Mariners 2026 - Losers!

Ladies and gentlemen, after being 6 outs away from their first World Series appearance in 2025, the 2026 Seattle Mariners officially will have a losing record with 10 games left in the season. Easily one of the most disappointing seasons I can remember in my ~50 years of Mariners fandom. Awful. Pathetic. GARBAGE season!

As much as I want to turn it off and pay zero attention during these 10 games I just can’t. My potty mouth & game thread emotion are absolutely still well-honed - but for all intents and purposes this season is OVER!

 I’ve had so many years of “Nope! I’m boycotting the team” on again off again. In the end I can’t quit baseball - mostly because it’s my people. So many of my closest IRL friends became that way because of our mutual love for baseball & the Mariners specifically. What they’ve done to our M’s family feels like a form of abuse. It’s silly to think that on the surface level but when you really think deeper & see the more global connection that fandom brings - it really is like being chosen family with a much larger group of people. 

And I truly mean family! 

MLS & futbol/soccer is especially this way w/the local supporters clubs. We connect to each other as people sharing a collective soul rallying for our sports team. The digital platforms are the virtual water coolers/pubs in some cases, but the connection is very real, whether virtual or otherwise. 

 When our team disappoints as significantly the 2026 M’s have - it actually can bring MORE people into our family through the shared anxiety and disappointment. The ethics of fiduciary & emotional responsibility owners can actually hold is quite real, too. So many of us collectively invest in time, money, emotion, etc. but unfortunately greed & low-functioning capitalism supplant those ethics. 

I wish this was studied more, actually. They definitely are studying this in their marketing! 

 As we learned when Mather said the quiet part out loud - the ownership truly is more concerned w/maximizing profits - moreso than winning championships. That’s their prerogative & they clearly have done work to try & sweep that under the carpet.  

But more collective fans have picked up on that philosophy & are truly & rightfully upset! That’s why this season hurts soooo much more than others! It’s not just the expectations carrying over from ‘25 — the “window” of a legit crop of young talent has clearly accelerated in closing. That’s what has been revealed in this dismal season. 

As we’ve all discussed there’s lots of blame for that to go around. Players have to perform as pros. Manager has to get the most out of the team. FO has to put the pieces together. Ownership has to provide the budget to support it all & get out of the way (or adjust that when things go south). 

 The culmination of all bad scenarios in ‘26 shows the ugliness of where this org REALLY is! There are much bigger systemic problems than realized. As a collective fanbase family - this hurts big time. It’s truly one of the biggest gut punches in ages. 

And now, with the impending lockout & battle — a harsh unknown is in front of us! Soak up as much as we can. Lots of uncertainty in what’s next. 

It’s not nearly as bad as what happened in 1994 — the team isn’t leaving Seattle. That should be relatively certain. 

 It’s important to enjoy whatever we can find enjoyable in the last 10 games. Because it certainly appears that we’re going to have to collectively stare out the offseason window a lot longer than usual. 

And even when it DOES return, the M’s will have a ton of new uncertainty surrounding them!

A new manager? Hopefully! And so much roster turnover that’s needed to fix the entire team. 

Go Mariners!

Playoffs!

Well, hello there! It’s been a few years, eh? 

Tonight, for the first time in 21 FREAKING YEARS, the Seattle Mariners clinched a spat in the 2022 MLB playoffs. 

Damn. This feels good!

Sayonara, Ichiro!

Bittersweet.

Just Do It, Jack!

The two biggest obstacles in front of the Mariners' hopes of contention both got massively huge TV contracts, affording them some room to add massive salaries when needed. Anaheim has started spending that cash, and Texas will too.

Not only was the Pujols signing a massive shot across the bow of the good ship Mariner (subtle entendre intended ;-) it was also simultaneously a blow across the even larger U.S.S. Texas Ranger. Add the addition-by-subtraction move for CJ Wilson for the LALAs (I refuse to call them anything else) over the Rangers, and that makes the Rangers all the more attentive and ready to pounce.

It may seem logical that Texas in their lack of pitching would be all-in on Darvish -- and with all the posturing, etc., that goes on this time of year, it's hard to use anything but logic to determine what the other teams will do. But several people have considered Texas the dark horse candidate in on Fielder.

That could be the nail in the coffin for the Mariners hopes of contention in the next 4-5 years. IMHO, THAT is the move that forces us to auction off Felix to the highest bidder, and leaves the Mariners to collapse the direction of the Cleveland Indians. Not only would that move subtract a potential massive, quick improvement for the Mariners, it would be compounded by adding more of a challenge to the M's directly in the division.

With the starting pitching market being extremely soft, and really Darvish being the only potential high-upside pitcher that Texas might acquire (especially now with both Buehrle and Wilson off the market), and the extreme cost of GOOD starting pitching via trade (though Texas does have a very solid farm system), I can see Texas passing on pitching right now and going cheap on it -- overloading an already high-powered offense by adding Fielder.

Now, you could argue that they don't have room for Prince, but I'd say that none of Napoli, Morrison or Young are really elite enough for Texas to be too concerned about 'blocking' them. There really are only 4 teams that don't have room for Fielder: Yankees, Philly, Boston and now the LALAs. Pretty much every other team has room for Fielder.

