Fans Want the Mariners to Get Help, But They Don't Want to Trade Prospects: Here's Why
In the same way that the most of you do, I find myself endlessly scrolling Seattle Mariners' Twitter for large portions of the day.
Sometimes it's a cathartic exercise where I find people who affirm how I think and feel. Sometimes it's a beneficial exercise where I'm challenged in that way of thinking and made smarter. And sometimes, I'm just inspired by what other people say and I give what they say a deep dive.
Thursday morning was one of those times, as I was inspired by something said by popular Mariners' "X" contributor @MarinerMuse.
That account was making its case for the Mariners to go out and take a swing at the trade deadline. We know that the M's need help offensively, and we've seen them linked to popular names like Luis Robert Jr., Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Pete Alonso. The account was saying that despite the prospect cost, it would be worth it for the team to take a shot to try to win a World Series for the first time ever.
When's the last time the Mariners have been legitimately burned by trading a prospect in a way that plugged in fans could see coming?
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) June 5, 2024
All that is to say:
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) June 5, 2024
Identify the right pieces to add and take the swings.
In other sections of Mariners' Twitter, I saw fans saying that they didn't want to trade prospects for established talent, and I've seen plenty of examples of people saying you can't have it both ways. And I've seen fighting amongst all of those groups too.
So, I just got to thinking: Why are several Mariners fans so averse to trading prospects? There's really four reasons.
The organization doesn't like spending big money:
We've seen this time and time again, right? John Stanton and his crew do not want to spend big on free agents. Yes, they spent on Robbie Ray, but otherwise, the M's are constantly shopping for bargains on the outside market. With the ROOT Sports issues, that position seems destined to continue.
Well, if you trade away big prospects for rental players, and then those rental players leave, what are you left with? You are left with a depleted prospect pool AND holes at the major league roster. How do you fill those? Ordinarily, teams would spend money to cover up those holes and wait for the next wave of prospects to come, but the M's have shown no willingness to do that, so fans are weary of leaving holes in the roster for years after these rental players leave.
We've been conditioned to think there's a budget
Yes, every team does have financial constraints, but we, as fans, have been led to believe that those constraints are tighter than they are. Thus, fans have grown accustomed to looking at things like "value," and trying to identify how a good team can be built within this arbitrary budget. Prospects are cheap, and prospects stay cheap for a while, and fans have been conditioned to think that cheap is good.
In theory, running a higher payroll makes it harder to retain current fan favorites
Since we know the Mariners are operating on this arbitrary budget, fans are generally weary of acquiring other big contracts, because it not only impacts the team's ability to spend in offseasons, but it also restricts the ability (in theory) to retain current fan favorites. If the Mariners acquire Luis Robert Jr. and his four years of team control, that would seemingly be a good move that would justify a prospect cost, but if you acquire his $50 million deal -- are you now less likely to sign Cal Raleigh or George Kirby or Logan Gilbert? Fans would rather "save" the money for current favorites than acquire an outsider, but the reality is that the team can do both.
Teams are afraid of giving up a future star
The White Sox once traded Fernando Tatis Jr. for James Shields. The Rangers once had Emmanuel Clase on their roster. Yankees fans still lament giving Jay Buhner to the M's for Ken Phelps. Fans hate the idea of giving up a player that could go onto be a star somewhere else.
We saw it with Shin Soo-Choo, and Adam Jones, and Derek Lowe, and Jason Varitek and David Ortiz and fans simply are afraid of a repeat performance, especially in the age of "value," where those players will be cheap for 6-7 years.
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