TORONTO — From time to time Seattle Mariners Clubhouse, “Top Gun Anthem”, full of soaring guitar notes and uplifting atmosphere, is a random burst out of the locker. Everyone knows the culprit. Jorge Polancoveteran Mariners second baseman who is not a fan of muting his phone.
'But he loves Maverick and Iceman,' Mariners star Cal Raleigh said.
Nobody really objects. When a player does what Polanco has done this postseason – save the Mariners from the danger zone seemingly every day, with his latest trick, a three-run home run, paving the way for Monday. victory with a score of 10-3 – his ringtone could be Limp Bizkit and no one would make a sound.
Instead, it's the perfect soundtrack for a Mariners performance in which they're currently two games to no against Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. “Top Gun Anthem” is an epic ballad filled with the highs and lows that epitomize an organization that has spent 49 years alternating between the despair of mediocrity and the heartbreak of failure. The only Major League Baseball team to never play in the World Series, Seattle is two wins away from winning its first American League pennant and heads home to T-Mobile Park for Game 3.
The Mariners' dominance is due in large part to the 32-year-old infielder, whose exploits have earned him the right to be called the “Iceman”—yet that's not the nickname Polanco goes by these days.
“He's George Bonds,” catcher M. Mitch Garver said.
Yes, Polanco's alter ego is an anglicized version of his first and last name as Major League Baseball's all-time home run leader. According to Garver, he earned it earlier this season when “all he hit was 110 [mph] in a gap or behind a fence. It was incredible.”
Especially given that past winter, Polanco didn't know if he'd be healthy enough to continue pitching in the major leagues. Polanco, who had struggled with left knee problems for years, had surgery in October 2024 to repair the patellar tendon. As a free agent, Polanco attracted limited interest from the market and ended up signing a one-year, $7.75 million contract extension with the Mariners.
“It’s been a journey, man,” Polanco said. I wouldn't say it was easy. I think God just prepared me for this year. I was in a little pain, so yeah; but now we're here and I'm glad to be back.
“You just have to believe. You will win. Come back stronger.”
Polanco's strength was on display throughout October. He first appeared in Game 2 of Seattle's division series against Detroit Tigers when he hit two home runs with an ace Tyan Skubalawho is going to win his second straight Cy Young Award. It continued three games later in a winner-take-all Game 5 when he hit a single to right field in the 15th inning to lift the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001.
Then came the fifth inning from Toronto's reliever on Monday. Louis Varlandwho sent a 98 mph fastball over the plate and watched it leave the bat at 105.2 mph, fly 400 feet and turn a 3-3 count into a 6-3 Seattle lead.
“He's always been a great hitter,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “His swing is really short right now. That ball tonight, I wasn't sure it was going to go out of the stadium, but I think he's just getting that swing on it right now where it stays up.”
This is not an accident. Polanco arrived in the big leagues with Minnesota Twins In 2014, at the age of 20, he became a batting specialist whose ability to hit from both sides of the plate earned him a regular role on the team.
“He wasn’t George Bonds before,” Garver said. “He was Harry Potter. Because he was a wizard. He just made hits.”
Polanco took over five years into his career and hit 33 home runs for the Twins in 2021. Last year, in his first season with the Mariners, his numbers took a nosedive, but the organization appreciated Polanco's calm demeanor and believed that fixing his knee would improve his hitting as well.
The sailors were right. George Bonds was born in the ridiculous first month of the 2025 season, when he hit nine homers in 80 at-bats. Polanco adopted the “M” ethos of pulling the ball into the air. Raleigh led MLB with a 1.594 OPS on balls drawn. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was second with a score of 1.497. Polanco hit 23 of his 26 home runs this season on the pull side, and both of his home runs off Skubal (a hit from the right side) and the one against Warland (from left) were met in front of the plate and thrown over the fence.
“For years I hated going to Minnesota just because of him,” the friend said. JP Crawfordseaman with the longest work experience. “This guy single-handedly beat us so many times. We all know what kind of player he is when he's healthy and that's clear to see right now.”
Never in the game's 150-year history has a player hit three consecutive runs in the fifth inning or later in the postseason. These are the numbers that teams need to win pennants and championships. As brilliant as Raleigh was in what could have been an MVP campaign, and as scandalous as Julio Rodriguez was in the second half, and as dominant as Seattle's pitching has been en route to this point, it takes more to win the playoffs in baseball.
Like, say, a guy who was an afterthought all winter, now he's cleaning and never wavers, even in the highest-leverage situations.
“The most impressive thing is coming back from a tough year last year,” the Seattle pitcher said. Brian Wuwho is set to start a potential Game 5 on Friday. “Especially for a guy on his second team who was halfway through his career. To do what he does – get healthy, come back, help the team like he did – it's even more impressive than just playing good baseball.”
Playing good baseball helps too. Polanco has helped get Seattle to a place that seemed impossible just a month ago. From mid-August to early September, the Mariners lost 13 of 18, trailing the pack. Houston Astros by 3½ games in the AL West and led at half the game at Texas Rangers for the last wildcard spot. The M's then went 17-4, won the West, earned a first-round bye and set a course for history.
They are not there. Yet even Polanco acknowledged that Seattle's players can't ignore the team's history and understand what it means to get to the World Series.
“Yes, we are thinking about it,” he said. “We've heard this many times. We know.”
This knowledge did not stop them. Raleigh shovels. Rodriguez throws a punch. Josh Naylorwho grew up in nearby Mississauga, Ontario, hit a two-run home run in Game 2 of the ALCS. And George Bonds showed up with style, cool like Iceman, cool like Maverick, perfectly happy to abandon quiet mode in favor of loud contact.