Certainly there's a metric ton of risk signing Fielder to a Bora$$$$$$ contract (a la T-Rex as an example). But the M's are in as good of shape to absorb that risk long-term as any team in the league, considering the system, team needs, future payroll committments, etc.

Just do it, Jack. A HUGE part of me would like to see Zduriencik give the Seattle-area saberdudes a big middle finger and throw a T-Rex type contract at Fielder. It's probably what it would take to get it done here in Seattle. Texas may only be willing to go 6 years max, considering the future payroll committments they'll have soon (with the players who will be FA eligible in the next few years), as will other teams I'm sure. Given a market of 6/$150 give or take 20 million and/or a 7th year, there would I'm sure be 4-5 teams interested - even if Seattle were one of those teams, I'd be highly skeptical if he chose Seattle over one of those other teams, especially if one of them is Texas.

The price of not landing Fielder may be much, much greater than the potential albatross in the later years of the deal...

The Voice of the Mariners is Silenced

Dave Niehaus (1935-2010)

Goodbye Junior!

Today, Ken Griffey Junior retired from baseball. It was clear his skills had far diminished below his desire and as Jerry Brewer puts it, the last thing to be conquered was Griffey's joy.

Some people will blame Larry LaRue's article. There's some logic in that - and it's unfortunate that the article burned a pretty big bridge between LaRue and Junior since LaRue was pretty much saying what no one else had the guts to say in the media (although the issue of controversy and bridge-burning lay more in the fact that LaRue brought to light Griffey's somewhat behind-the-scenes but not unknown habit of sleeping in the clubhouse during games).

The smug complainers got their wish. Junior is no longer a problem on the M's roster anymore. Now they can shift their attention elsewhere and find a target for mean hatred. As I mentioned in my previous post, while I admit Junior was definitely a problem on the team his presence was far less of a problem than other more massive problems. Now we'll get to find out, I guess, if those cynics were correct.

But, then again, the fact that Lopez and Figgins are finally starting to hit helps a hell of a lot more than Griffey's departure from the team that brought him from the cradle of his pro career to its grave.

This is a dark, dark day in Marinerdom.

On Hyphen and Griffey...

Hyphen.
So it appears Hyphen & Snell are pretty much going to swap roles. I think we've seen enough of Snell to know that he's not going to do much better than Hyphen. I'm with Jason - replace Snell with either French or Olson. Just do SOMETHING! It took two RRS turns in the rotation too many to do the right thing. I'm probably Hyphen's biggest fanboy on the planet (I dubbed him "Hyphen" ya know...) but even I recognize that he's killing this team in the rotation.

There's patience and then there's insanity. I expected this from a Bavasi-built club (and a Mclaren/Hargrove-managed club), not from what Wak & Zduriencik showed last year. I don't know why they seem to be much slower with the trigger this year compared to last. I remember specifically Wak talking about having 162 different lineups last year, yet this year the same crappy hitters are there...

Griffey.

I'm kinda with Edman here. Griffey's an easy target because (as the arguments state) he's too old and past his prime to be likely to improve. But he's hardly the biggest problem. Cutting him does NOT improve this team much if at all.

Let's not forget that his role on the team was SUPPOSED to be as a pinch-hitter, very-part-time DH, when he was initially signed. Even he admitted that was likely his role on the team. But due to failings from others -- failings from Zduriencik to really find a full-time LF'er (even though he took several reasonable risks to attempt to do so), and initial failing from Saunders to take the job out of ST. That forced Milton Bradley into LF much more than he should've been, and away from DH, which is a role he's ideally suited for on this team.

But, hey - Milton melted down himself, and Jack's backup plan for him was the Griffey-Sweeney platoon. How many games did Sweeney get in the first month? Not very many - 9 games, 6 starts & 28 PAs. Yes, Sweeney's got health issues. He's unreliable (as the last few games on the bench with back issues have shown). You can argue all you want about having TWO bench spots taken up with DH's and I'll probably agree that it's less-than-smart.

If Milton hadn't melted down, and if Saunders or Byrnes or Langerhans had stepped up enough to show that they could handle left field full time, Griffey wouldn't be the starting DH. That he HAS been isn't so much a reflection on Griffey as it is on Wakamatsu and Zduriencik.

Griffey's about halfway down on my list of the M's problems and the reasons why this team is so frustrating to watch, and why they're losing so many close games. When HALF OF THE FREAKING LINEUP is batting UNDER the Mendoza line, that's a huuuuge problem.

Yes, the M's need to find a starting DH. They can cut Griffey and/or Sweeney to do so. But even if they can talk Griffey into mid-season retirement, is there an easily-gettable replacement for him? Who knows -- actually Milton Bradley probably will be the starting DH once he gets his stuff together since Saunders seems to be finding himself finally capable of starting in LF for the Mariners.

But the bigger problem is -- the M's lineup needs to effing hit the baseball. And the bullpen needs to stop melting down. And Wakamatsu needs to manage better. And Zduriencik needs to improve the roster.