Article by Emily Klesick.
I will admit, I started drafting this article the week before the Mariners traded for Brendan Donovan.
As weird as it may sound, I felt it was my responsibility, not only as a Mariners writer, but also as a self-proclaimed hopelessly optimistic M’s fan, to bolster the fanbase towards encouragement and hope. With the potential “big bat” trade seemingly fading away and the notion that the front office might skate by without another move before the season opener, I was ready to take my job as CEO (chief executive optimist) seriously.
Then the trade happened. Thanks for stealing my thunder, Jerry.
However, when I sat back and stared at the list in my notes of all the reasons why we should be moving into the 2026 season with excitement and anticipation, I realized that I still stand by each of these things, regardless of how much better the outlook is with Brendan Donovan dressed in teal and blue. The Mariners have a lot going for them, and I would be remiss not bring it to your attention, especially if you do not have such a proclivity towards hope as I do.
So, without further ado, here are the hopeless optimist’s reasons all Mariners fans should be excited about the 2026 season.
The Mariners’ Elite Rotation
Without question, the Mariners possess one of the greatest rotations in the MLB (no, I do not want to talk about the Tigers and Dodgers, thank you very much). And while injuries made things considerably more difficult for these five last season, the overall skillset is still there. Bryan Woo had a year that put him in the running for the Cy Young before going down with an injury during the final series against the Astros in September. Luis Castillo, our beloved La Piedra, showed his age just a little, but finished the season with a consistent 3.54 ERA and, in many ways, carried the team while other arms were injured. George Kirby, the strikezone master otherwise known as Furious George, worked hard to find the edges of the zone after his first few years of playing a bit too inside of it. Logan Gilbert, belovedly known by his alter ego “Walter”, sustained an injury in late April, missing nearly two months of the regular season. That said, while he struggled a bit after returning, we still saw his incredible pitching prowess on display throughout the season (anyone else remember his 13-strikeout game on August 24th?). And finally, while Bryce Miller had one of his most challenging seasons yet with an ERA of 5.68 while working through repeated bouts of right elbow inflammation and several stints on the injured list, he was dominant in his postseason showings and has worked hard in the offseason to return to his dominant self.
All this to say, if the Mariners’ rotation can avoid an injury-plagued season, these five stand to have another dominant year on the mound.
Cal Raleigh
Need I say more? I mean, I will, of course. But Cal Raleigh’s name has become one that doesn’t need qualification. I don’t know that any of us anticipated who 2025 Cal Raleigh would become, but regardless, it was certainly something to behold. While his most impressive stats were plastered all over both Seattle and national media, such as his league-leading 60 home runs and his 125 RBIs, there is no way to quantify what it felt like as a Mariners fan to watch him. Cal made every game and plate appearance feel like Christmas morning, just waiting with anticipation to see what gift we might receive. And over and over, we received that gift. Personally, I was in the audience for two of his most memorable home runs: #49 to break the home run record for a catcher (previously held by Salvador Perez) on August 24th, and #60 on September 24th against the Rockies, placing him among names like Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, and Sammy Sosa in the history books. And while it isn’t fair or logical to expect Cal to replicate that in 2026, Mariners fans across the board are waiting to see what he has in store for us.
Josh Naylor
It didn’t take long after the end of the 2025 season for the Mariners to announce that Josh Naylor was in Seattle to stay. On November 17th, Naylor signed a 5-year, $92.5M deal that will keep him a Mariner through the 2030 season. As I said in a previous article, I’m not sure that any player has so quickly stolen the hearts of M’s fans. The excitement felt at the trade deadline when it was announced that Josh was headed to Seattle from Arizona was palpable, especially when combined with the return of Eugenio Suarez from Arizona shortly thereafter. It wasn’t long after that Josh began embracing the myriad of Seattle sports and culture, endearing him to fans quickly. As well, Josh has made it clear how much he loves playing in Seattle, and that became even more apparent when the signing was announced. Aside from that, Josh is a true contributor to the team both on and off the field. His contact-hitting abilities are a welcome addition to a team that had long struggled with high strikeout rates and an imbalanced reliance on power bats. As well, he has stepped in as a clubhouse leader, with his teammates having no shortage of positive things to say about him (just ask the M’s clubhouse dog, Tucker). Finally, having the front office secure him just weeks after the end of the 2025 season showed all of us fans that they know we have something special going on in Seattle, and retaining as much of the talent from our historic run as possible was necessary to make a push for 2026. Altogether, Josh’s presence in Seattle says something to all of us: the Mariners are the team to watch in 2026.
The potential for “Peak Year Julio”
While there is not necessarily empirical evidence for a “peak year” in the MLB, it has been widely known that somewhere between the ages of 26 and 28 is when hitters have their best year. With that said, as Julio Rodriguez just turned 25 in December, there’s every chance we are heading into the season where he becomes even more of a star than he already is, It feels wild to even write that, as Julio is widely regarded as the best center fielder in the league, having both elite defensive numbers as well as a .267 batting average and a WAR of 6.8 in 2025. And while comments and jokes around “second-half Julio” tend to dominate the Mariners’ corner of the internet, there is no denying the value that Julio adds to the M’s all season long. That said, are we about to see the best version of Julio that we have seen yet? Statistics seem to point to that being a huge possibility, and I, for one, am ready to cheer him on and see what he’s got cooking for 2026.
