With Mariners in Wild-Card Position, It's Time For John Stanton and Jerry Dipoto to Come to Table
Fresh off a four-game sweep of the Blue Jays to extend their current winning streak to eight, the Mariners are 45-42 and in sole possession of the American League's third and final wild-card spot with six games to go until the All-Star break. On top of that, they are only 1.5 games back of the second wild-card and two back of the first wild-card.
Seattle has rarely found itself in such a position at this point in the season during its well-documented 20-year playoff drought. In fact, the organization has arguably never been set up as favorably as it is right now, approaching the trade deadline with one of the best farm systems in the sport and a major league payroll that barely clears $100 million, ranking 22nd out of 30 clubs.
Winners of 16 of their last 19 games, Mariners manager Scott Servais and his team have done everything within their power to prove they are worth investing in. The players have bought in, the fans have bought in and now it's time for president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and owner John Stanton to follow suit.
While the team as currently constructed has remarkably been able to course-correct and then some over the past three weeks, it is still littered with weaknesses that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Some of the roster's holes are expected to be plugged by players returning from injury, such as outfielders Mitch Haniger and Kyle Lewis, but that is simply not good enough for a multitude of reasons:
- This not only assumes Haniger and Lewis will be able to perform following their extended absences, but that they will also stay healthy.
- Finding corner outfield help is far from the biggest hurdle between the Mariners and their first playoff appearance in two decades.
From second base to starting pitching and even a bullpen that is currently surging, Seattle needs more probability and ceiling, and it should do whatever it takes to ensure it gets that before the August 2 deadline comes and goes.
The responsibility of this ultimately falls on Stanton and then Dipoto, who have the ammunition and the money to build a highly competitive roster. Everything must be on the table at this point. The Mariners are fast approaching the home stretch of the rebuild they started in the winter of 2018 and can no longer justify standing pat or adding around the fringes of their roster for the sake of hoarding prospects and/or maintaining payroll flexibility.
This isn't to say Seattle should recklessly throw tons of high-end prospect capital at teams for players who may only don the navy and Northwest green for a few months. But Dipoto and crew cannot shy away from getting very aggressive on the trade market, even if it means paying $1.10 or more for $1.
If it makes the major league club better now and possibly in the future, that's all that matters. Teams should maintain healthy farm systems, but the goal at the end of the day is to win championships—not Baseball America awards.
