Mariners’ Insurance Policy Behind Cole Young Is off to a Brutal Start at Tacoma

Cole Young has done enough on both sides of the ball to make second base feel like one of the calmer parts of the Mariners’ roster. The question is what happens behind him. Ryan Bliss was supposed to make the Mariners feel a little safer there.

For a while, that answer felt pretty obvious. If Young got hurt, needed a breather, or hit the kind of offensive skid that forced the Mariners to get creative, Bliss was sitting right there down I-5 in Tacoma. He had speed, some on-base ability, and enough pop to make the profile interesting. Add in his taste of big-league experience, and it was easy to picture him as Seattle’s next internal solution.

That version of Bliss is hard to find right now. In 2024 with Triple-A Tacoma, Bliss looked like exactly the kind of player a contender wants stashed one phone call away. He hit .269/.377/.456 with an .833 OPS, 25 doubles, three triples, 12 home runs, 54 RBI, 61 walks and 50 stolen bases across 93 games. That is not just a fun minor-league stat line. That is a player with multiple ways to matter. He could run. He could work counts. He could punish mistakes. He could create pressure.

His 2025 Triple-A line needs the obvious context. Bliss did not spend that year piling up normal minor-league at-bats. He opened the season as the Mariners’ second baseman, suffered a torn left biceps while up in the big leagues, then worked his way back late in the year. Those six games at Tacoma came after the long recovery, before a torn meniscus ended his season for good.

That makes the tiny .385/.500/.615 line more of a reminder than a conclusion. Bliss still showed some life when he got back on the field, but six games after a major injury year were never enough to prove the old version was fully back. That is why the 2026 start matters so much.

Through 35 games in 2026, Bliss is hitting .184/.244/.255 with a .499 OPS for Tacoma. He has no home runs, eight doubles, one triple, nine walks and 40 strikeouts in 141 at-bats. Even the speed part of his game has not quite looked like the same weapon, with five stolen bases and three times caught stealing.

That’s a rough offensive start. More importantly, it is a rough start for a player whose value depends on creating offense because the defensive fit is not as clean as some of the other bench options.

Ryan Bliss’ Slow Start Makes The Mariners’ Second Base Depth Feel Shakier

This is where the Leo Rivas part of the conversation matters.

It has been fair for fans to wonder whether Bliss should be part of the Mariners’ bench mix, especially with Rivas struggling to make much offensive impact. But the comparison is not as simple as swapping one light bat for another and picking the guy with more upside.

Rivas gave Seattle more defensive flexibility. He could move around the infield in a way that gave Dan Wilson more ways to cover a late-game substitution, an injury scare, or a matchup move. Bliss is much more tied to second base, and arm strength limits how easily the Mariners can sell him as a true multi-position infielder. That distinction became even more relevant when the Mariners activated Patrick Wisdom and optioned Rivas instead, choosing a different kind of bench fit over the more flexible infield glove.

That doesn’t make Bliss useless. It just means his bat has to do more of the convincing.

It’s fair to wonder how much of this is connected to the recovery from last year’s injury. Any time a player misses a major chunk of development time, especially one whose game relies on timing, explosiveness and rhythm, there’s room for patience. Bliss may still be working his way back into the version of himself Seattle saw in 2024.

Patience and concern can exist in the same sentence. The Mariners don’t need Bliss to push Young off second base. They just need him to look like a credible safety net behind him. Right now, his 2026 start has made that safety net look thinner than Seattle probably expected.

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