Amid disappointment of missing playoffs, Jerry Dipoto doubles down on vision for Mariners

SEATTLE - The Seattle Mariners are disappointed they missed the playoffs. They're disappointed that a September swoon left them one game out of the AL Wild Card and two games out in the race for the AL West crown.

But while president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, general manager Justin Hollander, and manager Scott Servais clearly expressed that disappointment in a season-ending press conference on Tuesday, the triumvirate was also not about to apologize for the way they run the organization or their beliefs in the best way to do so.

"I think in many ways this season – as much as it was disappointing – in the end was a step forward for us organizationally," Dipoto said.

That stance won't square with fans that were expecting the team to make strides forward from the team that made the ALDS last season. Heck, they won't even resonate great with some of the players in their own clubhouse either. But Dipoto insists the Mariners are an organization are in a healthy position and better situated than they've been in his eight years running the franchise.

"The one thing I will say that is different about this team than any other team that we've done this with and we've all done together here for a number of years, there are fewer holes to fill," Dipoto said. "You know, we have far more answers to the question when does the championship come, than questions. We'll ask ourselves those questions heading into this year and answer them to the best of our ability."

The subject of how the Mariners were going to approach the offseason ahead was supercharged by catcher Cal Raleigh's comments Saturday night imploring the team to get better and commit to winning minutes after the team was eliminated from playoff contention. The topic was already going to be a substantive one, but having a player from the clubhouse vocalize it so bluntly elevated the conversation.

"We have to become a better team. Straight up," Raleigh said. "We’ve been right at this 90 game mark for a few years now. We’ve just got to become better. Something’s got to change. I don’t think by any means we’re a bad team this year, but it’s not where we want to be. We want to be getting to the World Series. We want to be making the playoffs every single year and in order to do that some things have to change and it starts with the players here in the clubhouse."

Raleigh also pointed toward the Texas Rangers – a team that has spent significantly in free agency the last two seasons – as something the Mariners needed to emulate to push forward.

"We’ve got to commit to winning," Raleigh said. "We have to commit to going and getting those players you see other teams going out, going for and getting big-time pitchers, getting big-time hitters. We have to do that to keep up. I think we’ve done a great job of growing some players here within the farm system, but sometimes you have to go out and you have to buy. That’s just the name of the game. We’ll see what happens this offseason. Hopefully we can add some players and become a better team."

Raleigh apologized on Sunday to his teammates, coaches and fans for the comments, but he didn't apologize for his desire to win. First baseman Ty France, shortstop J.P. Crawford and starting pitcher Logan Gilbert all backed up Raleigh in comments made to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.

Dipoto addressed Raleigh's comments on Tuesday. He said he knows they came from a place of wanting to win, but that he may not quite see the situation the same as Raleigh.

"And as I said to him and as I've said to any player I've ever been around, his opinions are his own and I don't begrudge anybody the ability to share their opinions. You should," Dipoto said. "I don't know that the solution to our problems is big-name players, and I'm not sure we have big problems. But, you know, would I like to have big-name players? Sure. I think we all would."

The comments from Raleigh reflect the relative lack of moves and the money spent on such moves from last offseason by the team.

Seattle essentially swapped out Teoscar Hernández for Mitch Haniger, a trade for Kolten Wong (that was also admittedly a dumping of Jesse Winker) went bust, budget friendly free agent signings of Tommy La Stella and A.J. Pollock did as well. Cooper Hummel – acquired in a trade with Arizona for outfielder Kyle Lewis – was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma by mid-April and never returned to the majors.

Dipoto acknowledged the failure of those moves while saying he wasn't dwelling on the past.

"It was a fail. And sure, I regret it," Dipoto said, echoing similar comments made at the trade deadline about the previous offseason. "I wish I could go back and do it over again. All you can do is just fix things as you move forward."

Depending on the estimation, the Mariners had a payroll this season that ranked around 17th in baseball on Opening Day in the mid-$130 million range. The median payroll across MLB is just over $170 million.

