Two big trades have been made so far this off-season for the Mariners; two trades that their fans have ridiculed the front office for making. First was Eugenio Suarez to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a backup catcher and a reliever. Then Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales, and Evan White were sent to the Atlanta Braves for a AAAA-type pitcher (good in minors, bad in majors) and a solid relief pitching prospect. Both moves have been seen as ways of shedding payroll. Why would they do this? Let me explain.
First off, there is no salary cap in MLB like there is in the NFL. Owners are free to let their GMs spend as much as they want. They'll just have to foot the bill for any salaries/bonuses they hand out. It seems in the Mariners case that ownership has restricted the front office of Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander, who definitely would like to spend on a few big bats, but may have needed to shed some payroll first in order to be under a certain budget. This isn't what fans of a team want to hear. You should want your owner to allow your GM to spend as much as they need to in order to field the best team possible. Limiting them only limits their chances of building a successful team.
But let's look at the good. We haven't lost a ton. Eugenio Suarez regressed in 2023 after a very solid 2022. His OPS was down from .791 to .714, and his league-leading strikeout totals rose further. He did play gold glove-caliber defense, but his offensive numbers still dropped, especially his power. Jerry Dipoto made the comment that they wanted to be a more contact-focused offense, but my question is this: Why acquire high strikeout guys in the first place? Jerry chose to trade for Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez, known high-strikeout guys. Perhaps his focus has changed, but that's not altogether encouraging.
And of the three players we sent to the Braves, none were really huge impact players. Yes, Kelenic still has a bit of potential, but he had two and a half seasons to realize it with us and just couldn't. He had one hot stretch in early 2023, but that's it. He's been largely a bust offensively. He also strikes out a lot, like Suarez. Marco was a back-of-the-rotation starter, who was hurt a huge chunk of 2023. He was the longest-tenured Mariner, but he had reached his ceiling, and his ceiling quite frankly wasn't good enough for our rotation anymore. And Evan White battled injuries and offensive inconsistency and lost his job to Ty France. He wasn't going to regain his spot.
So, we shed some dead weight, honestly. Suarez and Hernandez (who left in Free Agency) were occasional good middle-of-the-order hitters, but just struck out too much. That led to too many times where all we needed was a ball put in play and they struck out. Marco was a lot of money for little return, and Evan White and Kelenic could never fully figure out hitting with us.
But now let's look at the bad. There are a ton of holes on this team. Both corner outfield spots, DH, third base, and second base all need to be addressed. There's also the fact we could use another starter with Robbie Ray hurt (*cough cough* Blake Snell! *cough*). We should not be going into 2024 with our middle-of-the-lineup players being France and Raleigh. This team, as it stands now, would certainly regress in 2024 if no major additions were made.
So we can only hope and pray as Mariners fans that Jerry and Justin have a plan. I'm hoping that they were given the luxury of increasing payroll at least a bit. Perhaps they did the math and realized the guys they wanted to sign or extend after a trade would require more financial room than they already had. But just because they have their eyes on a few players, doesn't mean they'll get them. I worry they may have made this room unnecessarily, and they might strike out on acquiring some big names. This off-season, simply saying "We tried" is not good enough.
Our dream, of course, is to see big name after big name acquired by the Mariners. We want to see the social media posts of "Welcome to Seattle, ____!" for a lot of household names. We do not want to see it for players along the likes of Tommy LaStella, Kolten Wong, and AJ Pollock. Of course, not every good player is available in free agency, and some will require a trade to acquire. I just hope we don't mortgage our future in the hopes of getting back to the post-season. That was attempted and failed at too many times from 2002-2021.
The rest of this off-season will be hugely telling for this team and its future. Jerry and Justin have their work cut out for them. I think this is the single most important off-season of their Mariners' careers because a failure this off-season will likely eventually cost them their jobs. I'm sure they're aware of the magnitude of this off-season. Simply put, an abysmal showing this off-season, and they should not be surprised if ticket and merch sales drop. At that point, none of us should spend any extra money on this team. But a good showing will bring this fanbase back around and instill hope for 2024.
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