50 in 50: Mariners’ Self-Inflicted 2026 Disaster Most Disappointing in Team History
There have been many bad seasons in Mariners history, far more in fact than there have been good years. It took Seattle 15 seasons to have a winning record, after all, and this is the team that won 116 games in a season and didn’t make the World Series. The Mariners, of course, have never made the World Series, the only team in baseball with that dishonorable feat on its name.
The 50-year history of the Mariners has been defined, more than that of any sporting club this side of the Buffalo Sabres, by unceasing failure. And yet the game has cultivated an unyielding nostalgia in Rain City for days that did not end in glory.
And yet out of all the seasons the team of failure has played, 2026 found a way to be the most singularly disappointing. What happened was laughably preventable and cartoonishly immense, at once utterly unforeseen and perfectly predictable, and until baseball starts again - an unknown date courtesy of the coming labor war - it will be all that the M’s can think about.
Last year, the Mariners came closer than ever to their first world series berth, only stayed by a former Astro’s gut-punching home run to send the Blue Jays to the Fall Classic. One rival, it seemed, was replaced by another, and a not insignificant portion of the Emerald City found themselves rooting for the hegemonic Dodgers’ eventual repeat.
When the 2026 season began, the message from the clubhouse and the organization was clear: World Series or bust. The Mariners set out for a mandate, to take their place in the sun, to become baseball’s next dynasty. More resonant with the long-beleaguered fans was the simple idea of finally going to the mountaintop.
Mariners’ Tuesday Bombshells: Rotating Piggyback, Pereda Sent Down, Arozarena to IL
Tuesday ended in a solid 3-1 win for the Mariners at home against the Orioles, but a flurry of roster moves and decisions may have been even more hectic for the team than that night’s action. The team called Cal Raleigh back up to the MLB roster, announced a first-of-its-kind rotating piggyback, and had to call up a guy who had taken four total plate appearances above High-A ball in his entire career thanks to a seemingly bizarre lack of preparation on Randy Arozarena’s injury status.
Mariners general manager Justin Hollander, speaking with media Tuesday afternoon, noted the inordinate severity of the injury situation as compared to other bugs he had dealt with in his tenure with the team; he noted that Luke Raley and Josh Naylor were both dealing with issues and that Matt Brash, Carlos Vargas, and Cooper Criswell would be out until around the trade deadline. Brendan Donovan is set to start running work in the week, but these persistent injuries are not a good sign. This is especially true of Raley’s lower back tightness, given that similar injuries ended up shattering his 2025 season well after he was officially healed.
The mechanistic plan to have each of Seattle’s six starting pitchers rotate the piggyback amongst themselves is many things, but to use a judgmentally neutral term, it is unprecedented. It is also seemingly contradictory that the same organization that came up with a plan as intricate as a rotating piggyback also waited until a gameday to MRI Arozarena despite having a rest day to do so; had they done the simple thing of scheduling an earlier MRI, they would have been able to call Connor Joe back up as is clearly their long-term plan.
But what’s done is done, as bizarre as the events were. What should be made of these decisions, and what do they mean for the near future of the Mariners’ season?
‘We Knew Where We Wanted to Go’: Early Josh Naylor Signing Projects Confidence For Mariners
Josh Naylor, Jerry Dipoto, and Justin Hollander sat down for questions on Tuesday morning about the Mariners’ five-year deal to keep Naylor in Seattle. The conference was a display of confidence for a starving city and team.
Glimpsing Offseason Priorities: Four Takeaways from Mariners’ End-of-Season Interviews
The Mariners front office responded to the media’s questions on Thursday morning, offering some indication—however murky—about their plans for 2026. What were the four key things that the press conference told us?
The Mariners’ Front Office Continues to Make Mistakes It Can’t Afford
Ownership is still the biggest reason for the Mariners’ chronic mediocrity, but Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander’s recent failures in the things they have control over raise plenty of questions about how the major-league club got here and where it’s going.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Could Challenge the Mariners’ Stance on ‘Rentals’
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays failed to come to an agreement on a contract extension, meaning the star first baseman will either be available at this summer’s trade deadline or free agency next winter. Will the Mariners go after him?
The Biggest Spring Training Storylines For the Mariners
The level of intrigue that Spring Training typically brings is a bit lacking for the Mariners following a quiet offseason, but there are still a few big storylines to keep track of leading up to Opening Day.
Explore our latest Seattle sports content by clicking on your favorite team(s) below!
