After the Mariners’ most recent playoff game, an event that required nearly Ernest Shackleton levels of human endurance before losing to the loathsome Houston Astros 1-0 in 18 innings, a local fan might have thought the club’s bosses would be moved to commit to never accepting such agonizing offensive futility again.
Such a fan likely was new to town.
For the second time after they broke their 21-year postseason drought, and for the 43rd time in 48 seasons, the Mariners are on the outside of the playoffs looking in, stranded again by batting ineptitude. The local customs and traditions continue.
After completing a three-game sweep Sunday of the Oakland Couchsurfers (the A’s are moving to Sacramento for three years and maybe then to Las Vegas), the Mariners finished the regular season at 85-77, winning 11 of their final 15 games. Nevertheless, the outcome was three games worse than last year even though in June they had a 10-game division lead over the Astros. The midseason swoon was so profound that manager Scott Servais and hitting coach (the second one of the season) were fired.
That left club president Jerry Dipoto as the featured target of public wrath for squandering MLB’s best starting pitchers by failing to support them with the hires of quality veteran hitters. He has been since 2016 the face of management — ownership’s majority partner, John Stanton, keeps his public appearances few and carefully curated. So Dipoto made the club’s annual post-mortem presser alone and a little early, when he met reporters before Saturday’s game in a corner of T-ball Park’s home dugout, to tiptoe through the minefield.
“Incredibly frustrating,” Dipoto said of another seasonal flop. “It’s part of the reason why we’re trying to figure out a different way, a different message. Philosophically, we’re all wired to do the same thing. In some ways, what we’ve done, organizationally, we’ve achieved so much. We’ve put a good team on the field for four consecutive years. We have talked about creating a sustainable roster. We’re just having a tough time figuring out how to climb the wall from a good team to a very good team or a great team.”
While the remarks weren’t as aggravating as his tone-deaf sales pitch a year earlier, when he told fans the club was doing them “a favor” by carefully slow-building a contender, his confession Saturday of being mystified by next steps was fairly remarkable. Particularly in view of a Seattle Times story Sept. 5 that reported his job was safe.
Let’s reduce the mystery to an analogy many Seattle-area shoppers can understand: The Mariners are trying to make a tasty meal exclusively from the free-sample stations at Costco. Lingering around the chicken-mint ice cream wagon does not make a worthy dinner.
Since the club’s 1977 inception, a succession of ownerships has been scared to play hard in the business side of the only major American spectator sport without a player-salary cap. While hardly alone in MLB, the Mariners’ self-imposed fear is compounded by the unavoidable constraints of Seattle baseball: The club plays in the most difficult park in which to hit, and is in the game’s most remote city. Even a four-state (and western Canada) market monopoly apparently is not enough to create the revenue courage to spend freely.
Some of the consequences can be seen below: A list of playoff appearances by all MLB teams from the start of Dipoto’s tenure in 2016 through the games of Sunday.
One qualifier, marked with asterisks, applies: Because of postponements due to Hurricane Helene, the Mets and Braves, both 88-72, must play a doubleheader Monday in Atlanta to settle the final National League wild-card entrants, a race that also includes the Diamondbacks (89-73), who can advance if either the Mets or Braves sweep the doubleheader.
As of Sunday night, here are the post-season appearances over the past nine seasons:
9 — Dodgers
8 — Astros
7 — Yankees
6 — Braves*, Guardians, Brewers
5 — Rays
4 — Red Sox, Twins, Blue Jays
3 — Cubs, A’s, Nationals
2 — D-backs*, Mets*, White Sox, Rockies, Marlins, Phillies, Padres, Giants, Rangers, Orioles
1 — Mariners, Reds, Royals, Tigers
None — Angels, Pirates
As longtime baseball fans know, there is no direct annual correlation between salary dollars and victories. But over time, payroll investments tend to pay off. This season, according to Spotrac, if the Mets advance, five of MLB’s top six teams in payroll are in the 12-team postseason field. The Mariners’ $148 million payroll is 16th. The Mets are No. 1 at $318 million, the Yankees next at $308 million.
But every year, teams with payrolls about the same or smaller than the Mariners “climb the wall,” to use Dipoto’s expression. As the list shows, teams in mid-markets such as Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Minnesota have prospered, while the Mariners have languished in the Dipoto regime.
Which is not to say the Mariners roster is hapless. They appear to have found an every-day outfield after Victor Robles, a mid-season waiver-wire pickup, showed he could hang with Julio Rodriguez and Randy Arozarena, allowing Luke Raley to be a first baseman and fourth outfielder. In Cal Raleigh, whose 34th homer Sunday gave him 93 in his first four seasons, surpassing Hall of Famer Mike Piazza for most dingers in history by a catcher, Seattle has one of the top three backstops in the game. Needed are upgrades at second base, third base and shortstop, although J.P. Crawford’s contract has more than $20 million owed over the next two years, so Dipoto likely is left to pray to the ballgods for a bounceback season.
As I’ve commented before, I’d much rather be curled up in the fetal position on the living room floor while enduring a blinding, gale force hangover than watch a Seattle Mariner anything.
How any professional baseball organization could field the the best in pitching in all of MLB and then accompany it with a Mendoza Line-like batting effort is beyond belief.
You would’ve *loved* the 1992 Seahawks, then. An outstanding defense, including NFL Defensive Player of the Year Cortez Kennedy, but a 2-14 record due to a hideous offense.
The only consolation is, Stanton isn’t trying to move the team. I feel terrible for the A’s fans who flooded the ballpark this weekend, as it’s the last time they’ll see their team as the “Oakland” A’s as the owner deliberately tanked the team to move them to Las Vegas (via Sacramento).
Great article Art. Unfortunately ownership can count on Mariner fans to continue to support them at the box office so no need to spend anymore than needed to reasonably complete.