"We're actually doing the fan base a favor in asking for their patience to win the World Series while we continue to build a sustainably good roster."
— Jerry Dipoto, Oct. 3, 2023
My favorite button on a keyboard is "delete." I'd like to think if the above quote was part of Dipoto's opening statement before Tuesday's postseason news conference, the Mariners president of baseball operations would have pressed it emphatically before addressing reporters. Instead it was an off-the-cuff reply to a question about how he'd justify just one playoff appearance since the "step-back" rebuilding plan began in 2019.
But the improvisational nature of the response doesn't make it much better. It struck me — and likely many others — as one of the most tone-deaf answers an executive overseeing the only franchise to never reach the World Series could possibly give.
Still, my main takeaway from that presser wasn't an overly defensive Dipoto saying how winning 54 percent of your games over a decade will set you up for the World Series, or how a year in which the Mariners missed the playoffs was actually a step forward for the organization. My main takeaway was that Dipoto, above anything else, was protecting M's chairman John Stanton.
Take this sentence, for example: "I don't know that the solution to our problems is big-name players, and I'm not sure we have big problems."
While it is true that "big-name players" can't carry a team in MLB the way they can in several other professional sports leagues, they can help considerably. Consider that the Mariners finished two games behind the Astros and Rangers for the division title/final wild-card spot — and then look at the Wins Above Replacement marks among the 25 most-productive players in the league. All had a WAR of at least 5.1, meaning — if the formula is accurate — the addition of any one of those players theoretically would have given the Mariners the division crown. Same likely could have been said of the Mariners reaching the postseason in 2021 or 2016 — both of which occurred in the Stanton/Dipoto era.
But big-name players tend to cost big-time money. And if you look at MLB payrolls over the past four years (after the "step-back" was announced), the Mariners have never been higher than 18th.
Spending does not guarantee titles or even playoff appearances in Major League Baseball. The 2023 Mets and Padres are proof of that. But over time, teams that spend the most tend to have the most success.
The football analogy would be that the NFL is replete with late-round draft picks that rose to Pro Bowl levels, just as it is littered with first-round busts. But in aggregate, first-rounders are far more impactful than those taken on the second and third days.
In short: The Mariners should shell out the cash.
You can't tell me there isn't a big-name player out there worthy of Seattle's wooing. In fact, there is quite possibly the biggest — one Shohei Ohtani — who (A) would have an instant impact on the middling Mariners offense (he was a triple-crown threat before an oblique injury sidelined him for the final month) and (B) could be purchased at a discounted (but still expensive) rate given how he won't pitch next year.
I do understand Dipoto's reluctance to spend just to impress a fan base. Remember, he was with the Angels when they signed Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols, both massive contracts that ended up crippling the Halos for years.
And since we're talking about that team and the ramifications for a World Series-or-bust attitude, don't forget how much the Angels gave up before this past trade deadline to try to make the playoffs and re-recruit Ohtani, only to finish 73-89.
Dipoto, in some ways, resembled an all-too-direct doctor giving a prognosis sans a morsel of bedside manner Tuesday. But he was also putting out some preemptive spin: We don't need marquee names, so don't get mad when we don't sign them.
To Dipoto's credit, he took full responsibility for a lack of offseason signings that could have propelled the Mariners into the playoffs. And in the brass' defense at large — two-time All-Star Julio Rodriguez, the team's highest-paid player, went 2 for 28 in the final seven-game homestand, and ace Luis Castillo gave up nine earned runs over 8 2/3 innings in his final two starts.
That's on the Mariners' star players.
All that said, we've seen two prominent themes in the eight-year Stanton era. The Mariners almost always miss the playoffs, and the Mariners almost never spend much money.
Dipoto might have endured the ridicule for his comments Tuesday, but it's the man above him who deserves the scrutiny.