After the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night, the World Series is now set:

The Rays will take on the Milwaukee Brewers in the Fall Classic, which begins on Friday night.

The Rays haven't been to the World Series since the COVID 2020 season. They've never won a title. The Brewers haven't been to the World Series since 1982. They've also never won, which means that whichever team wins this championship will be winning its first title ever.

And how does that impact the Seattle Mariners?

Well, we already know that the Mariners are the only team to never even appear in the World Series.

But as of now, the Mariners are still one of five teams to never win the World Series, joining the Rays, Brewers, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres.

Well, once one of these teams wins, that list will be down to four.

If you're going to own one piece of frustrating history, you might as well get closer to owning another piece of frustrating history, and that's what this shrinking list is, frustrating history.

The Mariners have been around for 50 years. They've gotten to the American League Championship Series four times. The closest they got to the World Series was in 2025 when they took the Toronto Blue Jays to Game 7 of the ALCS before falling.

The Mariners held 2-0 and 3-2 series leads but couldn't hold on.

Seattle also got to the ALCS in 1995, losing to Cleveland, and it lost in both 2000 and 2001 to the New York Yankees.

The M's are still working through the process of hiring their next manager. Jim Bowden of 'The Athletic' reported on Monday that the M's are hoping to have a hire made by the end of this month, which could be important given the looming potential lockout.

So far, we know that the Mariners are going to interview former Houston Astros manager Joe Espada and that they have interest in former Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli.

They also reportedly had interest in former New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, but he elected to take the third base coaching job with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Mariners went 76-86 this season, finishing third in the American League West.