Passan very interested in how Mariners respond to their 2026 season

The Seattle Mariners have won at least 85 games in every season since 2021, but with a 70-80 record and just 12 games to go, that streak will end at five straight seasons.

In fact, the Mariners are very much at risk of finishing under .500 in a full season the first time since 2019, when they were last in the AL West at 68-94 in their first year after undertaking a rebuild.

What Wyman and Bob are watching over Seattle Mariners’ closing stretch

Seattle came into 2026 with expectations of pushing through to the World Series a year after coming just innings short of winning the American League. Not much has gone right for the M’s, though. They’ve struggled to withstand injuries to key players, have MLB’s second-lowest team batting average (.232) and third-lowest OPS (.692) entering Monday, and their pitching staff is 20th in baseball in ERA (4.22) and tied for 21st in opponent batting average (.250).

With so many things for the team going the wrong direction this year, Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk had a key question about the Mariners for ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan on Monday: Does the disappointment of this season challenge what he thinks about the team’s process?

It does, as Passan explains. Here’s his full answer:

Yeah. I think it has to, right? Process is great, but outcome is ultimately the most important thing in sports.

We can talk about how an individual loss here or there is not nearly as big of a deal as it might feel like as long as the process was sound. But ultimately, what’s the point of process if not to get better outcomes? And if the better outcomes aren’t coming, where have the flaws in the process been? And what have the Mariners not paid enough attention to? And most of all, how are they going to change? How are they going to adjust?

That to me is going to be the most interesting part of 2026 for the Seattle Mariners. It’s not the failures that they had, which have been manifold. It’s the response to them and the ability to get back on track with what I still think is an extremely solid core.

I don’t think my assessment of their talent has necessarily changed all that much, but I think how they go about figuring out how to translate that talent into wins, that’s going to say everything you need to know about this team and about the people who are in position to lead it right now. It’s just going to be interesting to me to see if those are the same people next year as they are right now.

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan in the podcast below. Catch Brock and Salk live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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