The Seattle Mariners held their annual postseason press conference yesterday. Please note: That’s not a press conference you hold when you’re in the postseason, or else the Mariners would hold one far from annually. 

In lieu of going through and attempting to collate, link, and reference everything that was said I would love to simply send you over to the broadcast of the full 75-minute affair. Unfortunately it was scheduled during a live playoff game, which by MLB rules means it could not be broadcast. Other west coast baseball teams managed to circumvent this issue by holding their press conferences in the morning. Somehow, for some reason, the Mariners chose not to do this. One can only guess, I suppose. (For a good cliff notes summary of what was said I recommend this segment produced by King-5 TV’s Jake Garcia.)

Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto had a lot of things to say yesterday. Among them:

-The 2023 season, in which the Mariners failed to make the playoffs for the 21st time in the past 22 seasons, represented a step forward for the organization

-The 2023 Mariners led the American League in runners reaching scoring position (we’ll add the confetti CGI in post)

-Knowing they missed the playoffs by a single game – a miss that required a catastrophic 11-18 Sept/Oct finish to achieve and in no small part due to a thin and beleaguered pitching staff missing its most dependable reliever – the Mariners would have handled the trade deadline “Exactly the same”

-The Mariners goal is to win 54% of their games over a ten-year period. They are not concerned with the results of a single year. (This is news to me as I and I imagine many other fans were in fact greatly concerned with the results of this single year)

-By setting this longterm goal, and NOT doing everything they can to bring the only franchise in MLB history to never make a World Series to, y’know, the World Series Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners are “doing fans a favor” (You do not have to insert a comically evil and condescending chuckle in post here, as Jerry nailed his mark)

There is more. A lot more. There’s Scott Servais smiling, shrugging his shoulders and saying “Come on guys. We’re a good team. It was only one game.” One can only wonder how the core players on his team, who only three days ago expressed their frustration with the team’s unwillingness to push harder for success, took that.

The overriding message is, as with all things I suppose, open to how you want to interpret it. I’ve already heard from numerous parties who think telling you to be grateful your team didn’t try to win the World Series in a year they said their goal was to win the World Series was good and correct. I do not pretend, and never have pretended, to speak for the fanbase at large. I can only speak for myself.

For myself I do not see how the Seattle Mariners come back from this. I believe Jerry Dipoto’s words yesterday are more thoughtless, arrogant, condescending, and hurtful than the infamous Kevin Mather Rotary Club call of 2021. It is one thing to attempt to flatten a beautiful sport down into a predictable, low–yield Roth IRA. Many baseball teams do this. It’s another to tell you to your face that’s what is being done, and asking for a thank you for it. It’s clear that Dipoto has nothing but contempt and disdain for the role of the fans in baseball, and holds himself and his role as far exceeding any such trivial concern as “winning titles.”

I have never been more personally insulted by anything the Seattle Mariners have said. My fandom does not continue despite decades of ineptitude by millionaires and billionaires because I have hope for perpetual above-averageness. I did not spend my entire life rooting year after year after year to be told that a season like 2023 is exactly the goal, and I just need to wait until a pair of jacks is the best hand at the table. I have not signed up for this. I reject it. It is a failure of concept and vision. It is a small view of baseball and life created by small, miserly men. 

Many have been quick to point out that the Mariners have done far worse than Jerry Dipoto as the leader of baseball operations, and that is clearly true. But mediocrity on the heels of ineptitude is still mediocrity, and mediocrity should not be the goal of this franchise. However, according to Jerry Dipoto in explicit terms, that is in fact exactly what it is. The 2021-2023 Mariners were 1-2 players away from being able to contend with any team in baseball. For Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners, their goal is to continue that for as long as humanly possible. Oh, and one more thing: They want you to thank them for it.