The end of the regular season, when I do the 'end of year losing team superlatives', I always have one that's 'most depressing team to talk about every two weeks', and it's usually a really rough last place team or a boring team where I'm saying the same things every time. I would not have predicted at the beginning of this season that the Mariners would be a heavy contender for that superlative this year. But I saw that I needed to write a post about them and I just got this feeling of annoyance, like I'd be trying harder than usual. And like...it's the Mariners! They're supposed to be fun! They're a team I like. THEY WERE JUST IN AN ALCS. And yet...this team is depressing the shit out of me, because if they got their act together they'd be a first place team and it's just not happening. It's like they're refusing to go for it. They have everything in their corner, everything in place, every reinforcement, and they just cannot be arsed. It is infuriating. The Mariners are the Chuck Schumer 'sternly worded letter' of baseball. In lieu of any positive effort with everything on their side, they're just giving up. This is not the AL year to give up. This year you're lucky if you're 3 games above .500. So many teams are just okay that it's maddening that the Mariners can't just make the leap.
It leads me to believe that the 2025 Mariners were as good as they were because of Cal Raleigh. He had the season of the gods last year and tied the entire team together. He struggled early, was hurt, and is still not back at 100%, and he's hitting .159 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs, a genuinely pathetic year from a guy who was on top of the world a year ago. The loss of that presence in this lineup has brought things down several decibels. Josh Naylor is only now getting going, he's finally getting his average above .260 and has 10 homers and 43 RBIs. Brendan Donovan's finally healthy again and trying to salvage a mostly lost season. Arozarena, Young and Rodriguez are having good years but not over the top amazing. Colt Emerson did not work in the majors, so they're going with the next man up, Brock Rodden, hoping he somehow does better than...top prospect Cole Emerson. Even Taylor Ward, who was traded for an outfield advantage, hasn't done a damned thing in Mariners colors yet.
And, like in 2024, it's wasting a wonderful year from the rotation. Gilbert, Miller, Kirby, Emerson and Woo are all having very nice, consistent years and the worry is that when the rest of the team is good next year, they'll all be in varying stages of health because they wasted their A-material on this season. George Kirby has a 3.68 ERA, an 8-9 record, and too many great starts for a year as squandered as this one. Logan Gilbert had another ace-level year, with 152 Ks, a 3.28 ERA and a 3.2 WAR, but he'll be 30 next year, and soon the clock will start ticking. These are some great pitchers, but are their peak years being wasted? And what happens when it's time for Kade Anderson to come up? Who gets sacrificed?
It's just depressing. This could have been a great team. Arguably it still could be, they could catch fire, the Rangers and Astros are not playoff teams yet, but...as it stands now, the Mariners feel uninspired and limp. They can use this to jumpstart a revolution or they can just give up now. I know which one I'd prefer.
Coming Tomorrow- He had a dismal first half, then last month he started hitting longballs on the regular and now he's giving his team something of a chance.
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