Commentary: Mariners’ woes can be placed on doorstep of front office

I think we can agree that this was never about Scott Servais.

Excited as fans, and perhaps players, may have been about a change in managerial scenery, the Mariners’ woes are a byproduct of those above his pay grade.

Yes, a sizable percentage of the shortcomings stem from players such as Julio Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford falling well short of their traditional output (even if Julio’s “traditional output” was just two years old before opening day.) But mainly, it’s about roster construction. This is on the front office.

Note that president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto’s name was not singled out in the sentence above, but he shoulders a great deal of the blame. This is a combination of financial withholding and transactional whiffing that have the M’s on the cusp of missing the playoffs for the 22nd time in 23 seasons – and for the eighth time in nine tries since Dipoto came on board.

What’s more is that this is not the eight-team playoff era in which an elite regular season was required to get into the tournament. Ten teams made the postseason from 2012-2021, and the field expanded to 12 in 2022. You don’t have to be that good to get in – just a little bit better than average.

But that standard continues to elude this team, and as the Mariners (69-69 entering Tuesday’s game at Oakland) sit six games back of the Astros in the division and 5 1/2 back of the Royals for the last wild-card spot in the final month of the season, it looks like it will elude the M’s again.

That’s unacceptable.

It’s true that this team has played meaningful baseball games into September in each of the past four seasons. In fact, Seattle averaged 89.3 wins between 2021-2023, which included the end of a 21-year playoff drought in 2022. A Dipoto defense attorney might argue that this club would be vying for its fourth straight playoff appearance this season if only the Mariners played in the National League. That wouldn’t convince a jury, though.

As much credit as the front office deserves for drafting and developing the best pitching staff in MLB – or at least one with the best ERA – it hasn’t been delivering a complete product. As vibrant as T-Mobile Park was during that stretch in 2022, when fans flooded the gates to support a team that would short-circuit a city with a World Series win, that enthusiasm has never been duplicated.

Why not?

Well, spending for one. The Mariners have been incrementally working their way up the payroll chart over the years, but are still at 16th in MLB in 2024. That’s better than 18th last year. Better than 21st in 2022. Certainly better than 25th in 2021. But it’s still in the bottom half of the league.

Former Mariners closer Paul Sewald noted last year how the Rangers made their World Series run right after they started spending money. Doesn’t mean shelling out the cash is a guarantee for winning, but the M’s have long acted like the mid-market franchise that they are in that respect. And the mid-market approach kept them in the middle in the standings.

Still, even with financial constraints, the inability to place a quality offense on the field has been glaring. Over the past four seasons, the Mariners have been 23rd in runs (2021), 18th (2022), 12th (2023) and 26th now. That’s essentially an average of 20th place in a 30-team league.

Granted, nobody expected Rodriguez – the 2022 American League Rookie of the Year who finished fourth in MVP voting – to have the 116th-best OPS in baseball this year. Such a drop-off might have people wondering if that $200-plus million contract offered to him as a rookie was such a great idea.

But Dipoto signing Mitch Haniger and Mitch Garver this offseason, both of whom have performed worse than replacement-level players? And also bringing aboard Jorge Polanco, whose WAR is at 0.8? Even trade deadline acquisition Randy Arozorena has been little more than meh during his stint in Seattle, with his Mariners OPS of .745 falling well short of his career mark.

I’m not sitting here calling for blood, as changes for their own sake seldom work. Nor am I declaring this season over for the M’s with 24 games left, even if they can’t seem to get a win off the lowly Angels or A’s.

But this unraveling was never about the manager. It’s about the guy who brought on the manager and acquired the players, along with the people holding the cash.

Most people have been saying this for a while. Doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be said again.