Colin O'Keefe

Sometimes seasons end the way you think seasons end, decisively and tragically. There’s one game where that’s it, where they’re fully cooked and it’s all over. That happens, sure. Basically never as definitively as last year—hoo boy, wish they hadn’t blown that—but you’ll get series and games like 2014 and 2016 and 2021 and 2023 even with teams, like those, that weren’t all that good. But other times, seasons just fade away.

Last week in passing on the option to reacquire a franchise icon, the Mariners found a way to lose on their day off. Yesterday, they took a significant loss on a day they also won. The worst division in baseball received a competitive jolt with news Stan Kroenke would be acquiring the Los Angeles Angels from the much-maligned Arte Moreno. Angels fans are rejoicing and for good reason. Mariners fans, present company included, want what they have.

Still from a video by the talented and hard-working folks at @Mariners Digital. Cal Raleigh hit so many damn home runs last year. Truly, a preposterous amount. Sixty home runs. Before Cal in 2023, no Mariner catcher had ever hit 20 bombs in a season. The big man did it three times last year. It is an absurd number of home runs. It’s so many that if you went to more than even one or two M’s games, you probably saw him hit one.