Justin Turner, Jerry Dipoto Discuss State Of Mariners

There seems to be a great deal of frustration surrounding the Mariners, which isn’t limited to the fanbase. Former Mariner Justin Turner sounded off on the situation to Bob Nightengale of USA Today yesterday, blasting the organization for its lack of aggression. That column led to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times seeking the response of various players, who kept themselves anonymous. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto also spoke about the state of the franchise to Sam Blum of The Athletic in a piece published today, though the piece didn’t reference Turner’s comments or the USA Today piece and said the Dipoto interview actually took place “earlier” this spring.

“The fact that they missed the playoffs by one game, and didn’t go out and add an impact bat or two when you have the best pitching staff in baseball,” Turner said to Nightengale, “just seems absurd to me.”

The Mariners went 85-77 last year, a solid season and their fourth straight above .500. But as Turner mentioned, they narrowly missed the playoffs, just as they did in 2021 and 2023. Their postseason appearance in 2022 is their only one since 2001. Their decent-but-underwhelming results last year were the result of an imbalanced team. Their 3.49 earned run average was tied with Atlanta for best in the league. The starting staff’s 3.38 ERA was best in the majors. But the offense was more middling, with a .224/.311/.376 batting line as a club.

The club surely would have loved to add more offense but didn’t have significant resources to do so. Reporting throughout the winter indicated that the Mariners were going to increase payroll by around $15MM relative to last year. Cot’s Baseball Contracts estimated their Opening Day payroll at $140MM. RosterResource projects them to go into 2025 at $152MM, a $12MM increase. Their free agent signings this winter have been a $3.5MM deal for Donovan Solano, a 37-year-old infielder, and bringing back Jorge Polanco. The M’s turned down a $12MM club option on Polanco, opting for the $750K buyout, but re-signed him via a one-year, $7.75MM deal with a player/vesting option.

Generally speaking, the club hasn’t been a big player in free agency. Cot’s hasn’t had the club’s payroll higher than 11th in the league in any of the past 15 seasons. They’ve been in the bottom half of the league in each of the past five years. In the past decade, they have only twice given a free agent a guarantee larger than $24MM. Yusei Kikuchi got a four-year, $56MM deal back in 2019, though he opted out after three years. Robbie Ray got a five-year, $115MM deal but was traded to the Giants after two years.

Turner was acquired from the Blue Jays at last year’s deadline and finished the year with the Mariners. According to Divish, the club offered him a deal to return, with the guarantee larger than the $6MM pact he eventually accepted from the Cubs. At the time of the offer from the M’s, Turner seemingly felt he could do better and didn’t accept, which prompted the M’s to pivot to Solano and Polanco.

Turner made clear that his criticism wasn’t mere sour grapes about not being re-signed. “Honestly, as much as I wanted to be back there,” Turner said to Nightengale, “if I was the only piece they brought back in, I would be saying the same thing: What the hell are we doing? Are you trying? There’s not going to a better time to go for it. So, I don’t know what they’re doing. I’m very confused. It’s a head-scratcher for me.”

Ultimately, the criticism is mostly geared towards ownership and the lack of resources it has provided to the front office. “I thought [Pete] Alonso was a slam-dunk,” Turner said. “How can you not go after him? You kidding me?” But Alonso re-signed with the Mets on a two-year, $54MM deal. He will get $30MM of that in the first year, which is double what the Mariners had to work with this winter. Turner emphasized that he didn’t hold Dipoto responsible for the parameters he was given.

“I think Jerry catches a bad rap for a lot of these trades and how crazy some of these trades have been,” Turner said. “But now being a part of it, I kind of understand. He doesn’t have any money to spend, so he’s got to create money. Like, OK, is it really Jerry’s fault?” Turner then referenced the 2021 trade wherein the M’s sent Kendall Graveman to the Astros for Abraham Toro, saying he “probably needed to trade guys just to be able to spend money in the offseason, which is nuts.”

Turner also expressed sympathy for the club’s frustrated supporters who are caught up in the situation. “I feel for them. They’ve got great fans. Their fans are amazing. They want to win so bad. The team is very profitable. And they don’t spend.”

It’s perhaps illustrative of a level of discontent that exists in the Seattle clubhouse but doesn’t always come out. Catcher Cal Raleigh expressed some frustration after the club’s disappointing 2023 season finished, though he later apologized. “We’ve got to commit to winning,” Raleigh said at that time, “to going and getting those players. You see other teams going out, going for it, getting big-time pitchers, getting big-time hitters. We have to do that to keep up.”

Turner is no longer in the organization and is also 40 years old, meaning he doesn’t have to fear any negative repercussions for speaking out. The incumbent Mariners who spoke to Divish refrained from going on the record but seemed to largely agree with Turner’s points.

Though the player frustration seemed to be largely pointed at ownership, many Seattle fans have their frustrations with Dipoto. His now-infamous “54%” comments from October of 2023 are sort of legendary among his haters. For those unfamiliar, after the club just missed the playoffs in October of 2023, Dipoto said that “teams that win 54 percent of the time always wind up in the postseason and they more often than not wind up in a World Series. … Nobody wants to hear ‘the goal this year is we’re going to win 54 percent of the time.’ But over time that type of mindset gets you there.”

Blum asked him about those comments and his general ability to speak in a manner that seems to rub people the wrong way. “People obviously didn’t understand it the way I expressed it,” Dipoto said. “My guess is that 98 percent of people didn’t actually listen to it. They just read it off a tweet. It’s what it is. Maybe they wouldn’t have understood it any better had they heard the whole thing. And that’s on me for poorly communicating what I think is a simple idea.”

Dipoto says he has scaled back his media appearances since he’s aware that he’s become something of a lightning rod. “Truly, I could say ‘hello,’” Dipoto said, “and it would turn into a thing right now.” He also expressed to Blum that the very interviewing he was giving would probably not be well received. “I’m gonna get roasted,” he said to Blum.

He did somewhat attempt to frame the lack of spending as a strategy, saying that most great teams have been “built on a foundation of draft, sign, develop or trade. That’s what we’ve communicated to our fans for a decade.” Though at the same time, he also said he’s aware there’s a desire for “The big move. The grand slam. The big free agent.” and that “maybe that’ll happen at some point” but they “didn’t think this was the right time, or the right group of players that fit for us.”

Regardless of how one feels about it, the club is largely banking on the Seattle lineup continuing a strong finish to the 2024 season. The club acquired both Turner and Randy Arozarena at the deadline last year. A few weeks later, they fired manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart. Servais was replaced by Dan Wilson while Edgar Martínez took over as hitting coach. Martínez is still with the club but with the title of senior director, hitting strategy. He’s not expected to go on road trips, with Kevin Seitzer now to be the club’s primary hitting coach, though he will apparently report to Martínez.

For what it’s worth, the M’s hit .264/.347/.433 in the month of September. That translated to a 128 wRC+ for that month, a mark that trailed only the Dodgers. That was a huge upgrade over the .216/.304/.364 they hit from March to August. We’re talking about just one month, and some of Seattle’s opponents were out of contention and playing out the string. But if there was any meaningful improvement in there that the M’s could carry over, they could be in a better position than last year. If not, it could lead to another offseason of frustration in Seattle.