The Mariners have won at least 85 games in each of the last four seasons, but the club’s wild card berth and subsequent ALDS appearance in 2022 marks Seattle’s only trip to the playoffs in that stretch. This year’s squad won 85 games on the heels of the sport’s best pitching staff, but the Mariners’ lineup struggled badly for much of the season, leading to another year without any October baseball.
Amidst increasing fan unrest over this lack of success, team chairman/CEO John Stanton preached patience, as Stanton said in an interview with MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer. “I am as disappointed as any fan we have that this team hasn’t been in the playoffs in two years,” Stanton said. “I believe we’re making progress. I can certainly understand why fans are frustrated when they hear me say that, but I believe that we are on track to have a team that consistently wins over a long period of time. I intend this team to win, have a winning record every season, be in the playoffs most seasons, and we will win a World Series.”
In regards to this quest for Seattle’s first baseball championship, Stanton confirmed a Seattle Times report from last month which stated that Jerry Dipoto will continue as the top decision-maker in the front office. Stanton didn’t provide specifics on Dipoto’s contract status, or any hints about how many more years remain on the extension Dipoto signed in September 2021. As Kramer notes, it would appear as though Dipoto is still working under that previous contract and hasn’t signed a new deal, given that the Mariners made public announcements when Dipoto inked his previous two extensions with the team.
“I believe in Jerry, and Jerry is going to continue to lead our baseball organization into the future as the president of baseball operations — and I believe passionately that he is the right guy to do that,” Stanton said.
Another Seattle Times report (again from Ryan Divish and Adam Jude) earlier this week stated the Mariners would have a higher payroll next season, even if such an increase wasn’t expected to be enough for the M’s to accommodate a major free agent signing. According to RosterResource, the Mariners finished 2024 with a payroll of roughly $144.8MM, and have a little under $95MM on the books for 2025, though that latter figure doesn’t account for the projected salaries owed to Seattle’s large arbitration class of 12 players. This might not leave the M’s too far beneath the $144.8MM figure based on internal salaries alone, let alone the necessary upgrades that will be needed to the roster, particularly on the hitting side.
While Stanton said the payroll would indeed be on the rise, he unsurprisingly declined to state exactly how much extra Dipoto’s front office would have available to spend this winter. “I think our draft, develop and trade philosophy certainly doesn’t preclude free agents,” Stanton said, though Dipoto has only signed two free agents (Robbie Ray and Mitch Garver) to multi-year contracts during his nine seasons as Seattle’s top baseball exec.
“I think Jerry’s done an extraordinary job of trading….He’s been prolific in doing that, and very effective in doing that,” Stanton said. “And I think that that is an important part of that philosophy. And if you’re effective in trading, it seems to me that that means you don’t have to do free agency deals in the same numbers.”
The Mariners’ takeover of ROOT Sports regional sports network was seen as the chief reason for the club’s relative lack of spending last winter, and while Stanton said this was a “misconception,” he later added that the Mariners’ broadcast situation is “not going to be nearly the concern that it was this past year.”
Stanton said the M’s haven’t yet decided on their broadcasting plans for 2025, as while the Mariners aren’t one of the teams tied up in contracts with the Diamond Sports Group and Bally Sports Networks, DSG’s ongoing bankruptcy process is still a chief factor in how the Mariners will choose to proceed with their own programming going forward. In terms of deciding to continue with ROOT Sports or to perhaps turn to MLB itself to broadcast Mariners games, the result of the DSG case “will allow us to know what other teams are doing, and that will give us some sense as to what it is that MLB would have to sell, basically,” Stanton said. “If there are a lot of teams involved, then they’ve got an ability to deliver to distributors, such as the cable companies, a broader set of markets, and therefore something more valuable to those distributors.”
In the broader sense, Stanton noted that Seattle is “roughly the 15th-largest market in baseball. We’re pretty much smack dab in the middle in terms of the size of the market, and that means that we’re about average in our ability to generate revenue and to do those things. I think, to me, the word that we use a lot — and our objective — is to have a sustainable franchise over a long period of time.”
Stanton also spoke publicly for the first time about the Mariners’ firing of manager Scott Servais in August, which the chairman described as “a gut-wrenching, difficult decision” on Dipoto’s part. Servais’ dismissal and the subsequent hiring of Dan Wilson as the new manager came after “a very long series of conversations. I asked Jerry questions as to why he wanted to make the change, with respect to Scott, why he wanted to bring Dan in, and I was certainly satisfied by his thinking on it.”
