Seattle Mariners forcing their way into playoff picture

Don’t look now, but the Seattle Mariners are one of the hottest teams in baseball and are forcing their way into the playoff picture.

The Seattle Mariners were an afterthought at the beginning of the season. The American League West was expected to be a showdown between the A’s and Astros, two teams with World Series aspirations. Meanwhile, the Rangers and Angels were considered to have improved, leaving the Mariners in the AL West basement.

Seattle also attacked the trade deadline as sellers. They shipped reliever Taylor Williams to the Padres and sent Taijuan Walker to the Blue Jays. The Mariners also had a blockbuster deal with San Diego prior to the deadline, sending a pair of relievers and Austin Nola to the Padres for a package of prospects.

With those trades, it would be understandable if the Mariners were in the thick of the Kumar Rocker Sweepstakes, battling for the first overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. Instead, the Mariners find themselves in the midst of a battle for a playoff berth.

Heading into Monday, Seattle sits three games behind the Yankees for the eighth seed, although the Orioles and Tigers are also ahead of them. The Mariners also sit just three games behind the Astros for second place in the AL West, which would give them an automatic playoff berth.

The Mariners have also been one of the hottest teams in the game. They have won 11 of their past 15 games, and are riding a five game winning streak. With three weeks to go until the playoffs, it is not outside the realm of possibility for Seattle to make a push.

However, a lot would need to go right for the Mariners to reach the postseason. Either the Astros would need to plummet, or they would have to leapfrog three teams to get that eighth seed. For that to happen, the Mariners would need to see some dramatic improvement all the way around, as they rank 12th in the AL runs scored, 13th in OPS, and 13th in ERA.The Mariners may be in the playoff hunt, but they need to find another gear to stay there.

However, strange things can happen. In what has been an odd year in the first place, do not count the Seattle Mariners out of the playoff chase.