Opening wave of MLB Power Rankings have a rousing consensus on 2026 Mariners

After decades of being a divisional basement-dweller, the 2025 Mariners finally turned the tide by winning the AL West for the first time in 24 years. Their newfound success paired with a brilliant offseason has them poised for another strong playoff push in 2026.

It may just seem like irrational exuberance from overexcited fans, but they're not the only ones with bullish expectations.

The Seattle Mariners are consistently landing at the top of preseason power rankings

Now that spring training has all but concluded, there's no better time for an updated set of power rankings for each team.

Chris Landers at FanSided ranked them sixth, citing the impending breakouts of Cole Young and Colt Emerson as primary drivers behind the team's high ceiling. Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report placed them fourth, expressing optimism behind the offensive lift the team should get from their new corner infield duo of Brendan Donovan and Josh Naylor. Most encouraging are The Athletic, ESPN, and The Ringer, all three of which ranked the Mariners at second right behind the almighty Los Angeles Dodgers.

At the very least, most publications and projection systems have Seattle somewhere in the top five of MLB teams. That may sound surprising for those that haven't followed the team very closely over the past several years, but for fans that have been tuned in, this is the result of dividends being paid off.

Following the mediocrity of the 2010s, the Mariners went back to the drawing board, focusing on building their next crop of homegrown talent. Acknowledging that they wouldn't be able to spend big market amounts on fancy free agents, they became one of the best organizations at drafting and developing young players.

Based on FanGraphs' ZiPS projections for this year, four of their top-five pitchers by projected fWAR are homegrown, the sole exception being Luis Castillo. On the position player side, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez will continue to do much of the heavy lifting while other key players were intelligent trade acquisitions. In fact, the only player on the roster projected to have an impact that was acquired in free agency is Josh Naylor.

These lofty expectations seemingly stand in stark contrast with the team's spring training record of 11-19, which was the second-worst record in the Cactus League. However, this doesn't really count for much, especially since many of the team's best players were participating in the World Baseball Classic. Sure, some have posted subpar numbers as of late, but others have rebounded big.

What matters isn't how they performed in spring training but instead what it means for their forecasted regular season showing. It may be overeager to declare this the start of a new golden age for Seattle baseball but experts around the industry seem to agree on something: the Mariners are heading into 2026 as legitimate postseason contenders.