M’s are heading in a positive direction

In 2014, the Seattle Mariners narrowly missed their first postseason appearance since 2001.

While many fans were disappointed with how the season ended, comparisons can be drawn between the M’s and a team that has certainly had success in 2014 and should provide hope for a playoff starved fan base in Seattle.

That team would be none other than the 2013 Kansas City Royals.

In 2013, the Royals were also trying to end a postseason drought and like the Mariners, relied on their pitching and defense rather than an explosive offense to win ballgames.

Their rotation was anchored by James Shields and Ervin Santana with a bullpen that included the lockdown closer Greg Holland and fireballer Kelvin Herrera.

This sounds strikingly similar to the Mariners 2014 pitching staff which was led by King Felix and Hisashi Iwakuma and included a lockdown closer in Fernando Rodney and a bevy of other top arms in the bullpen.

But the comparisons do not end there. Both teams were also number one in ERA and had the most dominant bullpens in the American League, according to fangraphs.

Offensively, the Royals were solid but definitely were not world beaters. The lineup provided a decent average with good speed but was dead last in home runs and struggled at times to push across runs.

In fact, the Royals scored 648 runs for the year according to baseball-reference which is just 14 more runs than the 2014 Mariners.

Even the records of the Royals and Mariners were strikingly similar with the M’s winning just one more game with a 87-75 record compared to the Royals 86-76 record.

Both teams also experienced early season struggles that saw them under .500 as the calendars turned to June.

Both the M’s and Royals also struggled in the later portion of the year and faded due to a lack of postseason experience as much of the rosters of both squads were constructed of young talent.

For many of the players, playing meaningful games in September was a completely new concept and neither team was able to make that final big push to get into the postseason.

The Royals of 2013 and the Mariners of 2014 had strikingly similar statistics and both followed the same blueprint of pitching and defense to win ballgames.

Look for the Mariners to follow the lead of the Royals and be the next team to end their long postseason drought in 2015.