Mariners’ Plan Finally Functions, but Questions Linger from Walk-Off Win vs. A’s
For better or for worse, the Seattle Mariners haven’t wavered from their game plan after losing 15 of their first 25 games. All across the team, the players have bought into the plan that the organization built, trusting the process to get them out of their current rut.
“I really rely on the hitting coaches to help us out every day, and they do such an incredible job, but I think it’s just staying on the process and having fun while playing, knowing that failure is your friend, and learning to accept it,” first baseman Josh Naylor told Mariners TV’s Ryan Rowland-Smith after hitting a walk-off single to salvage a 5-4 win in the team’s three-game series against the Athletics.
In a team sport, this stubbornness can be beneficial.
The best laid schemes of mice and men, to translate Robert Burns [1], often go awry. “No plan survives first contact with the enemy” goes a similar phrase often misattributed to 19th century Prussian general Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.
But trying to tweak a plan that is veering a bit off course can just end up making things a whole lot worse. For a baseball team, there are always going to be good and bad spells. The most effective plans have an inherent flexibility [2] - and if Seattle’s plans go fully off the rails, it will be because they are inflexible - but in the absence of anything else, believing in the process can end up being the best a struggling team can have.
3 Takeaways From Kraken Management’s Season-Ending Press Conference
The Seattle Kraken hosted a season-ending press conference with general manager Jason Botterill and CEO Tod Leiweke at Kraken Community Iceplex on Wednesday.
What were some of the biggest takeaways that provided a glimpse into how the team will operate over the offseason and beyond?
Gonzaga Baseball Rises Collegiate Ranks, Ties Program Record With 11 Consecutive Wins
The hottest team in college baseball resides in Spokane, Washington.
After taking its show on the road – by sweeping Saint Mary’s in Moraga and capturing a midweek victory in Pullman – Gonzaga baseball (24-14, 14-3 WCC) has now won 11 straight games, the longest active streak in the country and tying the program record for most wins in a row.
The Zags’ offense continues to produce at unprecedented levels, already eclipsing a program record in one notable category. Their 17 road wins are also the most for any team in Division I. And by beating several notable opponents on their schedule, the Bulldogs have put together a commendable resume that could give them favorable treatment when the postseason rolls around.
So what are the storylines for this team that can’t stop winning in the month of April?
5 Burning Questions for Seahawks Heading Into 2026 NFL Draft
With the Senior Bowl, scouting combine, and official visits all in the rearview mirror and OTAs kicking off across the league, the 2026 NFL Draft will finally commence on Thursday, April 23, providing an opportunity for the Seattle Seahawks to add young talent to their roster after capturing a Super Bowl title in February.
Unfortunately for general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald, the Seahawks currently only have four selections, their fewest entering a draft since 2021. By virtue of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, the team also picks last in the first, second, and third round, a “reward” for reaching the top of the NFL mountaintop for the second time in franchise history that will undoubtedly complicate efforts to move down the board with less valuable selections.
One day away from the opening round kicking off in Pittsburgh, even if the Seahawks potentially won’t pick on Thursday night, there are still plenty of questions left to be answered this weekend as Schneider and Macdonald conduct their third draft together.
Still-Sleepy Mariners Suffer Sixth Loss in Eight Games, Lose Series to Athletics
SEATTLE, Wash. - The M’s didn’t look much worse on Tuesday night than they had all year. The problem was that they didn’t look any better, either.
All they have shown in the first 25 games of the season has been mediocrity, inconsistency, and a gradually weakening confidence in their own abilities. The team hasn’t fallen fully off the table, but as the drudgery continues seemingly indefinitely, the phrase “right now” will become an ever more faded addendum to the phrase “this team is bad.”
Because let’s be realistic: the M’s can’t bank on a 10-plus game win streak to propel them out of the herd every year at the last moment; at some point, they need to learn how to start the regular season strong and not let up. Lifeless 5-2 losses to a sneakily threatening divisional rival can only happen so often for a team with World Series aspirations.
Luis Castillo threw a decent outing, but a high pitch count and loss of secondary control late forced him out early.
