The 88-74 crew... and a lot of Wild Card berths
Aidan Smith: 88-74: Wild Card
Mariners clinch a Wild Card Berth and win their 1st playoff game since Ichiro's historic rookie season. Mitch Garver finally plays more than 100 games and hits 25 homers, while Julio finishes top 3 in AL MVP voting. Mitch Haniger struggles to stay on the field, resulting in 400+ plate appearances from Dominic Canzone.
On the pitching side, Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert both make the AL All Star team, but Luis Castillo regresses a bit in his age 31 season. The Mariners pitching staff gets bit by the injury bug, and the front office is forced to trade Jonatan Clase and Harry Ford to replenish the roster with much-needed starting pitching depth. After winning exactly 54% of their games in 2024, Jerry finally convinces John Stanton to spend some money at the Winter Meetings.
Christine Navarro: 88-74: Wild Card
I compared the Mariners’ hitters and pitchers in Spring Training against the other teams in the AL West. The Mariners did well with their batting averages. Our starting pitchers have not performed thus far as well as the other teams nor matched their statistics from 2023. While I anticipate that the Mariners will have a winning record at the end of the season, I hope that the pitchers will not have a slow start. If our principal players are healthy, I predict that we could win 88 and lose 72 as the team did last year. Go Ms!
Levi Coovert: 88-74: #5 Seed (Wild Card)
Second place in the AL West, finishing behind the Astros is where the Mariners end up in 2024. They match up against the Orioles in the first round of the playoffs, sweeping them with Castillo and Kirby on the mound. They move on to play the #1 seeded Yankees in the ALDS. Unfortunately, the Mariners lost game 5 as Soto and Judge got the best of the Mariners. The future looks bright though, and fans are positive once again as Julio finishes top-3 in MVP voting and four Mariners make the All-Star game.