Mariners officially eliminated from 2024 MLB playoff contention

The impossible dream ended with the Mariners watching helplessly at home and hopelessly waiting for a miracle that was never realized.

With both the Kansas City Royals and the Detroit Tigers rallying for late-inning victories on Thursday afternoon in their respective games, the Mariners were officially eliminated from 2024 postseason contention.

It’s an outcome that felt inevitable for more than a week, but wasn’t a mathematical reality until the final days of the regular season. Seattle needed to sweep its weekend series vs. the A’s and have both Detroit and Kansas City to lose their final four games to sneak into the third wild card spot.

A jackpot-winning Powerball ticket felt like more of a possibility.

After qualifying for the third wildcard in 2022, the Mariners have failed to make the postseason in the two seasons that followed. Since the 2001 season, they’ve made the postseason just once.

It was a disappointing end to a frustrating season that started with so much hope and promise as the Mariners, riding a starting rotation seemingly delivered a quality start each night, rolled to a 44-31 record and a 10-game lead in the American League West on June 19.

There was actual belief the Mariners might win their first division title since the infamous 2001 season.

But an offense that struck out far too often and scored too few runs and a bullpen absent of key late-inning relievers due to injuries, made the early success unsustainable.

After that apex point, the season devolved into slog of lost games and series, eventually leading to the firing of long-time manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart on Aug. 23. The Mariners had a 21-32 record over that span of games, losing the 10-game lead in just 24 games. The only team with a worse record during that same 53-game span was the Chicago White Sox.

The Mariners reached into their past, naming Dan Wilson as Servais’ replacement as full-time manager and Edgar Martinez as the interim hitting coach. Aided by the trade-deadline acquisitions of outfielder Randy Arozarena and first baseman/DH Justin Turner and the resurgence of Julio Rodriguez, who had struggled for most of the season, had shown improvement in the final month of the season. Seattle has averaged 5.1 runs per game in its last 31 games, posting a .257/.349/.415 slash line, while rolling to an 18-13 record.