For an organization used to unearned no-decisions, Luis Castillo’s five innings of two run ball was about the platonic ideal of a no-decision.
‘No Ceiling’ for Huskies Sophomore Cornerback Dylan Robinson
Dylan Robinson’s first start was quite a Big Ten baptism last year.
With senior cornerback Tacario Davis sidelined by injury, it was up to the true freshman to start against No. 1 Ohio State in a sold-out Husky Stadium. It wouldn’t be accurate to call it a baptism by fire, though, because he never really got burned by the Buckeyes and their receiving corps of first-round picks.
“I knew that my plan was to come in freshman year, and everyone's dream is to play the biggest game,” said Robinson after UW’s 10th spring ball practice on Tuesday. “Ohio State was the number one in the nation at that time. So I was just really blessed and grateful to be in those shoes, and I was just trying to keep football football.”
Analysis: Ranking Seahawks’ Positional Groups by Long-Term Stability
The Seattle Seahawks are fresh off the ultimate high, hoisting a Super Bowl trophy. But, even championship rosters come with expiration dates. As Seattle turns the page toward the 2026 season and beyond, the question isn’t just how good this team is right now, but how sustainable that success will be.
From looming free agents to aging veterans and thin positional depth, some areas of the roster are far more secure than others. With that in mind, here’s a full ranking of every position group on the Seahawks, ordered by how stable their future truly is.
Reign’s Jess Fishlock to Retire After 2026 Season
Jess Fishlock announced her retirement from professional soccer at the end of the 2026 season on Tuesday morning. The 39-year-old Seattle Reign legend has been with the team since the NWSL’s start in 2013, making her the last remaining Reign original after Lauren “Lu” Barnes retired at the end of the 2025 season.
Mariners Should Learn Two Lessons from Monday Loss to Athletics - But Will They?
The old adage goes as follows: you win a third of your games, you lose a third of your games, and it’s the third in the middle that counts. So it goes for baseball teams and aspiring politicians alike.
Monday’s game was squarely one of those middle games, but the reasons the Mariners lost 6-4 can be sorted into two camps: roster construction and roster usage. The M’s went 1-12 with runners in scoring position, but this is something the team basically just has to weather for the rest of the year when it shows up.
But as for the use case of Casey Legumina and when to take out the left-handed member of a platoon? The M’s and manager Dan Wilson got a couple pieces of useful information on Monday night.
That information, however, only goes so far as the Mariners will take it. But first, a little on the initial five and a half frames.
‘It’s No Secret With Us’: Seahawks Hoping to Trade Back in First Round, Plus Other Pre-NFL Draft Takeaways
Just four days away from kicking off the 2026 NFL Draft, Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald aren’t planning to give away state secrets as they prepare for their third draft together.
With that said, however, since Seattle only has four draft picks heading into Thursday night, Schneider made sure to make it clear to potentially interested parties during the team’s annual pre-draft press conference on Monday that the Seahawks are indeed open for business trying to trade down from No. 32 overall to recoup a pick or two. In the event that does happen, it would mark the third time in his 17 drafts where the team has traded out of the first round completely, last doing so back in 2017.
“It's no secret with us, guys,” Schneider said with a wry smile. “I mean, we have four picks and we'll be looking to move back and people are usually understanding that, you know, I think we tend to trade backwards, trade back.”
Result Goes Gonzo in Cali, Bertranou’s Legion Power Through Seawolves in Final Minutes
Exhaustion and depth mean a whole lot in a rugby match. For almost 70 minutes on Sunday, the Seawolves went toe-to-toe with the California Legion on the road, withstanding the efforts of Gonzalo Bertranou, Billy Meakes, and Cassh Maluia and weathering their own propensity to penalties.
But in those last 600 seconds, the Seawolves - who had been forced by injuries to keep many of their forwards in for nearly the whole game - cracked under the relentless pressure. What was a one-point lead for Seattle became a 38-29 defeat, with the lone consolation being the four-try bonus point in the table.
Two Central Washington alumni notched inaugural tries during the first half as Seattle went out to an early lead.
