From Breakthroughs to Surprises: Five Highlights Seattle Mariners Can Celebrate This Holiday .MH
As families across America gather to give thanks, it’s a good time to give our own gratitude for everything the Seattle Mariners gave us in the 2025 season.
Here are the five things that Mariners fans are most thankful for at the end of one of the most eventful years in franchise history.
5 things Mariners fans are thankful for this Thanksgiving
Cal Raleigh’s historic 60-home run season
If there is one thing the 2025 season will be remembered for in 100 years, it probably won’t be the Dodgers winning the World Series (they’ve won plenty of those). It won’t be Aaron Judge winning his third of who knows how many MVP awards. It won’t be Shohei Ohtani winning his fourth MVP award. It probably won’t even be Nick Kurtz hitting four home runs in one game as a rookie.
It will be Cal Raleigh, who became the first catcher (and the seventh player ever) to hit 60 home runs in a season. Raleigh’s power carried the Mariners to the ALCS, and helped him finish four votes away from the MVP award.
Julio RodrĂguez’s all-around talent
RodrĂguez continues to be one of the best overall players in the league, and the numbers back it up. He was worth a career-high 6.8 bWAR in 2025, with a 128 OPS+ and elite defense in center field. He finished sixth in AL MVP voting.
AndrĂ©s Muñoz’s lockdown abilities
AndrĂ©s Muñoz has become a lockdown closer for the Mariners, and it’s something worth being grateful for. He finished 2025 with 38 saves, 2.4 bWAR, and a career-best 1.73 ERA. He’s made back-to-back All-Star games, and is in the conversation of “best closer in baseball.” He was clutch as ever in the postseason, where he gave Seattle 8.1 scoreless innings and allowed just two hits and two walks.
Polanco’s and Suárez’s playoff moments
Mariners fans got a taste of what huge playoff moments feel like in 2022 during the comeback win over the Blue Jays. In 2025, they got even more playoff sensations, the biggest of which came from the veteran infielders Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suárez.
Polanco delivered a walk-off RBI single in the 15th inning of ALDS Game 5 against the Detroit Tigers, a hit which sent the Mariners to the ALCS for the first time in 24 years. Suárez delivered his own clutch moment in Game 5 of the ALCS, blasting a grand slam in a tie game. That game gave Seattle a 3-2 series lead, which they eventually lost, but the moment will last forever, especially in the hearts of fans at the game.
The team is closer than ever
While the Mariners might not have won the World Series in 2025, they came as close as they have ever come. They were one win away from going to the Fall Classic for the first time, and most of the core is still going to be in place in 2026 and beyond. The starting rotation is still full of young talent and the lineup will still feature Raleigh, RodrĂguez, Josh Naylor, J.P. Crawford, and Randy Arozarena. That gives Seattle a great chance of running it back and going all the way in 2026.
