The Mariners face elimination from the post-season today, but you wouldn’t know it from spending time in the clubhouse. The Mariners were MLB’s fifth-youngest team in 2022, with an average age of 27.88 (21-year old Julio Rodríguez and his mentor, 36-year-old Carlos Santana, stand as the two outliers for age). The Astros, by contrast, are MLB’s 11th oldest team. The Mariners are also in the post-season for the first time in two decades, compared to their opponents, who have appeared in the playoffs seven of the past eight years. Yet these Mariners, despite falling to 0-2 to begin the ALDS, believe they can hang with the perennial bullies of the AL West, and that belief is rooted in and perpetuated by two of their youngest players.
The Young and the Relentless
