The AL West is stumbling to a finish that almost defies belief, and it only makes the Mariners’ collapse look worse.
On Friday, the division moved into territory Major League Baseball had never seen before. Both the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers are sitting at 80-81 heading into their season finales Sunday, which means the team that ends up winning the AL West could do it with a .500 record or even worse.
That kind of finish would be ugly enough on its own. For Seattle, it’s salt in the wound.
The Mariners are already out at 75-86, and that’s what makes this stretch sting. They did not need a perfect season to get back to October.
They did not need to run away with the division. They just needed to be a little better.
Instead, they’re headed into an offseason that could bring major changes and restructuring while watching two battered rivals stumble toward a title Seattle had every chance to grab.
The race itself has turned into something closer to a contest over who wants it the least.
Houston and Texas are tied, with the Astros holding the tiebreaker. The Rangers need to finish the weekend with one more win than Houston to take the division.
Texas is set to face the Minnesota Twins, while Houston gets the Athletics. But neither team is exactly charging into the postseason.
The Astros have dropped 12 of their last 19 and are dealing with a serious number of injuries. The Rangers, meanwhile, just took a 10-2 loss, with Jacob DeGrom matching a career-high by allowing 8 earned runs.
That’s the part that makes Seattle’s season so maddening. The division never really produced a team that slammed the door.
The Astros were battered. The Rangers were slipping.
The door stayed open, and the Mariners never walked through it.
Prior to this season, the closest a full-season division champion had come to finishing .500 was the San Diego Padres in 2005 at 82-80. Now the AL West is on the brink of topping that, and not in a good way.
As John Fanta put it on September 24: "We have never had an under .500 division champion in baseball in a full 162-game season but it is very much possible now in the AL West. Rangers have lost 3 straight, Astros got walked off on by the Mariners. So:
Houston 78-80
Texas 78-80
One of them hosts next week!"
For Seattle, that’s the brutal backdrop. The Mariners came into 2026 off a successful season, but instead of building on it, they’ve become one of baseball’s biggest disappointments.
And what makes it harder to swallow is how often the division seemed to hand them an opening. The Astros were wounded.
The Rangers were struggling. Nobody seized control.
If the Mariners had simply played to their level and lost to a better team, that would be one thing. But this feels different. It feels like Seattle gave away its chance before someone else could take it.
The AL West was there for the taking. Even now, it still is. The frustrating part is that no one in the division seems especially eager to take it.
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For Seattle, the timing is worth watching because the division picture keeps shifting in the background while other familiar names face uncertainty of their own. Angels manager Kurt Suzukis future remains unsettled, J.P. Crawford is still dealing with injury issues as free agency approaches, and the Astros are weighing Lucas Spences recent form as they sort out their postseason plans. In a division where front-office moves can ripple quickly, Oaklands next hire could end up mattering beyond one clubs search. [Read more 🡒]