There's been a lot of ups and downs since president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto joined the team's front office in 2015.

In his decade-long tenure with the organization, the Mariners have went through a rebuild, broke a 21-year playoff drought in 2022, barely missed the playoffs in 2023-24 and made the deepest playoff run in franchise history last year.

Coming off that postseason run, where Seattle made it to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, the M's are considered by the masses to be genuine championship contenders for the first time in over two decades.

In a recent appearance on MLB Network, Dipoto gave an overview on how the roster was developed and how he views the team going into this season.

"Building this roster, it started years ago," Dipoto said. "And it's been, at some times, very nonlinear in how it's developed. We've come up short a few times, we've made (the playoffs) once before in (2022). And last year I thought was the coming-of-age of a roster that we've envisioned for a number of years. All these players, we've talked about (Cal Raleigh) and (Julio Rodriguez) and 80% of our starting rotation is homegrown and came up through our system. This has been our vision for a long time. And sometimes vision is blurry. For a number of years there, it got a little blurry. It got a little hairy. Here in 2026, I love where our roster is and its players who've been here who believe in what we do. ... I think the vibe, the culture in our space right now is as good as it's ever been and that's exciting to me."

Last year, the clubhouse had a uniform confidence and belief that they were capable of competing, despite not having the playoff resume of other contenders with similar belief.

This spring, that confidence has been renewed with the ALCS berth and the additions the team has made in the offseason.

The Mariners acquired 2025 All-Star Brendan Donovan, giving them six players who were selected to the Midsummer Classic last year. More impressively, those six All-Stars comprise every facet of the team: the infield, outfield, starting rotation and bullpen.

Seattle also brought back first baseman Josh Naylor on a five-year deal. The M's acquired him at the trade deadline and he was one of the team's best players in the second half of '25.

On top of the returning major leaguers, the Mariners also have top 100 prospects waiting in the wings, such as infielders Colt Emerson and Michael Arroyo and outfielder Lazaro Montes.

With all of these factors in play, it's officially "World Series or bust" for Seattle, which is a good place for the franchise to be in compared to when Dipoto first joined the front office.

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