Seattle Mariners Postgame Thoughts - May 16th, 2026
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - The Seattle Mariners have dropped another series in their 2026 season, seeing the series defeat get clinched thanks to tonight’s 7-4 defeat to the San Diego Padres in the first of a two-series homestand. Logan Gilbert’s outing for the Mariners was solid outside of a rough fourth inning that saw two walks come around to bite him, while the Seattle offense couldn’t hang a crooked number on Walker Buehler. The Mariners continue to be a frustrating watch, failing to show any real consistency through mid-May. Here are some postgame thoughts on the Seattle Mariners’ home loss to the San Diego Padres on May 16th, 2026.
Logan Gilbert has another tough outing
The 2026 campaign for Logan Gilbert has been a complicated one through ten starts, as he’s labored through some early games but seemed to be finding some footing here in the last few months. Gilbert had to labor through several games to start the year, including his first two outings, coming against the Guardians and Yankees, before getting things to slow down for his next three starts.
He hit a bit of a bump against the Athletics in late April and struggled against the Braves earlier this month, but had strong outings against Minnesota and Chicago recently. It’s been a bit up and down with Logan; he hasn’t been able to find much consistency this season, and it really dates back to his stellar 2024 performance. Yes, he had an injury that ate into his 2025 season, but it is somewhat concerning to see him struggle to find a groove after a fully healthy offseason.
Logan sits in the bottom eight percent of MLB in exit velocity and the bottom nine percent of MLB in hard hit percentage. Gilbert hasn’t been walking batters often this season, sitting in the top seven percent of baseball in walk percentage, but it was ironically two walks with one out in the fourth that eventually came back to bite him when Nick Castellanos hit his three-run homer to break the game open. When you look at his outing besides that fourth inning, the only real blemish for most of the game was Gavin Sheets’ solo shot in the second. Gilbert faced the minimum four times in this game, and the Sheets homer was the only hit in the second inning, further showing how painful that fourth inning is. Logan got knocked out of the game after giving up a double and a homer, pushing the run total up to seven.
The Mariners have an intriguing problem on their hands, as Gilbert is extension-eligible and has long seemed like a solid option for a new contract after battery mate Cal Raleigh. With his inability to get a solid footing dating back to that incredibly strong 2024 campaign, the likelihood of a big-money extension for Logan drops more and more. For the sake of Seattle’s success this season, and for Gilbert’s bank account, here’s hoping that he can turn things around.
“Looked like just a little loss of command, and got behind, lost those two hitters. I think that’s always tough when you get yourself into the hole there with a couple of walks, but we’ve seen Logan so many times get out of those things and get the ground ball. They just were able to capitalize in that situation.”
Jhonny Pereda shows some solid signs
Current backup catcher Jhonny Pereda was thrust into action for this game due to Mitch Garver being a late scratch from the lineup (more on that later) and had some solid moments. Pereda threw out two runners in the final two innings of this game to ward off further runs from San Diego late, gunning down Fernando Tatis Jr. in the eighth inning after a leadoff walk and Miguel Andujar in the ninth after a leadoff single. Pereda has shown off a good arm during his limited time with the Mariners, which is a comforting sign considering all the stress that comes with Cal Raleigh out.
It wasn’t a great day at the plate for Pereda, striking out twice, flying out, and then lining out to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Jhonny showed his hit tool off in the May 6th game against the Braves, with two singles, including one that helped start a rally, and he’s hit well at the AAA level with the Rainiers so far this year. While it’s not ideal to have the third catcher in the organizational depth chart on the roster for an extended period of time, Pereda seems to have some solid ability to fill in at this time.
“He’s really good. Yeah, we’re on the same page. A lot of credit to him, I think he understands me really well. Some of the other pitchers, too, it’s a tough job, tough ask, just to come up and do that. I think he’s really good back there, I like throwing to him.”
