By Paul Taylor Posted on

Andres Munoz maintains faith despite up-and-down 2026 season

It’s been a challenging time for Andres Munoz, but he bounced back from a devastating outing, by clinching his 100th career save.

At the heart of a tough season for the Mariners, is several key players having unexpected falls from grace. The prime example of this is Cal Raleigh, in what has been an almost surreal campaign for a team predicted by many to win their first AL Pennant. Another player who has experienced an unlikely funk, is Andres Munoz.

Munoz has been one of the best closers in the majors during the majority of his time in Seattle. A two-time All-Star, he took his game to new heights last season as he set career-bests with a 2.5 bWAR, 1.73 ERA and 38 saves. Unfortunately for the Mariners, this was the year when things took a downward turn for him.

It started early in just Munoz’s second outing of the 2026 campaign, at home to the Guardians. He gave up two hits and three runs (two earned) in the top of the 10th, giving the Mariners just too much to do to overcome the three-run deficit in the bottom of the inning. In fairness he did get back on track by not allowing any runs in his next four outings, but then disaster struck during a mid-April game in San Diego.

The Mariners had seen a 6-0 lead shaved to 6-2, but still figured to be all but home and safe when Munoz entered the game in the bottom of the ninth. However, he proceeded to load the bases and then give up three runs, to pull the Padres to within 6-5. Jose. A Ferrer finally came in to try and close out the game, but he subsequently allowed a walk-off two RBI double, with both runs charged to Munoz for a new career-high of five earned runs.

Andres Munoz sets about proving his critics wrong

Munoz was more good than bad following the nightmare in San Diego. but overall he was being perceived as no longer reliable. Following a mid-June game in Washington versus the Nationals, he had an unsightly 5.92 ERA. It was at a point where critics were wondering if he was too much of a liability to keep in as the Mariners’ main closer.

Then something finally clicked, and we started to see the old dominant Munoz again. Over the following 19 appearances he only allowed two earned runs, as his ERA shrunk all the way down to a much more respectable 3.71. However, it’s widely accepted things are never allowed to go smoothly for the Mariners for too long, as we found out on Friday night in the road series opener versus the Astros.

The Mariners had battled back from 5-2 down to take an improbable 7-5 lead in the top of the 10th. Munoz came in and although he allowed a run to make it 7-6, he also got two outs to bring the visitors to the verge of an impressive and much-needed victory. Instead, the Astros tied the game at 7-7 with an RBI single, and then Christian Walker blasted a three-run homer to stun both sides and clinch a walk-off win.

In fairness to Munoz, he didn’t actually pitch that badly, as he suffered some poor luck. At the same time, once you’ve allowed the opponent to tie the game up, you need to do whatever it takes to get out of the inning and keep hopes of a win alive. Ultimately, no matter how you slice it, the cold hard data of allowing four hits and five runs (four earned) is objectively a bad look that resulted in a devastating loss.

The ideal response to Friday’s capitulation in Houston

Plenty wondered if this setback would negatively impact Munoz, following his recent run of more dominant form. Well, we got an answer in the rubber match under the intense bright lights of Sunday Night Baseball. Tasked with holding onto a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, the stage was set for Munoz.

The righty did allow a one-out walk, but then responded wonderfully to strike out Yainer Díaz and former Mariners’ prospect, Taylor Trammell. This clinched the win and the series for the M’s and gave Munoz the 100th save of his Major League career, 99 of which have come with the M’s. His fastball was absolute fire, at one point reaching a shade under 102 mph.

Postgame, a happy Munoz spoke to the media about his outing. In particular, there was interest in how he was able to bounce back from Friday’s rough night. He said:

“When I have tough outings, I look it up to see what I could do better. In the other outing [it] was not too much to see, because I threw, I executed my pitches, I did my best. I threw good sliders. So basically nothing [I could do better] and that gave me more confidence to think ‘Okay, that was [just] bad luck.”

Andres Munoz remains resilient in the face of any adversity

Munoz went on to explain further how he will always go back and look at bad outings, to see what he can improve on. It is this practice which helps him to remain confident and be more resilient. He said:

“We’ve (gone) through those situations a lot of times this season and that gave me the mentality of ‘Okay, I didn’t do anything wrong’. It was just part of the game, they were better than me that day, but that gave me the confidence to just go back out there and try to do the same thing, and that was basically what I did. Like I did the same thing as the last outing, (but with) different results.”

It’s particularly important for baseball players to be able to flush out bad performances and/or results, with the games coming thick and fast. Interestingly, as much Munoz has endured his struggles this year, he does give the sense of being more confident than, for example, Raleigh. This confidence from the Mexico native is going to be crucial moving forward, as we approach the business end of the regular season.

It might also help if Munoz starts to get a little bit more luck than he’s had so far this season, with these things often balancing out over the course of six/seven months. He’s clearly still has the talent as a reliever, ranking in the 100 percentile for Whiff%, 99th percentile for Fastball Velo and K%, and 98th percentile for Chase%. Now combine these results with a bit of good fortune, and the M’s really will see the return of one of their most dangerous weapons.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

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