Heading into another long offseason, the frustrations of Seattle Mariners fans are pretty easy to understand.
1) M’s fans are angry because they are rooting for the only baseball team that has never played in a World Series.
2) M’s fans are angry that the current ownership group doesn’t seem to care about this, and that they aren’t doing their best to change this.
Mariners fans would like to see ownership fully invest in the roster so they can take advantage of this historically good pitching staff and actually make a run at the World Series.
While the M’s have spent money on Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo and Robbie Ray in recent years, they have also seemingly forced the organization to play with one hand tied behind its back. The ownership group clearly forced the team to work to a strict budget, which led to the breaking of Ray’s contract. Jerry Dipoto also dropped the commitments of Marco Gonzales, Evan White and Eugenio Suarez last season. Money was also likely a driving force behind Teoscar Hernandez not even receiving a qualifying offer last season.
While the M’s have let those players go, since a 2022 playoff berth they have brought in bargain hunters like Tommy La Stella, AJ Pollock and Luis Urias. They didn’t seem to make any real effort to sign Shohei Ohtani last. offseason and appear unwilling to go after Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman or Juan Soto this offseason.
M’s fans have long assumed that the ownership group is more concerned with making money than winning baseball games, and this new image from The Score’s Travis Sawchik only proves their point.
How cheap or generous is your team owner? The Scrooge Index: pic.twitter.com/g7Y8KHS4W0
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) October 26, 2024
While Sawchick admits the numbers aren’t exact, he says the Mariners earned about $374 million for the 2023 season. The organization then turned around and spent just 44 percent of that ($163 million) on players in 2024. That puts the M’s in the bottom half of league payroll spending.
The Mets and Dodgers, who spent most of their revenue on player payrolls, both made the National League Championship Series.
As the offseason progresses, M fans will once again be rooting for John Stanton and Co. to spend money. We’ll see if they actually do it.
The Sailors missed the play-offs last season by 1.0 games.
Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch And @wdevradiobrady. You can subscribe to the “Refuse to Lose” podcast by clicking HERE:
Leave a Reply