The Seattle Mariners are in first place in the American League West, but it still feels like the team hasn’t reached its full potential.

Rost on Seattle Mariners: What we’ve learned a quarter through the season

Seattle’s pitching staff has been among the best in baseball. That was expected by many, especially those in the Pacific Northwest. The offense has had its highs, but it’s also had plenty of low moments throughout the year.

The Mariners start a 10-game road trip Friday where they’ll see two of the best teams in the American League. It starts with three games against the Baltimore Orioles followed by four at the New York Yankees. That means Seattle will need to put together complete performances to add to its run of winning eight of its nine past series.

For the Mariners to reach their full potential, some players need to step up. Mike Salk broke down who those Mariners are Friday during Ranked on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

Ty France

Ty France quickly became a fan favorite after arriving from the San Diego Padres via trade during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. France hit immediately with the Mariners, batting .302 in his brief 23-game stint in 2020 and posting a .291 average and .813 OPS while being named in All-Star in 2021. But the 29 year old has largely struggled since injuries slowed him down in 2022. After a disappointing 2023, France trained with Driveline Baseball to retool his swing in hopes of finding the same sort of improvement as teammate J.P. Crawford. It hasn’t been a scorching start to 2024 for France, but he’s starting to show signs of his offseason work paying dividends. He homered twice in this week’s three-game set against a strong Kansas City Royals pitching staff.

“You’re starting to see it at times, some breakout potential, but they banked on him at first base,” Salk said. “They really need him to be that or else that’s a spot that you just gotta find a replacement.”

Mitch Garver

The Mariners signed Mitch Garver to a two-year, $24 million contract this offseason, which made him the most expensive free agent bat president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has ever signed. That deal came after Garver was one of the heroes of the Texas Rangers’ championship run. The designated hitter got off to perhaps the slowest start of many slow starters, and his batting average dipped to as low as .138 on May 3. Garver seems to be finding his swing in May, though. He’s raised his batting average to .174 and his OPS nearly 100 points to .634 this month.

“He’s been well below what the expectation was, well below what he was last year in Texas where he was one of their playoff heroes,” Salk said. “They need Mitch Garver to provide some of that insurance for Julio, some of that protection in the lineup and just be a veteran bat. You know what I want to see from him? Just RBIs, just driving in runs. I don’t care how you get there. I don’t need to see the home runs, just drive in runs, be a run producer, and if he can do that in the middle of the lineup, that will go a long way.”

Jorge Polanco

Polanco was supposed to be the answer to Seattle’s revolving door of second baseman when they sent four players to Minnesota Twins to get him this offseason, but he’s been nowhere near what the Mariners have expected. Polanco is hitting just .192 with a .606 OPS, which are both well below his career averages of .266 and .772. Perhaps most alarming has been Polanco’s skyrocketing strikeout rate. He’s fanning at a 31.5% clip this season, which is nearly 13% above his career average. The increased strikeouts are becoming a real trend for Polanco, who set career highs in strikeout rate in each of the past two seasons.

“That’s who they spent assets on in the offseason, more in terms of the prospects that they gave up, but his salary essentially replaced what they had given up in in Eugenio Suarez,” Salk said. “They were hoping because he’s a little younger, etcetera, you’d get an upgrade. You haven’t had that yet. You need that upgrade from Polanco getting on base, being productive, being a pest, giving a great at bat and, quite frankly, not striking out as much as he has.”

J.P. Crawford

J.P. Crawford is a leader in the Seattle clubhouse and broke out as one of the top offensive shortstops in 2023, setting career highs with a .380 on-base percentage, 19 homers, 65 RBIs and an .818 OPS. Crawford’s 2024 hasn’t been the same story. He was hitting just .198 with four-extra base hits in 98 plate appearances before a right oblique strain sidelined him in late April. Crawford seemed to be destined to return to the team for Friday’s series opener with Baltimore, but he was hit on the hand by a pitch in his presumed final rehab appearance with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reported Crawford did not travel with the team to Baltimore.

