The Seattle Mariners’ season has gone off the rails in a way nobody in that dugout could’ve wanted, especially after all the preseason hype that had them pegged as an AL West contender and even a possible World Series team.
Before the first pitch, the Mariners were a trendy pick to take the division. ESPN had them as the biggest threat to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ title reign, and the network also projected Julio Rodriguez as the 2026 AL MVP. Sports Illustrated was just as bullish, forecasting a division crown, a World Series trip, and another AL MVP nod for Rodriguez.
That optimism looked justified early when Seattle kept hammering Houston. Mariners fans had every reason to talk after their club went 9-2 against the Astros this season, including a May beatdown that had Seattle believers dreaming big. Even after Houston stole a massive comeback win in the opener of an August series, the Mariners still took two of three and kept the rivalry edge on their side.
But the rest of the season never matched the head-to-head swagger.
Seattle’s trouble has been obvious for a while, and it really started showing up around the trade deadline. Fans were frustrated by how little the front office seemed willing to do, and the criticism has only grown louder as the losses piled up.
For a club that opened the year with World Series expectations, the deadline approach felt cautious at best. Last year’s additions of Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor stood out because Seattle actually pushed then.
This time, the message was basically the opposite: they knew they needed help and did almost nothing.
That hesitation looks even worse given where the team sits now. The Mariners are dead last in the American League in runs scored and in batting average with runners in scoring position.
On top of that, they’re tenth in the AL in pitching ERA, a sharp drop for a staff that was once the backbone of the franchise. Seattle had the best ERA in the AL in 2024, slipped to sixth in 2025, and has now fallen to tenth.
And despite all that dominance over Houston, the division race is over. Seattle is nine games under .500, six games back in the division with 15 games left, and there’s no realistic path to catching the Astros.
The last two games against Houston won’t matter for Seattle’s playoff hopes. The Mariners are also five games out of a wild card spot and sit behind five other teams.
So even with the one thing they’ve done well - beating the Astros - the bigger picture is brutal. Seattle had the hype, the favorable predictions, and the rivalry edge. What it didn’t have was enough offense, enough pitching, or enough urgency to turn any of it into a season that lasted.
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