If you listened to the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast last offseason, you heard me talk about this topic many times.

My biggest question for the Seattle Mariners heading into the 2026 season was "how do you follow the same process as you did in 2025 without skipping steps?"

The Mariners had been to the destination they wanted to get to. They had won the division, they had played deep into October. They very clearly wanted to get back there and push beyond for the World Series.

But were they ready for the journey to reach that destination again, or, would they skip the steps that had gotten them there in the first place?

It was my biggest question, and I asked Dan Wilson about it right when I got to spring training in February.

To be honest with you, I didn't think, at least physically, that the Mariners were skipping steps this season. Maybe I'm too close to the forest to see the trees, but I saw them working very hard in person when I was around the team. I saw them putting in time, and extra time, and I didn't think they were on cruise control.

I thought they were injured, and I thought they simply played poorly, and then I thought they pressed. But I didn't think they were coasting.

As he does every week, Olney joined the podcast this Thursday to talk about the M's, and he discussed the hangover effect that comes from playing so deep into a season:

"And I remember having a conversation with Jim Leyland, and then later on, Bruce Bochy, you know, guys who took their teams to the World Series.

Bruce Bochy, they won three World Series. And they talked about the question of whether or not there's a hangover after you play deep into October. And they said, 'absolutely there is'. And whether it's physical, whether it's mental, the expectations that suddenly come with having success, all the requests that you can get in an off season after you've established yourself as being a star.

I mean, all of that added up. But they all say, yes, there's a hangover, you know, a physical hangover for some players who played a month longer than what they're used to."

The Mariners will play the penultimate game of the season on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Angels. The Mariners are 74-86 and guaranteed to finish third in the American League West.

Kade Anderson will pitch for the Mariners in his final start of the season. He's coming off his best start of the campaign last Saturday against the Colorado Rockies, as he tossed seven scoreless innings.