All season long, there have been questions about the Seattle Mariners clubhouse.

Are there really issues in there? Or, is that just a perception based on the fact that the team has slumped to a 64-70 record this season?

As someone who has been in the clubhouse a bunch over the last two seasons, I've generally defended the clubhouse culture. In my opinion, the clubhouse attitude is the same today as it was a year ago when the team was going through a solid season that took them to the American League Championship Series.

I believe that the team cares about its performance, and I believe the players care about each other. I've generally defended the way that Dan Wilson runs the clubhouse because of the other two points. If the team cares, continues to work hard, and cares about each other, that just has to reflect well on the manager.

But regardless of what I think, there have been questions about attitude, effort and accountability.

On Friday night, the Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays will play at 4:15 p.m. PT, with the game being broadcast on Apple TV. Veteran reporter Tricia Whitaker will serve as the field reporter for the broadcast team, and before she was with Apple TV, she worked on Tampa Bay Rays broadcasts for a number of years. I decided to ask her: What makes a "good" and "healthy" clubhouse on the latest edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast.

"A good clubhouse has a few different factors. One: It is camaraderie. People don't talk enough about how team chemistry affects a group. If you do not have good team chemistry, if you have a guy who's kind of a cancer on the team or toxic, that's going  to affect the entire group.

We will never know that as reporters. We might get inklings of it or we might hear whispers of it or whatever, but we will never be able to confirm some of the in-clubhouse stuff that goes on.

But I truly, truly, truly believe some of the best teams I've been around, they have the best camaraderie in the clubhouse you've ever seen. They're guys that are going out to dinner together when they're on the road. They're guys who are playing cards together when they're on the team plane. It's just they're having a good time, right? I think that's one of the things that goes into a good clubhouse.

I think really, really good leaders. Your leader on the team cannot be a starting pitcher. It just can't. He's not an everyday player. It's not that a Max Scherzer isn't a good leader.  When I was with the Rays, it's not that Charlie Morton wasn't a good leader, at all. They're wonderful leaders. But if you're not an everyday player and you're the leader, that's difficult.

So I think one of the everyday players has to be a good leader in the clubhouse. I think that's a contributing factor.

I think the other thing is, how well does a team rebound from a tough stretch, right? Or a tough game. That's huge. To quote Ted Lasso, you know, "To have the memory of a goldfish," right? I mean, it sounds cliché, but it's so true, and I think one of the things when I was with the Rays that Kevin Cash did so well, and I say this all the time, but he never gets too high and he never gets too low.

And when you do have a leader that doesn't lead by way of, like, extreme emotion, right? That's a good thing..."

The Mariners enter play on Friday at three games back of the American League West lead and they are four games back in the wild card race. Toronto is 65-70, 0.5 games ahead of Seattle in that race.

This is a rematch of the 2025 American League Championship Series, which Toronto won in seven games to advance to the World Series.

Dylan Cease will pitch against Emerson Hancock on Friday. Highly-rated rookie Kade Anderson will pitch on Saturday.

The 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast has released four new episodes this week. All can be accessed here on the audio front, while all can also be watched on YouTube.