One mistake in this game can go a long way for the other team. Through the first 13 minutes, the Legion threatened to score quite a bit, bringing the ball deep into Seattle territory twice as they pushed for quite a few meters after contact, as is their style. Early in the game with a ton of energy, however, the Seawall held firm even as they were pushed back to the brink.
Storm Center Ezi Magbegor Out At Least 6-8 Weeks
The WNBA regular season is less than a month away, and it appears the Seattle Storm will be without center Ezi Magbegor — their highest-paid player — to begin the campaign.
Magbegor is currently sidelined with a right foot injury suffered while playing for Australia during the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers in mid-March, the team announced on Monday, April 20. Her timetable for a return is unclear, but “updates on her progress will be made available in 6-8 weeks.”
Final Mock Draft: Seahawks Plug Immediate Holes, Keep Eyes on Future With Added Picks
After months of preparation for everyone from scouts to coaches to executives, the 2026 NFL Draft will finally kick off in Pittsburgh on Thursday, April 23, ushering in the latest crop of college talent jumping to the pros.
Still basking in the glow of a Super Bowl LX championship, general manager John Schneider, coach Mike Macdonald, and the Seattle Seahawks will roll into the annual event lacking much firepower to work with, as the team currently holds only four selections after trading away a fourth and fifth round pick for receiver Rashid Shaheed at the trade deadline last October. That’s quite the departure from the past three drafts where they built a championship foundation with 29 total picks, including 11 last spring.
Down to the final couple days before the first round kicks off with the Raiders on the clock, Schneider and company undoubtedly have already been working the phones looking for potential suitors to trade up for the 32nd overall pick to recoup a selection or two, planning ahead with hopes the dominos fall right to be able to slide down.
How will Seattle’s 17th draft under Schneider’s watch unfold? And how many picks will the Seahawks ultimately make on the heels of capturing the Lombardi Trophy two months ago?
Washington State Signs Former Top-100 Recruit RJ Jones
Making a somewhat big splash out of the transfer portal, former top-100 recruit RJ Jones has committed to the Washington State Cougars after stops at Kansas State and TCU, hoping a third change of scenery will allow him to finally fulfill his potential.
After being courted by numerous programs as a highly touted recruit out of Wasatch Academy in Denton, Texas, Jones appeared in 28 games as a freshman for the Wildcats during the 2023–24 season before transferring to TCU, where he redshirted for the 2024–25 and appeared in just nine games with the Horned Frogs last season.
Mariners Slug Enough Sunday Homers, Take Home Series against Rangers
When the M’s dropped Friday night’s game 5-0, their ninth straight loss against non-Astros teams, they found themselves on the edge of disaster. But two games later, they aren’t in that bad of a spot for the rest of the year, with the season series against the Rangers a manageable 2-4 despite the sweep in Arlington.
Sunday’s rubber match was decided by two things: home runs and Bryan Woo. Seattle scored all its runs via the longball in their 5-2 victory while Woo did Woo things on the rubber to keep the Rangers off the board for all but one inning of the game. It’s still a ways until a true turnaround can be declared, but the M’s did what they had to do in their weekend day games.
They also mash in the stellar Steelheads threads, for what it’s worth.
Bryan Woo dealt a cold dish to Rangers hitters, going seven innings and squeezing out most of the life from Seattle’s AL West foes.
One way to describe the skill of the Mariners pitching staff is as follows: on any given day, any of the Mariners starters can look like the ace. First among equals, however, is Bryan Woo. He had not looked any worse than his two stalwart previous years to start 2026, with a 2.16 ERA, 2.24 FIP, and 0.920 WHIP over his first four starts.
Preview: Seawolves Seek Rebound Match against Merged Legion in San Diego
The very first game in Seattle Seawolves history was a battle in Starfire Sports against the San Diego Legion, kicking off the club’s oldest rivalry. Through the 2018 semifinal, the 2019 final, the 2022 quarterfinal, the 2023 Western Conference final, and the 2024 Western Conference semifinal, the two sides rumbled in elimination matches year-in and year-out. Seattle held the distinct edge in those matches, winning all but the 2023 Western Conference final.
