There is a fundamental tenet of sports. As children it is among the first things we learn when we begin organized play. It’s the latter half of the Little League Pledge:
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best
That last line has rung in my head ever since the Mariners told the media they met with zero players at last winter’s meetings, and instead spent the time white boarding. As the team whiled away yet another offseason treating roster holes as obligations – depositories for spit and chewing gum rather than opportunities for meaningful structural addition – the ringing kept getting louder. As we close the first quarter of the season with Teoscar Hernandez running a 10/1 K/BB ratio, and Kolten Wong sporting the second worst wRC+ in the entire sport, the clanging of those words is deafening.
I will always do my best
Every season at some point I burnout on the Mariners. It’s usually somewhere between mid-June and early-August. This season it’s mid-May. I’ll get over it. I love baseball and this group of players is likable and easy to root for. But at present I have next to no energy for them. They are once again something like the 10th-20th best team in baseball. They have the 18th highest payroll. They do not have the farm pieces to make franchise-altering acquisitions, nor will that farm meaningfully impact this season through call ups. They are, as they almost always are, fairly mediocre. Re-reading that whiteboard quote over and over it is hard to not feel that’s by design.
In a guest piece for Seattle Magazine the always worthwhile Danny O’Neil talked about burning out at his past job:
“I was giving more of myself than I was getting in return, which meant running at a deficit. It’s a recipe that will leave you tired, and if you keep on going, frustrated at your ineffectiveness and cynical because you depersonalize everything.”
Rooting for the Mariners increasingly feels like running at a deficit. The organization asks and expects more from its fans than it does from itself. We are all, each of us as fans, doing our best. Always. We show up for new jersey release events. We pay out the nose for ROOT sports. We get that season ticket deposit in ASAP so that we can take out a second mortgage for the 2023 All-Star Game. Through it all we are at risk of running in the red because that expenditure of energy and finances is outpacing what is coming back from the team we love so very much.
We are not demanding that they win or, at least, our enjoyment of them is not contingent upon them winning. We are not expecting perfection, or anywhere close to it. We are asking, begging, pleading for an honest effort to be as good as they possibly can be. We are simply asking that they uphold the ideal we learn as soon as we’re old enough to hit a baseball off a tee and run the bases the wrong direction. We are simply asking that they do their best.
It’s May 18th. The Mariners are 21-22. Neither great nor terrible. They are merely average and hoping enough goes their way to become perhaps a bit more than that. It’s entirely possible they will rally to something like 88-90 wins and push into the top 40% of teams in the league, which is now good enough to make the playoffs. They may struggle and finish around 80-83 wins, missing the playoffs and leading to an offseason filled with quotes about bad luck, unanticipated underperformance, and injuries.
They have one of, if not the very best starting rotations in the sport. Julio Rodriguez, Jarred Kelenic, and Cal Raleigh are quite probably the best three positional players this franchise has produced in 15 years. Teoscar Hernandez has a 93 wRC+. Kolten Wong is one of the worst baseball players in the league. Tommy La Stella started six games at DH in the year 2023, including Opening Day; an outcome wrought not by catastrophic necessity but seemingly from equal parts hubris and white-hot, glowing, incandescent indifference. It’s May 18th. The Mariners are 21-22. Win or lose, they have not done their best.
Categories: Maribers
Hmmmm… Believe me, as a Mariners fan, I get the sentiment but I think all ot the doom and gloom in mid-May is kind of ridiculuous. And, I also think the general characterization that Dipoto has either sat on his hands or been too clever for his own good OR both is also unwarranted. I don’t have a problem with the Wong or Hernadez trades – both were fine on paper and Wong’s case it was as much as trying to get something for Winker as anything. Look, the club was never going to sign one of the big name short stops. That was pretty clear. I will say though that Darby Swanson ended up fairly affordable and is doing great in Chicago (not sure he would signed w/ an AL club w/ a marine layer that might have moved him the 2nd though). It also appears that both Senga and Yoshida already had their destinations in mind so I’m not sure Seattle had a chance at those 2. Out the various outfield FA candidates, the last time I looked nobody is totally ripping it up. If ya had crystal ball, picking up Cody Bllinger on short term deal would have been decent for where the club is at but who knew. During the offseason, a lot of M’s faithful were clamoring for another outfielder but a lot of that was on the assumption that Kelenic would continue to tank and should be traded – sometimes the best move are the ones you don’t make. Like or not injuries have also been a factor – not using this as an excuse, it’s just a fact. I think the team can weather Ray’s absence but I actually think the injury that has had the most impact is Dylan Moore’s oblique strain. Not sure Dipoto would have even bothered to pick up La Stella if Moore had been healthy. With Wong’s poor performance, Moore certainly would have garnered playing time. Last but least, let’s talk DH. Out of the main free agent DHs, I think only McCutcheon and Santana are the ones who have posted halfway decent WAR above.1 – if you had those 2 in your gun sights, then great, more power to you and your fortune teller capabilities. I heard complaints about Dipotos platooning/give guys a day of rest approach to the DH for this year. Granted right now the numbers don’t look good but let’s wait until the end of the year when we can compare the final results to clubs that mostly used an everyday DH. There’s still 75 percent of the season left and I’m looking forward to seeing how eveything shakes out.
I’m with you. I was here last year too and they brought me back with a run. I was arguing all offseason that they hadn’t gotten better with people who kept saying they added better players than they lost. That just hasn’t been the case. The players they got this offseason were treading water at best. I felt like Baltimore was going to truly compete this year for a wild card and I felt Texas was getting better fast. I just didn’t think standing pat was enough. The season is still young. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Nathan – have the Seattle area “expert baseball analysts” informed opinions about the expectations for the M’s been wrong for this season? ( playoffs and contend for the 2023 WS – KJR – Buck and Chuck, KIRO etc. – P.S. Root Sports cannot/will not express the truth on their broadcasts – yes – realizing Root has a different motivation vs. other media outlets ). When is it time to admit the Seattle area media sports experts were wrong and this is really a mediocre baseball team with some better than average pitching? I’m afraid this team will end the season in the same position they are in now – 4th in the AL West. I think it is HIGLY likely at this juncture. When is it time to cast off the unacceptable explanations to tolerate the intolerable like “it’s early” and “small sample size” or “we will heal up when Oakland arrives for the next home series”). The drastic performance difference between the M’s and the Red Sox and Braves was vividly apparent. Why are we all in a place (as M’s fans) being ping ponged between hopeful and disgusted with the team’s performance on the field. I guess it’s just part of being an M’s fan since 1977. Maybe you can Mollywhop this with Ian Furness and Chris Crawford on Monday on KJR 93.3 FM? GREAT ARTICLE!!! You captured our angst in this piece!!! It has become apparent that the rebuild is hardly complete – not that it ever is in baseball. Thank you for your superb insights and the courage to be honest.