Servais also infamously learned of his firing from a news update before he heard from Dipoto or Stanton, which Stanton expressed “deep regret” over, “and that is a source of frustration for everyone in this building.” Stanton implied that he didn’t know where the leak came from, but “I am highly confident it didn’t come from within this building or from our ownership group, because I know there was a very small circle of people who are aware of it, and I have a high level of confidence that those people did not say anything.”
PronounsRUS
Aim higher than 85 wins dorks.
good vibes only
I agree
good vibes only
I can’t stand this guy. Sell the team tool. #15th biggest media market? Leak didn’t come from inside the building? Draft/develop/trade strategy like we’re a small market team?
Give me a break. Mariners fans don’t expect a top market budget but we do expect ownership to want to win.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Stanton is one of those owners that will make promises that don’t happen (in other words, lying like trump), I wish we had an owner that is honest to the fans like mark attanasio of the brewers
mlb fan
“15th biggest media market”…That really mattered in 1968, but Washington, Oregon & Idaho(often considered one market in business)have less people than just the top half(Norcal)of California.
“Media markets” mattered when television was broadcast over the air, but nowadays all that matters is how many eyeballs are potentially in your region.
monroe_says
Yep, keep pocketing your 70 million in profits a year, while the value of the team increases 12% annually. Nice little ATM you got there, Stanton.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
“Only” 15th best market is a bad excuse when you’re in the top 10 most profitable teams because of ticket costs and media and merch
good vibes only
And it’s not even true. They’re like #11 largest market.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
The rangers and padres and cardinals are either the same size or smaller yet they actually can smell the luxury tax 1st apron
BaseballisLife
13th largest media market.
BaseballisLife
Just behind Tampa and just in front of Detroit.
YourDreamGM
15th is fair. St Louis has a large non city base and no nfl. SD is only team in town. I’ll take a smaller market with less competition. Fans of other teams live in Tampa.
hllywdjff
Rinse and repeat…Mariner fans are suckers they will never win a world series…I bet Oakland wins one before Seattle….
PronounsRUS
That’s not even possible anymore so you’ve already lost.
hllywdjff
THE A’S!
PronounsRUS
That wasn’t what you said. There isn’t a casino or sports book in the world that would let your mistake slide. You’ve lost. Sell your house if you have to but we’re coming for our money
hllywdjff
Hahahahaha.
Rsox
The Mariners are not the presence they once were in Japan which should not be the case with Ichiro in the front office and just drafting and signing international players seems to be secondary for the team. It’s fine that DiPoto likes to trade but you cannot fix every need that way while ignoring free agency beyond the fringes. This is a team that should be able to afford a Juan Soto or a Pete Alonso
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Realistically Seattle isn’t New York or Los Angeles so I’m fine with not affording Soto
But Alonso or bregman or Santander should be realistic targets but they aren’t
Stevil
That’s fair, and I generally agree, but attracting free agent hitters isn’t simple, either.
Seattle has an awkward park that needs adjustments and the organization hasn’t shown they’re serious about a championship.
I don’t blame free agents for steering clear.
johnsilver
I would think more than park and willingness of a teams, in this case Seattle’s owner can play into how bad/if some want to play there, or other cities.
Now i do like that team and watch them regularly, but how popular with ptential FA can it be when a portion of the cities was over ran by lawless thugs, allowed to stay that way for months, private property destroyed with -0- consequences?
It’s a simple question to ask anyone moving to certain places where this happened and we have heard nothing but gaslighting and bs excuses made since for the criminals. I can see legit questions regarding why some would wish to move to certain places. sadly.. Some do not.
C Us Sink
Sell the team Stanton! Same story different day. They’re more focused on gimmicks like Hot Dogs From Heaven, than actually adding players to the lineup to help them win. The comment about the leak about Servais’ firing was despicable as well. He knows where it came from, and is another example of the hot mess on how this organization is run.
kellin
Love when fans complain about a team that’s actually trying to be successful and has had relative success in recent years. Stop your complaining.
Signed an Angels fan.
good vibes only
The Angels are trying to be successful they just aren’t very good at it, to be fair. Arte Moreno spends a ton of money he just spends it poorly.
Kyle Pepperpants
Are they though? The bats problem was obvious in the offseason and it got so bad they needed a lot more than they could reasonably expect to get at the trade deadline. In the end, they wasted another year of outstanding pitching.
Chester Copperpot
Sell the team.
wayneroo
That’s funny; I’m sure Stanton is reading these quotes and will immediately put the team up for sale because you told him to..
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Higher payroll for us means that we won’t trade the guys getting raises but will still probably be limited to 1 year deals or lateral trades
My guess is we sign Jose iglesias to a 1 year deal, trade garver and a prospect (say Ryan bliss) to a random team like the Chicago teams, and trade for Ryan McMahon or Brett baty or Jake burger
Can we please get a DH?
