Mariners face pressure to live up to a whole new challenge in ALDS

When you're a fan of the Seattle Mariners, rooting for the team to be a legitimate contender each year has often been rooted in hope as opposed to genuine belief. And this is despite having truly generational talents such as Ken Griffery Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Randy Johnson and Félix Hernández suiting up for the M's.

This mindset is as a result of the Mariners having only been to the playoffs five times in 48 years ahead of the 2025 season, only winning three division titles and being the only current Major League team to never appear in the World Series. Well, this has all changed now, with more expectations than ever before with the exception of 2001, when the M's equaled the all-time record of 116 regular season wins.

This is what happens when you sew up you first division title since 2001 with a run of 17 wins in 18 games, and secure the second seed and a first round bye in the American League. Helped by the trade acquisitions of Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez, this is a stacked lineup which truly scares the rest of baseball, with them capable of beating anyone on their day.

As a result, the Mariners find themselves in an almost unique and pressure-packed situation to win the whole damn thing (Cal Raleigh knows what we really want to say.) We appreciate this will be an almost unnerving position for at least the fans, with the team being a popular World Series pick around the mainstream media.

Mainstream media all over the Mariners

For example, The Athletic undertook a survey of more than 20 MLB staffers and 72 percent picked the Mariners to claim their first ever American League pennant. The Philadelphia Philles are overall favorites to win the World Series at 44 percent, but the M's aren't too far away in second place, at 36 percent.

It's a similar story over at CBS Sports, with four of their five experts predicting the Mariners will face the Phillies in the World Series. (The one exception has the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees facing off in a rematch of last year.) The one downside is that the four experts in question all have the Phillies beating the M's.

FanGraphs has been championing the cause of the Mariners for quite a few weeks now and their latest playoffs odds have them as second-favorites to win it all at 17.2 percent, behind the Dodgers at 23.8 percent. Interestingly, among FanGraphs' 25 staff writer predictions, the M's have actually received the most votes to win the World Series, with eight.

Individually speaking, ESPN's Jeff Passan regularly appears on Seattle Sports radio and has often praised the makeup of the Mariners roster. And he has high hopes for the team based on his latest interview with Brock and Salk on Thursday, as he said:

"If I’m the Mariners right now, I’m feeling pretty good going into this series. I feel like this is a roster that can win a World Series. And I’m not sure if there’s anything that’s, especially in the division series round, going to dissuade me from that."

Jeff Passan

Mariners legend also expecting big things from the team

While there is likely some understandable bias, Mariners legend Jay Buhner thinks similar to Passan. Also appearing on Brock and Salk on Thursday, he said: "It’s a scary matchup. They really are. ... They can beat you from one to nine. They can hit the ball out of the ballpark, they can steal a bag – every single guy."

It sure seems like a lot of expectations and could be considered overwhelming to some. Also, as per the default setting for Marines fans scarred and haunted by past failures, what is described as the deepest roster since the 2001 team could be set up for similar disappointment.

However, as much as it is easy to be consumed by negative thoughts and anxiety, to do so will only take away from continuing to enjoy the experience this Mariners team has provided since the trade deadline. Besides, it's the players which have to live with the burden of expectation to deliver and while there are never any guarantees, they sure seem built to deal with the same.

As Buhner said, this is a close-knit group who are pulling for and willing to fight for each other. And it helps they have players who have already proven they can deal with pressure, including Raleigh with his successful pursuit of 60 home runs and Randy Arozarena, who has the third-highest playoff OPS in the majors after Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

Ultimately, we appreciate this could be a once in a lifetime situation for both the Mariners franchise and their fans. Now, we wait to see how the team handles the increased pressure and intensity which comes from so much expectation from so many people outside the organization.