Brady's Spin: Ownership Isn't the Only Reason For Seattle Mariners Failures This Year
After a 4-3 loss against the Houston Astros on Tuesday night, the Seattle Mariners are 81-77 on the season. While they still have a 2.9 percent chance to make the playoffs, they have zero chance to win the American League West, which has been won by the Astros once again.
The popular refrain from Mariners fans is that ownership didn't invest enough in this team and lack of spending money is the reason for the M's failures.
It will never stop being wild that a year ago the team’s foundational players lit up the owners’ asses for being cheap and the owners responded by being cheaper.
— Colin O'Keefe (@colinokeefe) September 25, 2024
And look, I'm not here to defend ownership because the financial investment isn't enough. People are right in that. It's egregious that the team traded away a 20 home run/100 RBI threat in Eugenio Suarez for a backup catcher who didn't survive the season and a reliever who didn't pitch at the major league level all year. It's also egregious that they jettisoned a promising player in Jarred Kelenic for the sole purpose of dumping salary and it's egregious that they let Teoscar Hernandez go without so much as a qualifying offer.
This team would have been better with Suarez at third base every day and could have better with Hernandez as well. That's absolutely true.
All that said, if you are solely blaming ownership, you're letting people off the hook that you shouldn't be. Even despite the limitations in spending, this team had a 10.0 game lead in the American League West back on June 18. This team was good enough to make the playoffs as it was constructed and they came up short in many, many regards.
You simply can't lose two of three to the Miami Marlins or the Pittsburgh Pirates, but the M's did. You can't get swept by the Los Angeles Angels or the Detroit Tigers, which the M's did. You can't blow an 8-0 lead against the Kansas City Royals and lose, but the M's did. You can't walk the ballpark against the Milwaukee Brewers in the ninth inning in April, but the M's did. You can't lose back-to-back walk-off games to the Oakland Athletics in September, but the M's did. You can't have JP Crawford regress from .266 with 19 homers to .202 with nine homers.
You can't have Julio Rodriguez struggle for the first half of the season, or Jorge Polanco struggle with the Mendoza Line all year. You can't have Mitch Garver fail to bat his weight, either. The players, who have real resumes, deserve some blame also. As does the coaching staff that was previously assembled by Jerry Dipoto and supported by Scott Servais.
Ownership is a big piece of this all, but when the M's are sitting home in October, they can't be your only target.
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