The Seattle Mariners have done virtually zilch so far in free agency this offseason, and it turns out that may be no accident.
Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports this week that industry sources do not believe the Mariners will be factors in any of the major free agents left on the market. Divish adds that there is “some thought” that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is operating under the limitations of a payroll budget set by team ownership (based on comments that Dipoto has supposedly made to other teams and agents).
For his part, Dipoto appeared Wednesday on Seattle sports radio and denied the notion that the team is not willing to spend. He said that the Mariners’ payroll continues to rise steadily and that management is committed to a payroll “25 to 30 percent higher than it was a year ago.”
Here were Dipoto’s full comments.
Here is Jerry Dipoto's full answer to @BrockHuard's question about the Mariners payroll and signing a top free agent. pic.twitter.com/bFS4QjyAi1
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) December 8, 2022
Despite Dipoto’s remarks, the facts speak for themselves. Seattle has not had a single free agent signing of consequence this offseason and just lost ex-All-Star slugger Mitch Haniger to the San Francisco Giants. Divish adds that the Mariners’ early offer to keep Haniger was “nowhere near” what the Giants were ultimately willing to pay (in the end, a three-year, $43.5 million deal). They also lost Carlos Santana (another former All-Star hitter) in free agency to the Cleveland Guardians several days prior.
Seattle, whom Dipoto admits was still just 17th in payroll last season, just made the playoffs for the first time in over two decades. But they now find themselves in danger of lagging behind the rest of the division. AL West foes like the Texas Rangers (adding Jacob deGrom and Andrew Heaney), the Los Angeles Angels (adding Tyler Anderson, Gio Urshela, and Hunter Renfroe), and the Houston Astros (adding Jose Abreu) all got better this offseason.
The Mariners had, in fairness, already done some work on the trade market. In recent days, they acquired ex-All-Star outfielder Teoscar Hernandez as well as former Gold Glove winner Kolten Wong in separate deals. But even those trades were unpopular among the fanbase for certain reasons.
