his return season to Seattle; forged with a slash of .208/.286/.334 over 423 plate appearances with 12 homers and zero stolen bases in that timeframe. He was acquired from the Giants last offseason in the deal that shipped Robbie Ray to San Francisco, and it’s worth pointing out that his only season with San Francisco didn’t go much better as seen in a .631 OPS in an injury-riddled year that saw him play in just 61 games.

Over his last three seasons — two with Seattle, one with the Giants — Haniger slashed just .218/.287/.368 while averaging just 10 homers and 25 RBI in those campaigns.

While it’s a disappointing end to Haniger’s tenure, it’s only a disappointment because of how good Haniger was in his original Mariners tenure after being acquired from the Diamondbacks with Jean Segura in the 2017 Ketel Marte-Taijuan Walker trade. In those five seasons, he compiled a .820 OPS — an OPS-plus of 124, with 100 being average — 101 homers and was worth 14 wins above replacement.

That latter number is only so low because Haniger, at times, struggled to stay on the field and didn’t play in the truncated 2020 campaign, but he was a legitimate middle-of-the-order hitter when healthy. His best season was 2018 — a season where he was worth 6.5 WAR according to Baseball Reference, while hitting 26 homers — posting an OPS of .859 and finishing 11th in MVP voting. He also mashed 39 homers in 2021 and helped the team reach the postseason in 2022 despite playing in just 57 games.

Haniger was also considered one of the leaders of the clubhouse while he was with Seattle, and numerous reports suggested that was one of the reasons Seattle was interested in reuniting with him after he left for the Giants in 2023.

With Haniger now off the roster, Seattle has some flexibility in terms of adding players. However, because of the guaranteed contract, this will not add anything financially. This could allow Seattle to add Rowdy Tellez to the Opening Day roster, as Tellez is limited to first base and DH. Having Tellez and Haniger on the roster probably wouldn’t have made much sense.

Haniger wasn’t expected to play much in 2025, so there isn’t much this changes in terms of predicting wins and losses. It’s a sad end to his time in Seattle — and potentially his career — but Mariner fans should look back on his time with the club fondly, while also wondering what could have been if not for some bad luck with injuries.