Prospect Call Ups
One thing that Mariners fans tend to take for granted is a stacked farm system. The Mariners have prioritized the “draft, develop, trade” mentality that has given them the elite prospect capital they have to work with. And with that, the Mariners also have some incredible young guys waiting in the wings for their “Welcome to The Show” moment. First and foremost, top prospect Colt Emerson is all but guaranteed to hit the major league roster in early 2026, if not for Opening Day. It will be interesting to see how he slots in, especially with the addition of Donovan and his expected position at third base, but this young man is expected to do big things in his MLB career. Other young players like LHP Kade Anderson, RHP Ryan Sloan, and OF Lazaro Montes, who all received non-rostered invites to spring training, have the potential to make their MLB debuts during this season as well. With prospects, you never quite know when to expect their debut, but with Colt Emerson being nearly a sure thing at some point in 2026, we’ll likely have at least one young guy we’ve all had our eye on to cheer for with the M’s this year.
A Team Motivated to Come Back and Win
If you saw any content from Mariners FanFest a couple of weeks ago, one of the main questions that our guys were asked was if they had moved on or gotten over how the 2025 season ended. The resounding answer? Absolutely not. And while I’d never want to imagine these players beating themselves up over the end of what was arguably the M’s most impressive season, it’s encouraging to know that they are not satisfied with it ending there. The overall feel from the M’s clubhouse, from the players to the coaching staff to the front office, is that they are fired up to come back and go all the way. The momentum that seemingly ended on October 21st has picked back up (aided by some offseason moves as well), and the team is ready for more.
50 Seasons Celebration
One thing that I’m personally looking forward to this year is the celebration of fifty seasons of Mariners baseball. While we don’t have the full scope of all that’s planned, we know that there is a great deal of celebrating coming up. The 50 greatest Mariners will be honored, special moments in Mariners’ history will be memorialized, and there’s certain to be unexpected special moments and events throughout the season. Some things on the calendar already are various nights to remember different decades of Mariners baseball with pin giveaways, as well as a full weekend celebrating 50 seasons taking place on August 7th-9th. There’s so much to look back on over fifty seasons, and Seattle deserves this opportunity to celebrate the best moments in our team’s history.
Celebrating Rick Rizzs
Admittedly, this is a bittersweet one, but it requires a place on this list. Rick Rizzs, one of the most memorable and iconic voices of the Seattle Mariners, is retiring at the end of the 2026 season. Part of the celebrations this season will certainly be honoring Rizzs for all of his contributions to the M’s over the years. From his most iconic calls to the stories he will have to tell after decades with the Mariners to all the fond memories his broadcasting counterparts are bound to share, honoring Rick will be a monumental part of the season, regardless of how it goes. Now this begs the question: how can the Mariners best honor Rick this season? I think we all know the answer to that: allow him to call a Mariners’ World Series game.
The landscape of televised baseball has changed significantly over the years. Between the expense of cable and specialty streaming services, fewer and fewer Mariners fans have had access to games on TV. Last year, in its final year of operation, Root Sports created a direct-to-consumer streaming service that was an affordable option but had significant limitations. This streaming service didn’t have the ability to pause or rewatch games, and the app interface was glitchy and challenging to interact with (and as someone who utilized it, I can verify). This year, with the end of Root Sports, the Mariners have moved their televised games to a partner network within the framework of MLB.TV, called Mariners.TV. There are huge benefits to this for consumers, as the interface of MLB.TV is already functional and user-friendly, and the price point for this service is similar to what it was for last year’s option, with significantly better amenities. For Mariners fans to continue to have access to games at an affordable price is a massive win for the fanbase and for the 2026 season on the whole.
And last but not least… Brendan Donovan (but not really)
So while it’s tempting to fully put Brendan Donovan on this list (and he’s certainly a reason to be excited for the 2026 season), I’m much more interested in talking about what Brendan Donovan represents. Call it an exaggeration, but to many of us fans, acquiring Donovan was a huge piece of us believing that the Mariners’ front office actually cared about the 2026 season. None of us will forget the feelings that many of our last offseasons have brought about (disappointment, frustration, the sheer nausea caused by screaming at our Twitter feeds while begging for a move), so watching Jerry and Co. acquire a player that met several needs rather than attempting to shuffle around the guys we already had to address roster deficits felt like balm to our collectively-jaded souls. Now, do I have high expectations for Brendan and what he will offer our team? Sure. Do I think he’s the answer to everything that could go wrong? Absolutely not. But not only are we in a better spot now than we were after the 2025 offseason, but the front office has considerably more buy-in from a skeptical fanbase than they’ve had in a very long time.
So, as this article goes live, we have seen just one game in Spring Training and have a whole lot to see before we make any grand judgments about how this Mariners season will shape up. That said, this hopeless optimist has felt like she’s been in really good company as, for once, I’m not the only one with a predominantly positive attitude about the upcoming season. 2026 is shaping up to be an incredibly fun season to watch, and I’m itching for Opening Day to arrive and see what this team can do.
We’d love to know: what are you most excited for this season? What are your reservations? Here’s to 2026!
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