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Seattle Mariners

Mariners wrap up spring training with worst record ever. Does it matter?

Adam Jude Seattle Times

PEORIA, Ariz. — In their final tuneup before Thursday’s opening day against the Athletics, the Mariners wound up with a 7-7 tie Monday afternoon against the San Diego Padres in their last Cactus League game.

That Mariners wrapped up the spring with an 11-19-2 record — the lowest winning percentage (.355) over a full spring in the 49-year history of the team — begs the question:

How relevant are spring training results?

The short answer: Not very.

Of course, wins are always preferred over losses — at any time of the year — and Dan Wilson would have liked to have a few more wins in his first spring as Mariners manger.

But the bigger picture is more important, he said.

“Yeah, we didn’t probably win a lot of games down here like we wanted to,” Wilson said Monday morning. “But the preparation has always been there. And I think the way that we’ve played here, especially in this last week, I think the at-bats have been good. There’s been a lot of positives throughout the whole camp. And at the end of the day, we are prepared for this season, and that’s the bottom line. That’s what we were here for.”

With nearly 50 years of franchise records to use as historical perspective, there is no definitive correlation to be made from spring training win-loss records.

A bad spring record can lead to a bad regular season, as evidenced by Mariners teams in 1977, 1981, 2006 and 2010, to name a few.

Or a bad spring record can lead to a good regular season, as evidenced most notably by 2001 — when the Mariners had one of their lowest spring winning percentages (.406) and then turned around and set a major-league record with 116 wins in the regular season.

Seattle’s worst spring training winning percentages, 1977-2025

  • 2020: .333* (Regular season: 27-33)
  • 2025: .355 (Regular season: TBD)
  • 1977: .375 (64-98)
  • 1981: .379 (44-65)
  • 1995: .385* (79-66)
  • 2006: .393 (78-84)
  • 1980: .400 (59-103)
  • 2010: .400 (61-101)
  • 2001: .406 (116-46)
  • 2007: .412 (88-74)
  • 1987: .414 (78-84)
  • 2003: .419 (93-69)
  • *shortened spring

The overall conclusion is there are no real conclusions to draw from spring training win-loss records (or spring statistical in general).

For Wilson, the goal was to set a foundation of competitiveness and team-bonding, and create a mindset that every night matters over the course of a 162-game regular season. And in that regard, he’s encouraged.

“I think that we’re at a point where we’re ready to kind of go and become who we’re going to become,” he said. “I don’t think you can kind of put that into words yet. I think it’s still forming, still in the opening stages, but I’m really excited to see what that looks like as we get into the season, because it’s a really good group, and they’re really excited. They’re really coming together. It’s a great team, and I’m curious to see how it all turns out.”