Coming off the team's first playoff appearance in 21 years and eying loftier goals this season. Dipoto himself said he believed the team was a World Series contender this year at the end of spring training. 

Those hopes fell short with the 6-1 loss to Texas on Saturday being the final blow to the team's chances of returning to the playoffs.

The Mariners took a one-game lead in the AL West after an 8-7 win over the New York Mets on Sept. 2. The team went 11-16 over the final 27 games to be the team left without a seat in the game of musical chairs that made up the final days of the playoff chase.

"We didn't have a disaster of a season. We had a season that we were unable to finish," Dipoto said.

The conversation about the team's payroll will continue to be at the forefront as the team heads into an offseason with Shohei Ohtani set to be available on the free agent market. Ohtani will likely command the largest per year contract in baseball history by a significant margin this winter. The position player market beyond Ohtani isn't sparkling either. Teoscar Hernández will actually be one of the best offensive pieces that could hit the market.

Hollander said he believes the team will have all the financial resources necessary to build a championship-caliber team. Meanwhile, Dipoto stated bluntly that adding payrolls doesn't guarantee anything. 

"I know that the expectation is that bigger payrolls win trophies. I don't believe that that's true, you know," he said. "And that's not to say we aren't going to grow payroll. We will have a higher payroll next year than we have this year. We will go out with the intent of adding as much impact to our team as we possibly can. The idea that you're going to buy trophies -- I think there were six divisional champions this year and not one of those six had the highest payroll in their division. So it's it is not a slam dunk that payroll solves your problems or fills your holes. It's just one avenue to take."

Dipoto contends that a singular focus on the goal of a World Series could lead a team astray by making reckless decisions that implode spectacularly.

"The reality is if what you're doing is focusing year-to-year on what do we have to do to win the World Series this year, you might be one of the teams that's laying in the mud and can't get up for another decade. So 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," Dipoto said.

For the fan base of the only team in all of MLB to never make the World Series, that's not going to satiate the appetite any time soon.

Whichever avenues the Mariners utilize in their attempt to improve, the Mariners have to get more out of their offense. Everyone acknowledges the strength of the pitching staff as a whole. Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo each made the leap from Double-A to the Majors to start a combined 43 games and pitched well after Robbie Ray and Marco Gonzales were lost to injuries. Castillo, Gilbert and George Kirby were standout performers that all finished inside the top 13 in the AL in ERA for the season.

Cutting down on strikeouts in the big talking point from the press conference from Dipoto and Servais.

"How can we produce more runs, we can make more contact. It's just as simple as that," Dipoto said.

"This year we went through elongated stretches of season where we had multiple consecutive hitters who the strikeout was a big part of their game. And that made it very hard."

Added Servais: "The strikeouts, the swing-and-miss in our lineup is what caused us to struggle early in the year. And it was something that you look at the end of the day, how do you overcome that, you'd have to hit a ton of home runs and slug and we didn't do that consistently throughout the year. So from an offensive standpoint, that's the one thing we got to address."

Dipoto remains unapologetic about his process and handling of the Mariners organization. He believes it's put the franchise in a better position to be contenders on a yearly basis. And he believes they have spent money as well, pointing to the contracts for Ray, Castillo and Julio Rodríguez over the last two years.  He also stated clearly that the Mariners are currently in a window where they can chase a championship. 

"We've built methodically, and we've built methodically in a way that I think the narrative has been that we're pushing the patience of a fan base or of our support. We've turned this around in about two-and-a-half years and we have now been a contending club for the last three years, made it to a postseason, and in doing so we've actually signed three of the top 40 contracts in baseball over the last two years with Robbie Ray, and (Luis Castillo) and with Julio (Rodríguez). 

"Our expectations of ourselves are that we continue to do interesting things like that. Some via trade, some via free agency, some via a player that we develop and promote through our own organization. But we won't build on a foundation that's not cured and what we have achieved over the last couple of years is we have built a foundation that we feel like is cured and now we can start erecting a more stable long-term roster home."

All that sets the stage for a monumentally important offseason ahead for the Mariners to find the answers necessary so they can still be playing baseball at this time next year.

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