“Come back and be J.P. Crawford here heading into the next part of the season, because you do eventually want him hitting first or second in this lineup,” Salk said. “You do want his late-game heroics. You do want his clutch gene. You want everything that JP can bring to this lineup to be back and helping to make everything go at the top.”

Julio Rodríguez

Last August was a prime example of just how scorching-hot center fielder Julio Rodríguez can be at the plate and how he alone can essentially carry the Mariners’ offense. Rodríguez put up an absurd .429/.474/.724 slash line last August, which helped Seattle surge right back into the playoff race. Rodríguez hasn’t had near the impact the Mariners had hoped earlier this season, especially when it comes to his power production. He’s last among all Mariners with at least 100 plate appearances with just two home runs and seven extra-base hits.

“It’s Julio, man. They just need Julio to be Julio, and it’s getting there,” Salk said. “The at bats are improving, the contact is getting better. (We’re) still waiting for the pop, still waiting for the big moments where he drives in big runs. He’s perfectly capable of doing it. He had the one this year, with his first walkoff. Get Julio hot, man, and just watch the rest of this team follow.”

Listen to the full Ranked segment at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More on the Seattle Mariners

• First-place Mariners face powerful Orioles: Three things to know
• Mariners the ‘team to beat’ in AL West? Why that’s now the case
• Video: Bob’s Breakdown – What’s changed most since start of season?
• Is expected return of Mariners’ J.P. Crawford now in doubt?
• Drayer: Rojas helping Julio an example of Seattle Mariners’ offense evolving

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Home sales in San Diego County and across the state rebounded in April, and the statewide median home price exceeded $900,000 for the first time ever, according to figures released Friday by the California Association of Realtors.

Unadjusted raw sales increased on a year-over-year basis, with the Central Coast rising the most from a year ago, and Southern California showing sales gains of 8.7% from April 2023.

Statewide, the median price recorded a new all-time high in April, jumping 11.4% from $811,510 in April 2023 to $904,210 in April 2024, exceeding the $900,000-benchmark for the first time in history, CAR determined.

In San Diego County, the median price for a single-family home was $1.04 million last month, a 2.7 % increase from $1.02 million in March and a 12.6% rise from $930,000 in 2023.

California’s median home price was 5.8% higher than March’s $854,490. The year-over-year gain was the 10th straight month of annual price increases for the Golden State. Seasonal factors and tight housing supply conditions will continue to put upward pressure on home prices in the coming months.

“April’s rebound in both home sales and price shows the resilience of California’s housing market and is a signal that buyers and sellers are beginning to adjust to the higher interest rate environment,” CAR President Melanie Barker said. “Market fundamentals are showing signs of improvement, and competition is on the rise again; homes are selling faster and nearly half the share of homes is selling above asking price — the highest in nine months.”

All major regions in the state registered an annual increase in their median price from a year ago, according to CAR. The median price of an existing single-family home in Southern California jumped 12.1% year-over-year to $880,000, a 3.5% increase from last month.

The median price in the Los Angeles metro area rose 4.9% from April to $840,000, a 13.5% increase from last year at this time.

The median price in Los Angeles County increased by 2.6%, from $805,100 in March to $825,970 last month.

Orange County saw its median home price increase 2.9% from March to $1.44 million, 17.6% higher than last year at this time.

The San Francisco Bay Area recorded the biggest price jump on a year-over-year basis, increasing 15.5% from April 2023. Along with Southern California at 12.1%, they were the only two regions posting a double-digit price gain from a year ago.

In Southern California, the lowest median price was Imperial County’s $377,500, an 8.2% increase from last month.

The statewide median price in April was $904,210, up 5.8% from March and up 11.4% from $811,510 in April 2023.

The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home was 16 days in April and 20 days in April 2023.