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Mariners: Where this season compares to the playoff years

Christopher O'Day|
Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki (L) gets his first post-season hit during first inning play against Bartolo Colon (R) of the Cleveland Indians in the opening game of their best of five American League Divisional series 09 October 2001 in Seattle. AFP PHOTO/Dan LEVINE (Photo by DAN LEVINE / AFP) (Photo by DAN LEVINE/AFP via Getty Images)
Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki (L) gets his first post-season hit during first inning play against Bartolo Colon (R) of the Cleveland Indians in the opening game of their best of five American League Divisional series 09 October 2001 in Seattle. AFP PHOTO/Dan LEVINE (Photo by DAN LEVINE / AFP) (Photo by DAN LEVINE/AFP via Getty Images)

As we sit here during the all-star break, we need to find something to do after the news came out that there aren’t going to be any Mariners playing in the game.

Why not take a look back at the seasons in the team’s history where they made the playoffs, and compare those years to the current iteration of the team? Unfortunately, it’s not that difficult of a task with only four seasons that need to be looked at.

Outside of 2001, the Mariners are just behind the average win pace of the playoff teams.

  • 1995: 34-35, finished 79-66 (strike-shortened season)
  • 1997: 49-38, finished 90-72
  • 2000: 51-35, finished 91-71
  • 2001: 63-24, finished 116-46

The last time the Mariners made the postseason, back in 2001, should be thrown out when trying to make comparisons. They were one of the greatest regular season teams of all time, and the current team would need to go 68-3 to match their record. Instead, let’s look at 1995, 1997, and 2000.

The average win percentage of those teams at the all-star break was .554. The win percentage of this year’s team is currently .527. So just a bit behind, but not too bad. That does mean that the Mariners are going to need to pick it up a bit if they want to, realistically, have a shot at making the playoffs, just in looking at what it took for the previous playoff teams of the Mariners to make it.

They each finished at about a 90 win pace. To get there, this year’s team would need to finish 42-29, or with a .592 win percentage. It won’t be easy, but having one of the five easiest schedules remaining in baseball will be a big help.

Look, this year’s team just isn’t as good as any of those other teams… yet. That, that is the key point. This year’s team is so young, with a fair amount of strong contributors injured, that they could easily be a lot better this season with a regular squad. Paxton, Dunn, Sheffield, Marco, White, Lewis, Fraley… they’ve all missed a lot of time. It’s not looking great for the playoffs in 2021, but 2022 sure looks fantastic.

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