The Mariners are the best they have ever been! I know that may still be hard for many to hear, as they were just tragically eliminated in the 2025 American League Championship Series. As sad as it is, it is still important to realize how far they have come to reach the point we are at now. The Mariners’ early history is rough to say the least. In their first 17 years of existence, they did not make the playoffs once. Additionally, they lacked many notable players outside of 1984 Rookie of the Year winner Alvin Davis and pitcher Mark Langston. In the 1990s, though, they took a major step in the right direction. Along with two playoff appearances in 1995 and 1997, we saw the great seasons of many legendary Mariners such as Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, and Ken Griffey Jr. This success continued into the 2000s as we saw two more playoff appearances in 2000 and 2001, as well as the debut of one of the greatest players ever in Ichiro Suzuki. Unfortunately, outside of these first two years and a legendary decade for Ichiro, the rest of the 2000s were nothing to ride home about. As the Mariners were mediocre to bad for the rest of the decade. This mediocrity continued throughout the 2010s despite great players such as Kyle Seager, Robinson Cano, and Felix Hernandez having very successful decades in the blue and green. However, despite the longest playoff drought for the Mariners, 21 years to be exact, things have turned around recently for the Mariners. After a great 2021 that left Seattle just short of the playoffs, 2022, they came back even better, gaining new good players like Eugenio Suarez, as well as the debut of George Kirby and Julio Rodriguez, and with this new and improved team, the Mariners managed to finally make it back to the playoffs. Sadly, the next two years were disappointing as we did not make the playoffs, but in 2025, everything changed. Led by amazing seasons from catcher Cal Raleigh and centerfielder Julio Rodriguez, the Mariners made it back to the playoffs, and not only that, they made it to game 7 of the American League Championship series. Although things did not go the way we wanted in that series, we can look back at an amazing season and the journey it had been to get there, and know that we will likely have many more successful years in the future!