The Blue Jays have had success in the playoffs with a contact-driven approach, so there is anything the Mariners can take away from that going into 2026?
The Seattle Mariners were built for the October success. That's fairly undeniable.
Solid starting pitching, a good back-end of the bullpen and power at the plate.... that's supposed to work in the postseason, and it did for the Mariners for a long time. They advanced to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series and just because they aren't playing in the World Series, it doesn't change that they had the right formula.
That said, the Toronto Blue Jays have turned the formula on its head. While they have benefited from home runs in their World Series run, they have also employed other tactics that have generally fallen by the waist side: They've bunted, they make contact, they extend at-bats, they limit strikeouts and are just extremely uncomfortable to pitch against.
So the question is: Are the Blue Jays an outlier who's gotten hot at the right time, or is there something here for the Mariners to learn from?
The real answer
Not to straddle the fence, but it's both. The Mariners can still employ what they do, while also taking pieces of what Toronto does.
Here's what I mean:
First and foremost, you do need to have power to win, both in the regular season and in the playoffs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has eight home runs this postseason. George Springer (sadly) has the biggest hit of the postseason, a three-run homer. Toronto's back-to-back blasts to start Game 6 of the World Series set the stage for their victory in that game.
The Mariners don't beat Tarik Skubal in Game 2 of the American League Division Series if Jorge Polanco doesn't homer twice, and they don't win Game 2 of the ALCS without Polanco's home run off Louie Varland. Nor do they win Game 5 of the ALCS if Cal Raleigh doesn't tie the game with a home run and Eugenio Suarez hits a game-winning grand slam.
The quickest way to have big innings, or come from behind in games, is to hit the ball out of the park.
But, here's what else the Mariners need moving forward: They need to figure out a way to get the bottom of the lineup to be more productive, and they need that portion of the lineup to replicate what Toronto has done.
Ernie Clement, Andres Gimenez, Addison Barger, they've all been great in these playoffs, and the Mariners saw that first hand. For the M's? Dominic Canzone, Mitch Garver, Victor Robles and Leo Rivas were, generally, far too easy to pitch to and had far too many non-competitive at-bats.
No one is asking spots 7-9 to hit .480 over the course of a season or a short series, but if those hitters can help make pitchers work, can drive up pitch counts, can put the ball in play and find holes, they can set the table for the top of the order.
(This note from MLB Network extends the bottom half of the order to spots 5-9, which is different than what we wrote above, but those spots are hitting .280 with an OPS of .790, furthering the point about length of lineup).
The Mariners don't necessarily need to change their strategy and their foundation, but they need the bottom of the order to figure out a way to become more pesky.
We talked more about this on the most recent episode of the "Refuse to Lose" podcast, which you can listen to below:
Will the Jays Change Mariners Offense + Bo Bichette Thoughts + How the M's Can Turn Heartbreak into Happiness
Refuse to Lose - a Seattle Mariners Podcast · Episode
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