2026 MLB schedule could screw Mariners with awkward dance around World Cup

The Seattle Mariners have their schedule for the 2026 MLB season, and the summer portion of it looks like a science project that a 6th grader dropped on his way to present it.

This is because the Mariners will have to dance around the FIFA World Cup when it comes to Seattle next year. If you squint, you can make out the awkward steps they'll have to do in June and July:

World Cup matches are slated to be played across the street from T-Mobile Park at Lumen Field on June 15, June 24, June 28, and July 6. Thankfully, those are either natural off days or dates when the Mariners will be on the road.

The World Cup games in Seattle on June 19 and July 1, on the other hand, are going to force the Mariners into a couple of unusual situations.

MLB resorted to goofy scheduling quirks to bend the Mariners' 2026 season to the World Cup

The first of those dates is a Friday when the Mariners will be off before playing three games in two days against the Boston Red Sox at T-Mobile Park. The two clubs will play a scheduled doubleheader on the 20th, which is basically not a thing in MLB except under these very specific circumstances.

The second of those dates falls on a Wednesday in the middle of a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park. There will be games Monday and Tuesday and then an off day, followed by the series finale on Thursday.

In addition, 29 of the 51 games the Mariners will play in June and July will be on the road. They're therefore going to have a two-month stretch in which they'll play 57 percent of their games away from home — where they are 31-35 this season — while also dealing with the interruptions to their schedule when they are home.

Maybe all of this won't mean anything in the end, but it wouldn't figure to make it easier for the 2026 Mariners to get into midseason form at precisely the time when they are supposed to be doing exactly that.

Not that this is anyone's fault, of course. Nobody is blaming the city of Seattle for wanting to be one of the host cities for the World Cup. And as weird as it turned out, MLB's task of having to figure out how to work the Mariners' schedule around the World Cup is not what anyone would have called an enviable job.

It's just not ideal that the final outcome could influence how the Mariners' 2026 season plays out, and more likely for worse than for better.

Other takeaways from the Mariners' 2026 schedule

-The Mariners open at home with seven straight starting on March 25, with a four-game set against the Cleveland Guardians followed by three against the New York Yankees.

-The Mariners and San Diego Padres will be finished with their six-game "Vedder Cup" by May 17.

-The Mariners will play no more than 13 games without an off day, and will have only three road trips in which they visit three cities. These are improvements relative to this year, wherein the M's have had two separate stretches of 17 games without an off day and five three-city road trips.

-19 of the Mariners' last 22 games will be against AL West opponents.