Seattle Mariners Broadcaster Discusses Team's 'Complacency' in 2026

The Seattle Mariners finished the 2026 season at 76-86 and as one of the most disappointing teams in the league. After getting to the American League Championship Series in 2025, the M's had World Series aspirations in 2026, but it just never materialized and the team never really got going.

As the season was ending, Mariners players spoke about their "complacency" and there was a lot of talk about a perceived lack of accountability among everyone in the organization. 

We spoke about that complacency on Wednesday's edition of the "Refuse to Lose Territory" podcast with former M's pitcher and current M's broadcaster Ryan Rowland-Smith.

I asked him to expand on the notion of 'complacency.' Does it mean that players think they are better than they are? Or, does it mean that players were bored by the regular season and just wanted to fast forward to the postseason?

Here was his answer:

"No, you just think it's all going to work out. That's what it is. Like, you think, 'you know what? We're struggling right now as a team.' Trust me, you lose sleep at night on personally, what you're doing. But, you as a team, 'oh, we'll be fine.You know, mid-May, we're going to go on a run here. We'll go on a run And that's what being complacent is.

As opposed to, like, 'hey, we're slipping. We're actually going downward. We're trending down right now.' And it's good to have that belief. Please don't get me wrong on that. Like, you want to have that belief, like, 'hey, we're really good. We're going to be okay.' But when you're looking to your left and right saying, well, who's going to step up here? Who's going to be that guy? Because Cal's (Raleigh) not doing it.

And I get it, because he's struggling. You shut down as a player. And by the way, Cal doesn't feel worthy to step up and, he said it to us in the media a little bit like, 'oh, we're going to get more focused, blah, blah, blah.' But he's not going to get on someone because I'll turn around and go, 'dude, you're not hitting.' And that's where that downward spiral goes.

So complacency is, you're sitting on the top step of the dugout as a starting pitcher. Like 'we just lost five, whatever. We're all good.' Put the music on and whatever. No, no, no. You cannot. You can't do that, man. 162 games turns into a sprint real quick. And that's what happened to the Mariners."

The Mariners struggled almost universally this season: The offense was near the bottom of the league in several key categories. The bullpen was hammered in the second half and the starting rotation regressed, also in the second half. The struggles caused the Mariners to fire manager Dan Wilson after 2-plus seasons and now the team is in the process of searching for its next manager.

Here's the latest on what we know about the managerial search.

As for Rowland-Smith, he spent parts of five seasons in the majors, including four with the Mariners. He was 12-17 lifetime with a 4.57 ERA. He went 10-7 between 2009-10, appearing in 62 total games across those two seasons.

Though he's been in Mariners media for a number of years, 2026 was his first season as a full-time television analyst.