SEATTLE (AP) — The day after longtime Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs announced he will retire at the end of the 2026 season following his 41st year in the Seattle booth, he pleaded for the team to win the World Series this fall.
And at the Mariners’ fan fest Saturday at T-Mobile Park, countless key players from last year’s team, which came within one win of the franchise’s first World Series appearance, echoed the same sentiment. Perhaps nobody’s tune was louder than that of star center fielder Julio Rodríguez, who spoke on behalf of the club.
“I think this year is going to do wonders for us,” Rodríguez said. “I think we’re all in a better place.”
Seattle brought back many important contributors from last year’s team, which went 90-72 and won the franchise's first AL West title since 2001. It won’t just be catcher Cal Raleigh, who became the seventh player in major league history to hit 60 homers in a season, returning to the Emerald City.
There’s also first baseman Josh Naylor, who agreed to a five-year, $92.5 million contract with the Mariners in November. Naylor endeared himself to Seattle’s fan base with his aggressive style while hitting .299 with nine home runs and 19 stolen bases in 54 games after being acquired at the trade deadline.
“I can’t wait to spend a full season here, make some great memories,” Naylor said. “My goal is to win a World Series every year, and (I) really want to try to do that for this city and this organization and everyone involved.”
Still, the sting of a disappointing finish to a banner season continues to haunt various Mariners, just as it did in October in the days shortly after they were eliminated by the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. At the very least, though, it set a precedent for what the Mariners expect of themselves in 2026 and beyond.
Seattle starter George Kirby, who was third on the team in wins (10) last year, thinks getting to the ALCS should be the standard for this group moving forward.
“Getting to where we did, I feel like that’s the floor for us this year,” Kirby said. “Anything else kind of doesn’t cut it.”
Mariners manager Dan Wilson, entering his second full season at the helm, expressed a similar level of confidence in his team, which returns five players who were worth at least 3.8 Wins Above Replacement last season, according to baseball-reference.com. Perhaps unsurprisingly, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander didn’t add many players to Seattle’s roster.
While veteran infielder Jorge Polanco — who had 26 home runs last season — left via free agency for the New York Mets, the Mariners did add outfielder Rob Refsnyder, who hit .269 with nine home runs and an .838 OPS in 70 games last year. Slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez, obtained in a July trade, remains a free agent, so Seattle could turn to 25-year-old Ben Williamson, who was a rookie last year, to man the hot corner.
Otherwise, the Mariners will be putting their faith in a core led by Rodríguez, Raleigh, Naylor and right-handed starting pitchers like Kirby, All-Star Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller.
“I love this group,” Wilson said. “To have that core continue to be together, you can add pieces to that as we have. And I think Jerry and Justin do an outstanding job of that. And the pieces, because there’s a core, the pieces fit in pretty quickly. I don’t anticipate that being any different.”
It remains to be seen how Refsnyder and prospects like Williamson, fellow young infielder Cole Young and others will slot into Seattle’s plans. The 2025 season remains one worth celebrating, but as Raleigh put it, the Mariners must build off what they already accomplished, or risk last year turning into a one-hit wonder.
“What we’re trying to accomplish here is winning a World Series and setting the standard, the bar, the expectations super high,” Raleigh said, “because that’s where we want to be. I think that’s kind of the way we’re looking at it.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Sept. 23, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)
Many have denied having close ties to the late financier, or at least having anything to do with his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women that led to his arrest on sex trafficking charges.
None have been charged with a crime connected to the investigation. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Yet some of them maintained friendships with Epstein, or developed them anew, even after he became known as a predator of young girls and registered sex offender.
Here’s a primer on some of the notable names in the Epstein files:
The man formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew has long been dogged by questions about his relationship with Epstein, including allegations from the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she was trafficked by Epstein and instructed to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17.
The former prince has repeatedly denied that it happened, but his brother, King Charles III, still stripped him of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in Friday’s document release, including in Epstein’s private emails.