What a sad group of 3B targets listed there. McMahon was awful in the 2nd half (54 wRC+ lowering his year long wRC+ to 89). Burger is awful defensively. Baty hasn’t shown he can hit big league pitching. None of those three move the needle on the Rojas/Moore platoon as is.
Praying that Colt Emerson has a healthy year and is ready to debut in 2026.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
That’s why I mentioned those players and not Bregman or arenado or max muncy
It would be a mariners thing to do to get (at best) average players that become a lot worse
wayneroo
There is no way on earth Colorado is going to trade McMahon. They’ve nearly said as much.
Can we please get a DH?
Nobody should want him either. He is due $44M over the next 3 years for below average production from 3B. He was a 1.9 WAR player last year on the back of 2 hot months. Otherwise, he is a 30 year old 3B with decent defense and career 29% K rate. I don’t see those next 3 years looking good at all. It’s an ugly present and future for the Rockies…
Canuckleball
I’ve often thought that Seattle should try doing what Detroit did after they moved to Comerica. It was too big for homers so they tried getting guys with speed and guys who were gap to gap doubles guys, rather then pure sluggers.
Recent power guys they’ve brought in have been a relative bust (Teo, Garver)
T-Mobile park has long been a bad hitters park, not so much for size but for several other reasons including the marine air and some issues with the back drop.
A lineup with hitters similar to Luis Arráez or Bo Bichette, guys who hit a lot but with less focus on power, could generate runs through rallys. That scrappy offense combined with their pitching could be enough to get them not only back in the playoffs, but actually winning once there.
The Royals used this approach for their World Series in ’15 (although their good pitchers were in the pen)
Can we please get a DH?
After they moved in the fences in 2017, TMobile became a roughly average park for home runs, but dropped to dead last for singles, doubles and triples. It has an incredibly small outfield that leads to many line drives that would be extra bases at other parks into easy outs at TMobile. This, coupled with the batters eye and a wind tunnel that adds break to pitches, leads to it being very hard to consistently make successful contact. Therefore, pivoting to a strategy that requires chaining hits together in the hardest park to get hits to score, rather than focusing on walks and bombs, is not likely to improve the offensive output.
Stevil
We’ve been hearing the same speech from the front office and ownership since the 2019 offseason.
They are sustaining mediocrity. But they’ve done nothing to suggest they’re serious about a World Series, and as of now, they have three years with this core to get there.
Seattle is a mid-market team, Stanton isn’t wrong about that, but they’ve been they’ve been one of the most profitable organizations in baseball since the 2022 season. They really have no excuses for this halfassery.
It’s kind of funny that he threw Dipoto under the bus about the Servais firing. As if anyone’s going to believe ownership had to be convinced,
Stanton lacks character.
zoinksscoob
Actions speak louder than words, Mr. Stanton. And you keep saying the same words over and over. I’ll believe it when I see it, and maybe not even then since M’s fans have been teased over and over.
hoof hearted
Most owners get bad mouthed by the fans- its just noise. However, gilbert is around for atleast 3 more years- before he’s a FA. Cal and George have 4 years of arb. Then theres Bryce and Brian. They could be thinking to themselves “if they can’t build an offense to support the really good pitching-I might look for a team that will; when I become a FA”.
hllywdjff
Seattle has a top 5 per capita income in the US so there is no excuse for this team not to spend money it’s been proven over and over fans will show up if they win and the team will make money and be a success on the field…Win win for both sides
BabyBoyBlueDiamond
You don’t think it precludes free agents??? Are you &@$%ing kidding me?!?! You FINALLY make the playoffs for the first time in 2 decades, get swept by Houston, STILL haven’t scored a run in the playoffs AT HOME since Stan Javier did it in 2001, and the following off season, you go out and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when that year’s free agent class was very strong!
“Our draft/develop/trade philosophy doesn’t preclude free agents…”. NUMBSKULL! That style of philosophy ABSOLUTELY precludes free agents (it says in the very name and description) and you’ve shown that predominantly since you’ve been in charge; no longer being the lead of the minority owners who had to fight Nintendo when they wanted to spend more. Now you don’t have to fight anyone. You make the decisions now and it shows.
I find it hilarious that “he’s frustrated”. That’d be like me punching a wall and then being frustrated my hand hurts. That’d be like me flipping off the police then shooting a gun at them and being frustrated for being arrested for it! This is on you, you old sack of garbage! You’ve steered your sheep into a reef when signs all around said “DON’T GO THIS WAY!”
Someone save us from this incompetent “genius”.