SEATTLE — Three days after losing Game 7, a freshly shaven Dan Wilson was still looking for the right words to describe the heartbreak of the Seattle Mariners being on the precipice of their first World Series berth.
“It does sting,” Wilson, who shed his playoff mustache after the Game 7 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Championship Series, said Thursday. “I’m not sure how long the sting’s going to last. For a lot of us, it’s a tough way to go out, and it’s a tough way to end a pretty outstanding season, and in some ways overshadows a lot of the positives that have happened.”
Much went right for the Mariners on the way to their first AL West title since 2001, including catcher Cal Raleigh becoming the seventh player in major league history to hit 60 homers in a season, making a strong case for AL MVP in his first season after signing a $105 million, six-year contract.
“The number of records that he started to break, it was a phenomenal season,” president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said. “If it wasn’t the best season a catcher’s ever had, it certainly was one of the best two. I don’t know what else he could have done.”
While Raleigh and fellow franchise cornerstone Julio Rodriguez are signed through the remainder of the decade, the Mariners are going to have to make some decisions on pending free agents, including third baseman Eugenio Suarez and first baseman Josh Naylor. Both were acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks prior to the trade deadline.
Dipoto said the Mariners will need to address first base, and that bringing back Naylor is a priority.
“You need that intensity. You need that drive,” Wilson said of Naylor. “I think his drive to win is incredible also. And that’s what you’re going to need from all your guys, and that’s a big part of what he brought to this club.”
As for third base, the Mariners could turn the keys over to rookie Ben Williamson, who made his major league debut in 2025 and was the club’s everyday option before trading for Suárez.
“We’re going to have to be a little choosier with how we implement our young players,” Dipoto said, “but they’re going to play a big part in what we do now and moving forward.”
Second baseman Jorge Polanco, meanwhile, has a player option worth $6 million, but he could be in line for a bigger contract after a rebound season.
“I don’t want to answer for him,” Dipoto said. “I imagine we will have to take a different route than is already on the table.”
Whatever direction the Mariners choose to take, it is abundantly clear the franchise does not want arguably its most successful of 49 seasons to be an aberration.
“I don’t worry about that with our guys,” Wilson said. “Our guys are fighters. I think they’ve shown that time and time again. And the way they played, particularly September and towards the end of the season into the playoffs, these guys fight. That’s something that you have to have, and you have to have to get to the World Series.”
