Wow Servais with an Epic quote. Something is up.

[bpj]

They were spending more money when Dipoto was first hired weren't they, before the step back

They opened the spending gates the first few years, then took their step back after the 2018 season and started to decrease payroll.

Their current payroll is about what it was in Dipoto's first year with the team (2016), not adjusted for inflation.

They ramped spending back up, looks like they've tried to become competitive (although they still had a relatively low payroll in 2023, 18th in MLB). But, when you factor in how much of that money Dipoto has wasted on bad trade acquisitions/signings, it's no surprise if ownership has pumped the brakes on letting him spend any more.

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[Donn Beach]

I was wondering about a relationship between when Stanton took over and less aggressive spending, that was 2016.

Stanton wasn't an original owner, thought he was

Stanton, 60, joined the group in 2000 when he bought out the 10 percent ownership stake of John McCaw of McCaw Cellular,

Stanton bought it because of his passion for baseball

Stanton’s group cashed out NOA’s 55 percent share for about $640 million, done primarily out of passion for baseball, something that could not be said for Yamauchi, who in 21 years never saw the Mariners play in person.

Absenteeism will not be the case for Stanton, Bellevue-born and a Whitman College graduate who remembers as a boy crying over the 1970 departure of the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee. He has said that owning the Mariners would be “perhaps the supreme honor for me in my career.”

Wow, we were cynical back then but Stanton was here to change that

The cynicism that hangs over the franchise like an acid fog — four playoff appearances in 40 years, none since 2001 — is felt by Stanton in the same manner as hard-core fans. Which explains why he was so bold at his the press conference announcing the deal.

“The No. 1 goal of this ownership group is to win a World Series,” he said. “We want to win a World Series here in Seattle and have a celebration of that event.

“I think it’s time we have that accomplishment.’’

[D-train]

Ugh - this says to me - We got little to no money to spend this offseason so we're going to do our best.

So basically they did some salary dumps to put together a team that will be almost identical to last years team in terms of mediocrity and lack of excitement. They really outta look to sell the team if this is the best they can do.

Dipoto said they will have a higher payroll than last year.

So unless he's lying...

Jerry is now saying "Very Likely" payroll will be higher in 2023 and then SS comes out with the "Cards we are dealt" line. How is a higher payroll from one year to the next, even if it is 57 cents higher "Cards we are dealt" These guys come off sounding like idiots with these contradictory statements. What a complete shit show. They really need to higher a seasoned PR consultant with expertise and experience in damage control at this point.

[D-train]

I listened to the SS presser.
My first impression is he has been told we need to dump salary in order to acquire better players.
Those are the cards they've been dealt. Losing JK and Marco. Those were Servais boys.
They lost offense losing Teo and Geno.
He said and I quote "right now we are an incomplete team and we need to get better. Hopefully in the next two weeks we'll do that".
He also said we would get better via "trade or free agents" and "we need a couple of bats".

Now will Jerry and crew draw in the big fish players? Or just pull up porgies? i.e. Teoscar, Wong-types.

I'm actually excited to see what they put together.
I like the ideas on this forum of trading some of our starting pitching for Arozarena and Peredes.
Then sign Snell who freakin actually WANTS to come here.
Those moves alone improve the club tremendously.
Then you can go out Jerry and get a DH/Outfielder on a discount and no one will be calling for your head.

Ok thanks. That makes more sense. I am fine with those Cards. If they led to JK Marco and White being gone, it is actually a nice hand. lol

[D-train]

By Ryan Divish
Seattle Times staff reporter
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It’s not what they wanted to do. It wasn’t what they intended to do. But it’s what they had to do to have any hope of success.

Many a sad country song has been penned on the back of a cocktail napkin here in the capital of country music, and the ballad of the Seattle Mariners has a melancholy feel.

Right now, it has tinges of Merle Haggard singing, “If we make it through December.”

I don’t mean to hate December
It’s meant to be the happy time of year
And my little girl don’t understand
Why daddy can’t afford no Christmas gift

On Monday afternoon at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, the Mariners’ leadership — specifically president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais — confirmed what was suspected and reported in the days leading up to the annual MLB winter meetings and verified with Sunday’s salary-dumping trade to the Braves — they needed to free up money on their roster to spend money this offseason.

