This Mariners team, this clubhouse, has earned a shot at something big

And so have we.

Quick aside: free subscribers, you aren’t missing any part of this post. Though let me know if something looks weird. Paid subscribers, I decided to give narration a shot. Hope you enjoy it.

via @Mariners video

When I think of the quintessential Mariners game in my own personal lore, I think of September 27th, 2014. Does everyone know this game? There was a time when everyone did but it’s been a decade now.

The Mariners were two back with two to play. They got the help they needed in Texas, with Oakland dropping the second of their three-game set vs. the Rangers—but they still needed to beat the Angels twice more to force a tie for the last Wild Card.

Logan Morrison’s seventh-inning double into the gap is seared into my soul, and so is the call of it by Aaron Goldsmith. It’s all so Mariners. Another year, another club liable to be shutout any night of the week. And it looked like a possibility here.

They were scoreless late and it would’ve so perfectly cruel to have a season snuffed out on a 1-0 loss. But no, LoMo doubled into the gap to score Seager and the Mariners squandered a good bit of opportunities before a should’ve-been double play ball off the bat of Austin Jackson was only a RBI fielder’s choice to walk it off in the 11th.

They were lucky they had that chance though, fortunate that one run had been enough to even force extras.

James Paxton’s final frame, the top of the sixth, saw him give up a lead-off double and have the runner advance to third on a wild pitch while there were still no outs. A strikeout helped. And so did a shallow liner finding the glove of Dustin Ackley in left. But after walking Chris Iannetta to put runners on the corners, Paxton’s day was done.

On came Danny Farquhar. At a time when another run would’ve felt like four and, god forbid, being down 3-0 or 4-0 may well as have been nine, Danny fired a 94mph 0-2 fastball over the bat of C.J. Cron and the score stayed right where it was.

Farquhar would get another out in the eighth—and he actually got three more the next day as he finished out what by then was another meaningless season-ending matinee.

While it was meaningless, it was something. I wrote at the time that 2014, a season when things stopped getting worse, was the year we all needed but that also “taking a first step is only noteworthy if a second step shortly follows.”

A decade later, I’m writing this blog and looking for, in my own view, that second big step forward.

You can find Danny Farquhar in Mariners social videos, bouncing up into the clubhouse after big wins.

This game and this team—the latter in a perplexing and bewitching fashion—will grip you.

We’ve all been through a lot with the M’s. A lot of good, a lot of bad.

Heck, though Danny last played for the club in 2015, Scott Servais walked the same tunnel clipped above when his 2016 #KeepFighting Mariners couldn’t come back one more time on a Saturday night against Oakland. He and Mitch Haniger were there in 2018 when the Mariners were all but guaranteed of a Postseason berth in July but very much did not have one a couple weeks into August.

The step back happened, the pandemic too. But people forget they were competitive with the expanded playoff field in 2020. They fought then, and even better the following year—though, only returning to the level they reached in 2014 and 2016, competing into the season’s final weekend.

The magic of 2022 is undeniable. And you can see it’s still there in this group. Because most of it is this group.

This group was, for good reason, pissed they didn’t take the next step forward last year. They weren’t only pissed with themselves, though. They were pissed, as evidenced by brash remarks from the very heroes of the season prior, at the people calling the shots upstairs.

They didn’t think they were given enough of one, the winter before and then at the trade deadline last year when the organization chose to sell and buy at the same time. Maybe move a little money around, too.

If you were to get players’ candid takes heading into 2024, they’d probably say they were still hoping for a piece or two. But they’d been in this situation before—Skip, the rotation, the core players—and they were going to fight like hell because that’s what they do. ‘

Now, more than ever, they deserve a shot to do something great. To do something big.

Your 2024 Seattle Mariners lead the American League West by nine games. They’re within striking distance of a bye. It is June 18th.

They play the same brand of baseball they’ve played for a few years now, but starting with a better base. A more mature base? Different stock of vets, but a more refined group of young pieces.

Once again, though, they need a little more. And nobody’s going to complain if they’re given a lot more.

All I know is they’ve earned it.

You have young players who have been in this organization a sizable chunk of their lives—living and breathing the culture, the strategy, the dogma.

Julio signed in 2017. Logan and Cal were drafted in 2018. George Kirby was the first-round pick in 2019.

They’ve put in the time and the work.

Even a relatively fresh face like Bryce Miller, he follows up a kick-to-the-door jamb of a rookie season by…going out and adding one of the best new pitches in baseball, one that perfectly complements his existing offering.

You have a skipper who survived a freaking rebuild and before, during and after the literal world-stopping global pandemic coinciding with it, almost always got the very most out of the bubble gum and paper clips handed to him from a Baseball Ops group whose other hand was tied behind its back.

They’ve earned a big-time move. They’ve earned the chance to take a run at a title.

I’ve argued they did before, but it’s undeniable now.

I don’t know what all goes into it, honestly. I’ll be the first to admit it. I don’t know what the conversations are like between baseball people and owner people and everyone around or in-between when it comes to transactions.

That’s why you won’t see me often make specific trade proposals. It’s never what you think.

Do I believe Luis Robert Jr. would be good to add? Absolutely. You may even get a piece from me on him. But I’m not going to say he’s worth this group of players but not that one with any confidence.

The last time this organization took a big swing, they landed the Rock that’d serve as the foundation of their rotation—which itself is the base of all that they do in this league.

Are there risks? Yeah. Of course.

But when you hit, and teams do hit on big swings, the dividends compound exponentially.

If the powers that be think this is fun, pulling in 120,000 on a semi-gray weekend in June, imagine the impact of a pennant and a parade.

This city wants greatness so bad. This state does, this region. And it will love a winner like a dog loves smelling every goddamn thing on a walk after it rains.

I guess everything’s fresher then—more pungent, more rich?

Seattle baseball fans have seen a lot of rain. So have these players who have been here a few years.

But we’ve all seen the sun breaks, too—those Pacific Northwest

days in late spring when it says it’s gonna rain and it does a bit but then it’s its own brand of beauty in the late afternoon and evening.

We’ve had more and more really good days lately.

And it feels like there is a special summer on deck followed by a long autumn.

We the fans have earned that, the players have earned that, and so has everyone else who’s put in the work for this organization.

Let’s take a shot. Let’s have some fun.

That’s why we do any of this.

Go M’s.