Mariners create traffic, struggle to drive it in
As has been the case over the last few years, the Seattle Mariners can certainly generate traffic on the basepaths, but often flail when it comes time to bring those runs across home plate. That’s been a glaring issue once again this year, particularly in recent memory, as tonight’s game saw the Mariners go 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, leaving five runners on base.
Seattle left “meat on the bone,” so to speak, in the fourth inning, as Luke Raley had gotten all the way to third after reaching on a fielder’s choice, but Jhonny Pereda went down looking after a decent battle at the plate. The Mariners got runners to second on a few occasions, but couldn’t generate productive outs or get that clutch knock to finally push runs over. This Seattle roster has felt very “boom or bust” over the years, largely living by the long ball while piling up the strikeout numbers if they can’t make that hard contact to drive the ball over the fence.
The Mariners often haven’t had players who can spray the ball all over the field and create consistent contact, but have acquired players to address that, including Josh Naylor and Brendan Donovan, over the last few years. Those two have had solid success at the plate, but struggles elsewhere in the lineup have kept them and the team from flourishing offensively. An optimistic viewpoint on this is that, eventually, and hopefully soon, Seattle will be able to punch through and finally get the floodgates open regarding their offense, but it is understandably frustrating when that isn’t happening, and the Mariners have lacked much consistency this year overall.
“I think sometimes the hit you get when you have traffic is the big momentum boost you need. We get the traffic, and we hit a ball hard, it doesn’t get in, whatever the case may be, the frustration can mount a little bit, but like I said, we’ll keep getting them on base, and I know we’re going to keep putting up the good at bats like they do, and sooner or later, the faucet will get turned on.”
Donovan and Garver updates
Both Brendan Donovan and Mitch Garver were late scratches from the Mariners lineup ahead of this game, both in starting roles at third base and catcher, respectively. Manager Dan Wilson said postgame that Donovan was given the day off as part of load management, while Brendan continues to deal with an issue stemming from his offseason sports hernia surgery and, in part, a slide into a wall earlier this year during a game on March 28th.
“I’ve heard anywhere from like, eight months to a year is when you’re like, ‘we’re good.’ They say that you can return to play in six to 10 weeks. And I was able to do that, but they said you could have some hiccups for years, just like this. It’s just an invasive procedure. Everything around your pelvis, they’re cutting through, muscles, nerves, scar tissue, all those things. Ultimately, I needed it. After you start pulling things off your pelvis, you kind of have to get all cinched back down. But we’re just all kind of learning how to work together.”
Donovan is dealing with the residual effects of that offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia, with the recovery to feeling back to normal sometimes taking a while. He’s had to readjust some pregame work, limiting the amount of hours and reps that he takes. It’s a different sort of load management, with the Mariners also doing work to ensure that they’re being careful with him. Wilson said that Seattle has to be flexible and give him a day here and there when he needs it, and today was one such instance.
Garver felt some tightness in his lower back pregame, the result of a play from a few days ago in Houston. Mitch tried to catch a shallow foul pop-up near the wall behind home plate in the series finale against the Astros on May 14th. Garver had his shin guard get stuck in the dirt as he slid, rolling awkwardly on his knee. He was checked on by trainer Taylor Bennett, but remained in the game after “jamming up” his back.
Wilson called both Donovan and Garver “day-to-day.” Dan did not answer whether the two will be available during tomorrow’s rubber match against the Padres.
“Again, day to day, we’ll see how they are tomorrow. We’ll just keep monitoring them, and hopefully be able to get one or both back tomorrow.”
What’s next?
Following tonight’s loss that secured a series defeat, the Seattle Mariners will look to salvage a game and avoid getting swept by the San Diego Padres in tomorrow’s rubber match. That game on Sunday, May 17th, with a first pitch time of 4:20 PM PDT, will be broadcast live on NBC and Peacock while going live over the radio airwaves on Seattle Sports (710 AM). The second of two first pitch times around 4 PM PDT this weekend, the Mariners will have George Kirby on the mound to duel against Padres starter Lucas Giolito, who will be making his season debut.
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