Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners: A tale of the decade

The Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners had vastly differing amounts of success over the past decade. But in the end, they were about the same.

In theory, it was a tale of two distinctly different decades for the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners. The Royals reached the World Series in consecutive years, losing in seven games in 2014 before taking home the crown the following year. Meanwhile, the Mariners had not reached the postseason since 2001.

However, based on their records for the past decade, one would have expected the two franchises to have the same level of success. As it turns out, the Mariners and Royals had identical 758-862 records over the past decade, although the Royals reached the postseason twice.

Although the two records are the same, they are different. The Royals were awful for half of that decade, and had just four seasons where they were at least .500. In the midst of that run, Kansas City had two special years, as Ned Yost and company found the lucky horseshoe throughout most of October. That is, until they ran into Madison Bumgarner.

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The Mariners, on the other hand, were far more consistent. Although they did not win 90 games at any point in the decade, they also had just one season – 2010 – with 100 or more losses. However, despite winning at least 86 games three times in the decade, the Mariners finished second in the division just once.

This does speak volumes to the two divisions. For the most part, the AL Central has had one dominant team, with the occasional challenger. The AL West, however, was the playground of the Rangers and the Astros, two teams that were juggernauts during their run, with the occasional surprise showing from the A’s and Angels. The Mariners were usually playing for third.

And that was the difference. The Royals had a brief window during which to make their run, and they took advantage of it. The Mariners, despite Jerry Dipoto‘s recent tinkering of the roster, have yet to have that window.

The Seattle Mariners and the Kansas City Royals had the exact same record in the past decade. However, those decades were not close to being the same.