Among the correspondence is an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor.
The billionaire Tesla founder turns up at least a few times in Friday’s document release, notably in email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island compound.
But it’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday or Saturday.
Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025.
The billionaire founder of Virgin Group Limited exchanged numerous emails with Epstein in the years after he pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor and agreed to register as a sex offender in Florida in 2008.
In a 2013 exchange, Branson invited Epstein to his own private Caribbean island.
“Any time you’re in the area would love to see you,” he wrote. “As long as you bring your harem!”
In another message that year, he suggested Epstein rehabilitate his image by convincing Microsoft founder Bill Gates to tell the public how Epstein had “been a brilliant adviser to him” and had “more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since.”
A Branson spokesperson suggested the “harem” comment referred to adult members of Epstein’s staff. The spokesperson also said Branson eventually severed ties with Epstein after learning more about the “serious allegations” against him.
The New York Giants co-owner is mentioned more than 400 times in the files released Friday. Correspondence between the two shows Epstein offered to connect Tisch to numerous women over the years.
In one 2013 email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman, whose physical beauty he praised in crude terms.
“Pro or civilian?” Tisch asked in reply.
Tisch, a scion of a powerful New York family that founded the Loews Corporation, has acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied ever going to his infamous Caribbean island.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” said Tisch, who also won an Academy Award in 1994 for producing “Forrest Gump.” “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
The president of the committee for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles exchanged flirty emails with Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, Friday's document release shows.
In a 2003 exchange, Wasserman wrote to Maxwell: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
In another, Maxwell asks whether it will be foggy enough during an upcoming visit “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?”
Wasserman released a statement Saturday saying he never had a personal or business relationship with Epstein and that he regretted the correspondence with Maxwell, which he said came “long before her horrific crimes came to light.”
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and abuse of minors.
The former Israeli prime minister and his wife turn up frequently in the documents released Friday, showing they stayed in regular contact with Epstein for years, including well after his 2008 guilty plea for sex crimes in Florida.
Among the correspondence are plans for a 2017 stay at Epstein’s New York residence. Other missives discuss mundane logistics for other visits, meetings and phone calls with Epstein.
Barak has acknowledged regularly visiting Epstein on his trips to New York and flying on his private plane, but maintains he never observed any inappropriate behavior or parties.
Barak served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and later served as its defense minister.
President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island with his family on at least one occasion, records released Friday show.
That appears to contradict prior statements he’s made claiming he cut ties with the disgraced financier, who he’s called “gross,” decades ago.
But emails show Lutnick and his wife accepted an invitation to Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2012 and planned to arrive by yacht with their children.
The former chairman of Newmark, a major commercial real estate firm, also had drinks on another occasion in 2011 with Epstein and corresponded with him about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.
The Commerce Department, in a statement, said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
The billionaire Google co-founder made plans to meet with Epstein and Maxwell at his townhouse in New York years before he was publicly accused of sexually abusing underage girls, emails show.
In one exchange in 2003, Maxwell invited him to join her at a screening of the Renee Zellweger film “Down with Love” in New York.
She followed up a few weeks later to invite him to a “happily casual and relaxed” dinner at Epstein’s house. Brin offered to bring along Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt.
Spokespersons for Google didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
The one-time adviser to Trump exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Epstein, some sent months before his 2019 arrest and jailhouse suicide.
The two discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.
One 2018 exchange, for example, focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a 2019 message, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.
Bannon hasn’t responded to emails seeking comment.
A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, Lajcak resigned Saturday after his past communications with Epstein appeared in Friday’s document release.
Opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition had called for him to step down.
Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister and a onetime president of the U.N. General Assembly, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but was photographed meeting with Epstein in the years between his initial release from jail and his subsequent indictment in 2019 on sex trafficking charges.
He said his correspondence with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties.
Associated Press journalists from around the country contributed to this report.
FILE - Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch arrives for NFL owners meetings, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - Britain’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
