In the past 10 years, the Seattle Mariners have become a pitching lab powerhouse. Producing quality relievers and drafting and developing their starting pitchers into the gems they are today, pitching is their specialty. But even with all that, players don’t want to come to Seattle. Stories of off-the-field incidents of trading players and lack of communication between ownership and players continue to plague the team. President of Baseball Ops Jerry Dipoto’s comments about winning “54%” of games, while taken out of context, did nothing but hurt the already strained relationship between the team/fans and ownership.
Jerry Dipoto, Mariners Continue Too-Quiet Offseason
Financial constraints have continued to plague the Mariners. Owner John Stanton refuses to open his checkbook, despite team and fan buy-in. The Mariners have continued to miss out on big free agents, with Adam Jude of the Seattle Times quoting Dipoto saying pursuing Roki Sasaki would be a “waste of time”, despite previous reports detailing a full-scale plan of attack for the Japanese pitching phenom.
The Mariners were reportedly not one of the 20 teams to reach out to Sasaki’s camp. Sources told me that Mariners President Jerry Dipoto called it “a waste of time” to pursue Sasaki with their already strong rotation. Story in the Seattle Times. https://t.co/0Nd8433xYM
— Adam Jude (@A____Jude) December 31, 2024
Off-the-Field Implications
Seattle not spending money isn’t a new trend, either. The largest contract given to a free-agent hitter since 2015 is Mitch Garver‘s two-year, $24 million deal in 2023. Unfortunately for Mariners fans, Stanton’s lack of spending is harming the team in more ways than one might think. While there’s the obvious result of not improving the team, it also perpetuates the idea that Seattle is a small market, which in turn makes big names not want to go there. In reality, Seattle is the farthest thing from a small market. Millions of fans flood the games every season from all over the Pacific Northwest, and other sports organizations in Seattle have no problems opening their checkbooks.
But the weirdest part of all this is that it’s not like they don’t spend money. They signed Luis Castillo to a five-year, $108 million extension and star Julio Rodriguez to a 12-year, $209 million extension in 2023, both of which created heavy buy-in from fans and the team alike. So why the sudden withering of the money tree?
Pitchers and catchers report in less than two months and the Mariners have yet to make a substantial move this offseason. With the divisional rival Houston Astros getting weaker and the Texas Rangers getting stronger, it begs the question, what are they waiting for?
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