The Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners are on the verge of an ugly little slice of American League history.
For the first time since 1987, both teams that played in the previous season’s AL Championship Series are set to finish the next year under .500. Toronto is already locked into a losing record, while Seattle is still alive in the AL West but no longer has a path to a Wild Card spot.
Toronto’s fate became official on Wednesday, when it dropped the opener of a doubleheader to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2. The Blue Jays still have one series left, a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds, but the ceiling is now 80-82. That means the club that reached Game 7 of the World Series last year before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers will end this season with a losing mark.
Seattle’s route to this same unwanted club is different, but the destination looks the same. The Mariners have not been eliminated from the postseason altogether, yet they have been knocked out of the American League Wild Card chase. They are seven games behind the Chicago White Sox for the final Wild Card spot.
There is still a sliver of life in the division race. Seattle sits four games back of the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, who are tied for the top spot in the AL West.
The Mariners have four games left, all against the Los Angeles Angels, and a clean sweep would give them a shot at finishing on top of the division. Even then, their best possible final record would only be 78-84.
What makes this so unusual is the context. Before MLB kept widening the postseason field, a finish like this was rare enough on its own. A single Wild Card was added in both leagues in 1995, the second Wild Card arrived in 2012 along with the one-game Wild Card matchup, and the format expanded again in 2022 with a third Wild Card team in each league and the best-of-three Wild Card Series.
Even with all those extra openings, Toronto and Seattle are about to make the wrong kind of history.
In Other News...
Mariners Just Gave Fans Plenty To Argue About After This Loss
The Mariners came out of Monday night with a 6-4 loss to the Angels that felt as frustrating as it was familiar, the kind of game where the box score only hints at how many chances slipped away. Seattle never found much rhythm offensively and made life harder on itself in the field, with a dropped third strike among the defensive miscues and a couple of double plays wiping out scoring opportunities before they could really build.
Bryan Woo took his turn on the mound, but the bigger conversation afterward centered on how long he was left in and on the pitch selection that helped lead to a game-tying RBI. For a club trying to stay sharp in the margins, this was one of those nights when both the lineup and the defense left plenty to second-guess, and there will be no shortage of opinions on what should have happened differently. [Read more 🡒]
Julio Rodrguezs Apology Just Put The Mariners On The Spot
Seattles season ended with the kind of inventory no club wants to make in October: no playoff berth, 85 losses, and a star who flashed enough to remind everyone what he can do while still falling short of his usual standard. Julio Rodrguez provided one of the more notable swings of the year, but across the board both his offense and defense dipped from the levels that have made him the face of the franchise, and his uneven year fit into a larger Mariners story that never quite found the traction it needed.
What made the final days of the season sting even more was the tone around the clubhouse, where players and staff openly framed the year as a failure and pushed for accountability from top to bottom. Once the conversation turns to coaching, roster construction and overall performance in the same breath, it puts the organization on a short path to answers, and Rodrguezs public apology only sharpened that pressure by making it clear the standard in Seattle is still much higher than what this group delivered. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Face A Cal Raleigh Question They Cant Ignore
Cal Raleigh has become one of the Mariners most important players, but the conversation around him has shifted from his power and production to the wear and tear that comes with catching almost every day. The workload has been heavy for several seasons, and the discussion now is whether Seattle has pushed him too hard for too long, especially after a 2026 campaign that raised more questions than answers about his overall performance.
Former catcher A.J. Pierzynski weighed in on just how demanding the position can be, pointing to both the physical grind and the mental strain that come with handling so many games behind the plate. The Mariners cant pin Raleighs 2026 struggles on one cause alone, but they do have a decision to make for 2027, and its one that could affect not only his health but also how much offense they get from one of their most central pieces. [Read more 🡒]