This Graphic on the Seattle Mariners Payroll and Spending Habits Will Infuriate Fans
Anyone who follows the Seattle Mariners can see that the ownership group is generally averse to spending big money,
Now, in fairness, the ownership group under John Stanton has spent money in the last several years, signing Robbie Ray, Luis Castillo and Julio Rodriguez to big money deals. However, those players are the exceptions, and the M's have far too often been forced to come up with creative solutions to add talent, sometimes at the expense of other talent.
For instance, the Mariners brought in Jorge Polanco and Luke Raley this offseason, which were seen as good moves at the time. They also brought on Mitch Haniger again. But in order to do that, they had to get rid of an exciting young player like Jarred Kelenic and a former foundational piece in Evan White. They also let Teoscar Hernandez go in free agency without even offering him a qualifying offer and had to trade away Ray and his money, despite the fact that he could help the rotation this year and beyond.
Though the M's brought in talented players, there was always a question if they basically just re-arranged the roster and if the offseason was really just a net zero.
This following graphic from @BrooksGate confirms what M's fans have worried all along, that the ownership group is running the organization like a means to make profit - and not like a group that is hellbent on winning baseball games and bringing championships.
how much money each MLB team made last year, and how much of that is going towards their payroll this year pic.twitter.com/yCeoc2fGP5
— BrooksGate (@Brooks_Gate) July 16, 2024
The Seattle Mariners made $396 million in 2023 and are spending only 40.4 percent of that money on this years payroll. Translation? Only seven teams are spending a lower percentage of revenue from 2023 on the 2024 roster.
Now, part of this is a bi-product of the M's having a lot of young players that don't make a lot of money like Logan Gilbert, Cal Raleigh and George Kirby. However, the money was clearly there to make a run at Shohei Ohtani in free agency, or to try to bring Hernandez back, or to try to sign a guy like Cody Bellinger.
The M's had the money, they willingly chose not to use it. Spending is not always indicative of how much a team will win, but it's frustrating to know that the Mariners have more resources than they let on, and they don't constantly re-invest it in the on-field product.
The Mariners are the only franchise to never appear in the World Series. You'd think the ownership group would be more desperate for success.
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