The Seattle Mariners have been in town for almost 50 years, and for the first time, it all felt different. It looked certain that a franchise that needed 18 seasons to make its first postseason, 20 seasons to win 90 games, and 27 to lead all of Major League Baseball in wins, was about to shake the last monkey off its back and punch its ticket to their first ever World Series.
Then George Springer swung a bat, and reality sank in for the Pacific Northwest. Good things don’t come easy for the Mariners. They weren’t going to get out of Toronto with a pennant on just three runs, not against a team built for October. The Blue Jays had been tagging every Mariners pitcher from top to bottom of the lineup card all series, and it was only a matter of time before the dam broke in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
The bigger issue, however, was the offense. Seattle went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the final two games of the series, both losses, and grounded into four double plays. They could get on base through walks and singles, but they couldn’t drive those runners home. Leo Rivas, JP Crawford, and Dominic Canzone, guys at the bottom of the order, turned into automatic outs when it mattered most. They didn’t give the arms enough run support, either.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson has faced lots of criticism from fans for his decision to put reliever Eduard Bazardo on to face Springer with two on in the seventh inning, a move that ended with the game-winning home run two pitches later. “Bazardo has been the guy who has gotten us through those situations, those tight ones, especially in the pivot role, and that’s what we were going with at that point. I felt really comfortable with him out there the way he’s been throwing the ball, especially in this series, and it was a good spot for him,” he said in his post-game press conference.
One could argue that Andrés Muñoz or Matt Brash, who were fresher and excel at inducing ground balls rather than fly balls, would’ve been a safer choice instead.
The Mariners had the chance on Monday to finally shed their perennial loser image in the eyes of the entire world for good. They ended the second playoff drought in 2022, won their first division title in decades in 2025, and a Fall Classic appearance would have been the final step in transforming from a historically bad franchise to a respected baseball club. It’s frustrating to see that opportunity slip away, especially knowing how rare these chances are.
The future doesn’t look much easier. Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suarez, and Jorge Polanco will all hit free agency this winter. Randy Arozarena is entering the final year of his contract in 2026. There’s a good chance the Mariners will need to look for replacements at four positions. This is an ownership group historically reluctant to spend big. What’s stopping them from rolling out Ben Williamson at third on opening day, or Luke Raley at first, guys who will make the bottom of the order even weaker? There are so many questions looming, unusual for a team that just made a deep playoff run.
They had to scrape, scheme, and believe to get to the final four, and will have to spend, trade, and risk to find their way back and go even further. To the offseason it is.
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