Of course, neither came out and said publicly that the Mariners ownership group, led by chairman John Stanton and influential minority leader Chris Larsen, dropped an unexpected lump of coal into their offseason plans, giving them a severely reduced payroll budget.

They can’t say it publicly or even privately. But it was there in their comments.

“Things shifted maybe a couple of weeks into the offseason on where we were headed and why we were headed there, based on different circumstances that came up,” Servais said in his required media session. “Some of it was within our control, some of it’s not within our control, on how you’re going to shape your team going forward.”

On Oct. 10, Xfinity announced that it was moving ROOT Sports NW to its highest-tier Ultimate TV package.

It meant that subscribers wanting to watch the Mariners, Kraken and Portland Trail Blazers had to upgrade their cable package — a monthly increase of $18.50.

The increase was met with anger and frustration, offering another reason for die-hard viewers and fans to cut the cable cord like so many others have.

For the Mariners, who own more than 70% of ROOT Sports NW, the backlash from the immediate and continued decrease in subscribers was alarming. Besides their own broadcasts, they paid healthy amounts for the rights to broadcast the Kraken and Blazers. The valuations for those contracts were based on the previous cable structure and projected subscribers.

“The Seattle Mariners are disappointed that Xfinity has moved ROOT Sports into a package that is more expensive and less accessible to fans,” Mariners senior vice president of marketing Kevin Martinez said in a release after the announcement. “Xfinity is the largest television provider in the Pacific Northwest, and their decision makes it harder for those who live here to watch their favorite teams.”

While the exact or expected losses due to Xfinity’s decision aren’t known, it was enough for the Mariners ownership to exercise caution with their own expenditures.

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Dipoto’s initial offseason plan that featured a much higher payroll budget after a season where the team drew 2.7 million fans had to be amended.

“We’ve had two avenues that we could’ve tried,” Dipoto said on Monday. “One was if we didn’t do some of the things that we’ve done recently, and the other was if we did some of the things we’ve done recently.”

So basically if Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander wanted to spend money to improve the team’s roster, they needed to free up money by removing some contracts already on the roster.

It’s why they traded Eugenio Suarez, who was owed $11 million in 2024 and a $2 million buyout for the club option in 2025, to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

While that trade had the scent of a salary dump, Sunday’s trade that sent Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales and Evan White along with $4.5 million to the Braves in exchange for right-handed pitchers Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips had obvious intentions.

While Dipoto mentioned payroll flexibility after the trade, Servais was more blunt. He didn’t want to see Kelenic go but spoke to the reasons behind it.

“Situations come up, you’re trying to give yourself options to get your club better,” he said. “Moving on from those players frees up some things for Jerry and Justin. If you look at the trade and where our team is at as we try to build it out going forward into 2024 and 2025, you needed some flexibility. That’s probably what forced the trade as much as anything.”

With the two trades and the projected salary figures earned by the players acquired, including a $4.7 million projected salary for arbitration-eligible third baseman Luis Urias, who was acquired in a nonsalary dumping trade from the Red Sox, the Mariners will have freed up roughly $20 million in projected payroll for 2024 and $13 million in guaranteed money for 2025.

Per FanGraphs, Seattle finished the 2023 season with an estimated $140 million payroll. It now projects the roster to have a $119 million payroll for 2024.


“Our offseason, I want to say it really began today in earnest,” Dipoto said. “We are excited it could come to pass, but we have a lot of work to do.”

How will they spend that money?

[D-train]

So they have about $20M to fill 4 positions.

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[D-train]

[D-train]

Chad was right. Divish clarifies. Good news is we have some money to spend. Bad news is that it isn't a lot. I don't know how we are going to add anything significant with out trading a current SP which Jerry said isn't likely now that Marco is gone. Insanity.

[D-train]

So there is about $20M in payroll to add and they are unlikely to trade a SP. How are they going to add more than one bat??????????????????????????????

[D-train]

Looks like Larsen is a real cheap little bitch.