{"id":549162,"date":"2026-02-01T15:57:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549162\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:57:34","slug":"mariners-hungry-for-1st-world-series-appearance-after-disappointing-end-to-banner-2025-season-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549162\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners hungry for 1st World Series appearance after disappointing end to banner 2025 season | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 The day after longtime Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs announced he will retire at the end of the 2026 season<\/a> following his 41st year in the Seattle booth, he pleaded for the team to win the World Series this fall.<\/p>\n

And at the Mariners\u2019 fan fest Saturday at T-Mobile Park, countless key players from last year\u2019s team, which came within one win of the franchise\u2019s first World Series appearance, echoed the same sentiment. Perhaps nobody\u2019s tune was louder than that of star center fielder Julio Rodr\u00edguez, who spoke on behalf of the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this year is going to do wonders for us,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cI think we\u2019re all in a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle brought back many important contributors from last year\u2019s team, which went 90-72 and won the franchise’s first AL West title since 2001. It won\u2019t just be catcher Cal Raleigh, who became the seventh player in major league history to hit 60 homers in a season, returning to the Emerald City.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also first baseman Josh Naylor, who agreed to a five-year, $92.5 million contract with the Mariners in November<\/a>. Naylor endeared himself to Seattle\u2019s fan base with his aggressive style while hitting .299 with nine home runs and 19 stolen bases in 54 games after being acquired at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to spend a full season here, make some great memories,\u201d Naylor said. \u201cMy goal is to win a World Series every year, and (I) really want to try to do that for this city and this organization and everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the sting of a disappointing finish to a banner season continues to haunt various Mariners, just as it did in October in the days shortly after they were eliminated by the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series<\/a>. At the very least, though, it set a precedent for what the Mariners expect of themselves in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

Seattle starter George Kirby, who was third on the team in wins (10) last year, thinks getting to the ALCS should be the standard for this group moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to where we did, I feel like that\u2019s the floor for us this year,\u201d Kirby said. \u201cAnything else kind of doesn\u2019t cut it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mariners manager Dan Wilson, entering his second full season at the helm, expressed a similar level of confidence in his team, which returns five players who were worth at least 3.8 Wins Above Replacement last season, according to baseball-reference.com<\/a>. Perhaps unsurprisingly, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander didn\u2019t add many players to Seattle\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

While veteran infielder Jorge Polanco \u2014 who had 26 home runs last season \u2014 left via free agency for the New York Mets<\/a>, the Mariners did add outfielder Rob Refsnyder, who hit .269 with nine home runs and an .838 OPS in 70 games last year. Slugging third baseman Eugenio Su\u00e1rez, obtained in a July trade, remains a free agent, so Seattle could turn to 25-year-old Ben Williamson, who was a rookie last year, to man the hot corner.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the Mariners will be putting their faith in a core led by Rodr\u00edguez, Raleigh, Naylor and right-handed starting pitchers like Kirby, All-Star Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this group,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cTo have that core continue to be together, you can add pieces to that as we have. And I think Jerry and Justin do an outstanding job of that. And the pieces, because there\u2019s a core, the pieces fit in pretty quickly. I don\u2019t anticipate that being any different.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how Refsnyder and prospects like Williamson, fellow young infielder Cole Young and others will slot into Seattle\u2019s plans. The 2025 season remains one worth celebrating, but as Raleigh put it, the Mariners must build off what they already accomplished, or risk last year turning into a one-hit wonder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to accomplish here is winning a World Series and setting the standard, the bar, the expectations super high,\u201d Raleigh said, \u201cbecause that\u2019s where we want to be. I think that\u2019s kind of the way we\u2019re looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 The day after longtime Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs announced he will retire at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2392],"tags":[5,620,72425,4,256,8080,619,65,3235,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-549162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-mariners","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mariners","10":"tag-mariners-fan-fest-raleigh-naylor","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-baseball","13":"tag-mlb-world-series","14":"tag-seattle","15":"tag-seattle-mariners","16":"tag-seattlemariners","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115996199684191442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}