The story of the San Diego Legion might be one of the more melancholy tales in MLR history, though its saddest notes came not on the pitch but in the MLR’s trip through Tartarus during last year’s offseason. The Legion merged with Rugby Football Club Los Angeles - a very bitter pill to swallow for San Diegans who have lost multiple pro sports teams to LA - and while the team adopted the Legion branding and went with a circuit of home matches around Southern California, the retention of mostly RFCLA players alongside continued RFCLA ownership made clear who the senior partner was.
And yet the Legion marches on. Over their first three games of the 2026 season, the merged California Legion have scored 93 points and given up 92, going 1-2 against Anthem, the New England Free Jacks, and the Chicago Hounds. But despite the razor-thin point differential, the Legion have yet to play a particularly close match. Anthem and Chicago both logged solid victories against the Legion, who in turn pounded the Free Jacks 43-5 at home.
Freshmen Ready to Seize Starting Roles for Huskies for 2026 Football Season
Not long ago, the thought of playing a true freshman left tackle or defensive lineman sounded like desperation or a potential disaster.
For the Jedd Fisch-led Washington Huskies football team — and more and more across college football — it’s becoming the norm. Many things have changed since Don James paced the sidelines at Husky Stadium. Among them is the philosophy of playing freshman, which he once humorously stated should be played “when they are seniors.”
There’s no time for that in modern-day college football. Players come in physically ready to contribute, and you never know how long they’ll be in the program. Coaches can either play them — while paying them — or spend time grooming them to potentially contribute another coach at another school.
Left tackle Kodi Greene and 17-year-old defensive tackle Derek Colman-Brusa headline a group of true freshmen who will contribute in meaningful ways to Washington’s 2026 season. They don’t look like freshmen who should be lining up dinner reservations for high school senior prom instead of against each other at Huskies spring ball and preparing for starting roles.
Big Board: Ranking Top Defensive Tackles for Seahawks in 2026 NFL Draft
With the deadline come and gone for teams to bring prospects into town for official visits, it’s full steam ahead for the Seattle Seahawks and the rest of the league heading towards the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft.
Returning every key piece from their defensive line last season, including All-Pro Leonard Williams and budding star Byron Murphy II, the Seahawks don’t have any significant questions in the short term in the trenches defensively. However, Williams and Jarran Reed both are in their 30s with the former entering the final year of his current contract and the latter approaching his 34th birthday, creating questions beyond 2026 at the position that could warrant a proactive look at a quality draft class at the defensive tackle position this year.
Which interior defensive linemen stand out as the best of the best for Seattle to potentially choose from?
Quick Hits: Sounders Offense Hits Season-High Four Goals vs. St. Louis
The Seattle Sounders continued their offensive brilliance at home, scoring a season-high four goals against St. Louis City on Saturday night in a 4-1 win. The result, which came in Seattle's second MLS home game of the season (this time on grass made for the World Cup), pushed the Sounders to 5-1-1 on the young season — good for fourth place out west.
Cristian Roldan followed a two-assist Concacaf Champions Cup second leg win vs. Tigres on Wednesday with a brace on Saturday night. Albert Rusnák assisted on both of Roldan's set-piece goals while scoring his own on a second-half penalty drawn by Paul Rothrock. Striker Osaze De Rosario came on late to score the fourth — his first of the season as the young forward vies for minutes in a competitive lineup.
Big Board: Ranking Top Safety Targets for Seahawks in 2026 NFL Draft
With the deadline come and gone for teams to bring prospects into town for official visits, it’s full steam ahead for the Seattle Seahawks and the rest of the league heading towards the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft.
By virtue of losing former starter Coby Bryant to the Bears in free agency, safety would appear to be an area of significant need for the Seahawks. However, Julian Love and Nick Emmanwori will both return as core starters and dependable reserve Ty Okada performed admirably in 11 starts last season, showing he’s more than ready for an expanded role. The team also brought back veteran D’Anthony Bell and added ex-Colts starter Rodney Thomas in free agency for depth purposes and special teams value, but even with those moves, it’s still possible Seattle could be in the market for a safety if the right player falls to them.
Which versatile defensive backs with safety backgrounds stand out as the best of the best for Seattle to potentially choose from?
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