Mariners' Brendan Donovan trade delivers all-in World Series pursuit for fans

There are regular vibe shifts, and then there are vibe shifts like the one the Seattle Mariners fanbase has experienced over the last year. It would feel too good to be true if the goodness wasn't hitting so dang hard.

In case anyone missed it, the Mariners traded for Brendan Donovan on Monday. He didn't come cheap, but he didn't come so expensive as to make Mariners fans worried about a possible fleece job.

And the reality is that the Donovan trade represents the same thing for both the team and the fanbase: it's the one thing that was needed to feel a sense of completeness.

Though the Mariners began their winter with a bang by re-signing Josh Naylor in November, that gave way to two low-key months in December and January. The vibes didn't go bad, necessarily, but there was a nagging sense that the team hadn't gotten better. It felt like the Mariners were celebrating their first AL West title in 24 years by planting their stick firmly in the mud.

That feeling is gone now, and has indeed been replaced by one that Mariners fans haven't felt since the afterglow of the 116-win team of 2001: Is this the best team in the American League?

Mariners might actually be AL favorites after trading for Brendan Donovan

The weird thing is that you could make this exact argument even before the Donovan trade.

FanGraphs' playoff odds for 2026 were right there, after all, and they sent a clear message about the Mariners. As Ben Clemens summarized it:

"The Mariners don’t do easy. Just ask their fans. The 21st century has been full of near misses, starts and stops, long stretches of hopelessness. But 2026 might be different. Our odds have the M’s down for the best playoff odds in the entire American League, and I can’t think of anything less 'Mariners' than that."

Ben Clemens

That about said it, and the club's odds have naturally gone up since Monday. The Mariners now have a 77.9 percent of making the playoffs, a 59.0 percent chance of winning the AL West, and an 8.5 percent chance of winning the World Series. All three are tops among AL teams.

To be a Mariners fan typically means to be constantly hounded by skepticism, be it the healthy kind or the noxious kind. But the team that Jerry Dipoto, Justin Hollander and company have constructed for 2026 is about as skepticism-proof as they come. The Mariners are mostly running it back with the same roster that won 90 games in 2025, but with all sorts of more.

A full year of Naylor figures to result in a fourth star to complement Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena. Donovan is the leadoff guy the Mariners never found last year. Victor Robles is healthy. Colt Emerson and/or Cole Young will bring youthful upside to the infield. The rotation and bullpen, meanwhile, both have the potential to be elite.

Looking back to last year, it's funny that the Mariners actually projected to be the best team in the AL West even then. This was after an offseason that satisfied nobody, not to mention after the Mariners lost George Kirby to a shoulder injury before the season even began. The best anyone could be was cautiously optimistic.

Nobody should be foolish enough to believe that the one-eighty from that to this is guaranteed to last. Baseball surprises go both ways, and the Mariners learned just three years ago that good energy from one season doesn't necessarily survive into the next.

The difference, though, is that the organization has clearly learned from that. The construction of the 2026 Mariners is a case of steady confidence meeting burning determination. The mission is not just another successful season, but the first World Series in franchise history.

You love to see it. And that is meant with all sincerity.