On the surface, the Seattle Mariners have a lot in common with the last version of the team that made the MLB playoffs.

State of the Seattle Mariners: Where they stand heading into playoffs

Both won 90 games in the regular season. Both had a lineup that leaned on Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez. Both had a strong pitching rotation that featured Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Luis Castillo.

But even with those similarities, the 2025 Mariners are quite different from the team that reached the postseason in 2022. And those differences are why the M’s are built much better for a deep run in October this time.

Here are three big things that could show up in key ways during Seattle’s return to October baseball starting with the American League Division Series Saturday.

1. Experience.

Even though the Mariners have a number of players on their roster who were on the 2022 team that won a American League Wild Card Series over the Toronto Blue Jays, they’re grown a lot since.

In 2022, Julio Rodríguez was a rookie who had just 132 MLB games under his belt. Cal Raleigh had played just 166 career games in the big leagues. Logan Gilbert had started 56 games for Seattle by that point. George Kirby had started just 25.

Now, those four players are three years older. They’ve played in playoff games. They’ve been in three more postseason races. They’ve made All-Star teams. They’ve won a division championship.

The homegrown Mariners aren’t Seattle’s only players with experience on the big stage, either. Nearly every player that will be on the postseason rosters has played in October before. Jorge Polanco is set to play in his fifth career postseason. Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez, Mitch Garver and Caleb Ferguson are all entering their fourth. Luis Castillo is set for his third.

Some Mariners even have a World Series ring at home, including Mitch Garver, who won one with the 2023 Texas Rangers, and Victor Robles, who was on 2019 champion Washington Nationals.

The Mariners have more playoff experience in the dugout this time around, too. Former manager Scott Servais deserves plenty of credit for the role he played in the Mariners franchise getting to this point, but he played just one career MLB playoff game during his 11-year career. Current M’s manager Dan Wilson, though, made four trips to the postseason as a player and played in 30 games. Before 2022, Wilson had been the primary Mariners catcher in every playoff series in team history.

So these Mariners have been here before, whether it was with Seattle or another team. That honestly may be a big reason the Mariners are here at all, considering their run of 17 wins out of 18 games down the stretch in September that propelled them to the AL West title.

2. A balanced lineup.

Some teams in the playoffs are better against right-handed pitching. Some do more damage against lefties.

But the Mariners? They’re pretty close to even.

On the season, the Mariners were ninth in MLB with a .747 OPS against right-handers. Against lefties, they were 12th with a .727 OPS.

Power-wise, Seattle was actually better against southpaws compared to the league, finishing fourth in MLB with 68 homers, only two behind the league-leading Yankees and Dodgers. And the Mariners, who were third in MLB with 238 homers overall, still had great power numbers against righties, finishing fifth with 170.

The M’s will be helped in the postseason with their ability to mix and match. If an opponent brings in a lefty to face Dominic Canzone, a lefty swinger who crushes righties, the Mariners could turn to a right-handed bat who likes hitting lefties such as Mitch Garver. Lefty-hitting Luke Raley, the righty-swinging Robles and switch-hitting Leo Rivas could also be available for Seattle off its bench.

More importantly, though, the M’s have hitters who do fine no matter what arm the pitcher is throwing with. That includes Raleigh, Rodríguez, Jorge Polanco, Randy Arozarena, and even left-handed first baseman Josh Naylor.

The Mariners’ lineup is balanced, deep, and one of the more dangerous in this playoff field.

3. Clutch performers.

If you’re another team in the playoffs looking at the Mariners, you have plenty of reason to hope you don’t match up with them. That’s because Seattle’s roster is loaded with players with clutch moments in their history.

Raleigh has a few, including his playoff drought-ending walk-off homer from 2022 and another blast a few days later in his first career postseason at-bat.

Naylor has a couple postseason homers under his belt and had the biggest hit of the Mariners’ season, a three-run double that game Seattle the lead in the eighth inning of its postseason-clinching victory over the Colorado Rockies last week.

Castillo and Kirby each had long, scoreless performances in the 2022 playoffs.

Polanco actually led MLB this season in Fangraphs’ Clutch statistic that measures how well a player performs in high-leverage situations.

And then there’s one certified postseason legend who now wears a Mariners jersey. Arozarena is known as one of baseball’s best big game players, and his 2020 playoff run with Tampa Bay is the stuff of legend. He is a career .336 hitter with with 11 home runs and a 1.104 OPS in 33 career playoff games, which is just ridiculous.

No one will want to face Arozarena in a big spot in October. And the Mariners follow him in the lineup with the 60-homer man himself, Cal Raleigh, and two-time 30/30 member Julio Rodríguez, so good luck with that.

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