OFFICIAL: 2023-2024 Offseason & Free Agency Thread

[Seattle or Bust]

I don't really care how or what happened.

All I know is they're not paying Marco Gonzales and Evan White $13ish million to not play this year and $20 million to not play for them next year.

The fact that Kelenic wasn't getting AB's late in the year showed the lack of trust the organization clearly had in him, so they got rid of him. That's a lot of money and roster spots cleared up for guys who you didn't figure would play a major part moving forward.

Now stop fucking around and actually go do something with it for once.

[GL_Storm]

One possibility is that we're seeing the first moves in what will end up being a sale of major shares of the team, or maybe even the whole thing. If what's going on here is that ROOT is now overextended because of their contracts with the Trailblazers and Kraken, it could be that the way out of that is to unwind the complicated partnership that owns the Mariners, which in turn owns the majority of ROOT, and bring in new partners, or one big partner in place of several smaller ones.

[Donn Beach]

I don't believe Stanton is particularly cheap or greedy. He isn't really that wealthy. He's looking at a single player's contract worth about half his net worth. That might give me pause. And now with their income streams becoming shaky.

Was thinking about this $86 mil in profit. I don't think Stanton is spending it on lap dances. So what's going on. It's getting invested isn't it. The issue is it's not being invested in baseball players. Why would that be, they don't see it as a safe investment.

[Big_Maple]

One possibility is that we're seeing the first moves in what will end up being a sale of major shares of the team, or maybe even the whole thing. If what's going on here is that ROOT is now overextended because of their contracts with the Trailblazers and Kraken, it could be that the way out of that is to unwind the complicated partnership that owns the Mariners, which in turn owns the majority of ROOT, and bring in new partners, or one big partner in place of several smaller ones.

I can see the M's using this as an excuse not to go after FA. They could argue that they are getting less cash from broadcasting games and viewship is down.

This argument would be utter bullshit. If ROOT sports is severing ties with the M's, it's because it's not profitable. It's not profitable because no one gives a shit about a team that is happy wallowing in mediocrity. I'll bet the Rangers have made back all of the money they spent on Corey Seager - and then some. People want to go see the Rangers now because they have an all star roster and they win championships.

If the M's want a lucrative deal with ROOTS, then go out and spend like you want people to watch games and buy merch. Can you imagine how many new fans this team would draw if they landed Ohtani and local fan favorite, Blake Snell. And then went out and traded for Arozorena and Paredes?

Instead, they have B-listers and has beens taking up roster space, they jettison fan favorites without replacing them with legit talent, they project and 84 win season, and then they claim to not understand why ROOTS is screwing them over and that they can't understand why "fairweather" fans are abandoning a franchise that has shit all over their fanbase the last 20 years.

[GL_Storm]

One possibility is that we're seeing the first moves in what will end up being a sale of major shares of the team, or maybe even the whole thing. If what's going on here is that ROOT is now overextended because of their contracts with the Trailblazers and Kraken, it could be that the way out of that is to unwind the complicated partnership that owns the Mariners, which in turn owns the majority of ROOT, and bring in new partners, or one big partner in place of several smaller ones.

I can see the M's using this as an excuse not to go after FA. They could argue that they are getting less cash from broadcasting games and viewship is down.

This argument would be utter bullshit. If ROOT sports is severing ties with the M's, it's because it's not profitable. It's not profitable because no one gives a shit about a team that is happy wallowing in mediocrity. I'll bet the Rangers have made back all of the money they spent on Corey Seager - and then some. People want to go see the Rangers now because they have an all star roster and they win championships.

If the M's want a lucrative deal with ROOTS, then go out and spend like you want people to watch games and buy merch. Can you imagine how many new fans this team would draw if they landed Ohtani and local fan favorite, Blake Snell. And then went out and traded for Arozorena and Paredes?

Instead, they have B-listers and has beens taking up roster space, they jettison fan favorites without replacing them with legit talent, they project and 84 win season, and then they claim to not understand why ROOTS is screwing them over and that they can't understand why "fairweather" fans are abandoning a franchise that has shit all over their fanbase the last 20 years.

Do you understand that the Mariners own the majority of ROOT? They own 75% of it or something like that.

[D-train]

One possibility is that we're seeing the first moves in what will end up being a sale of major shares of the team, or maybe even the whole thing. If what's going on here is that ROOT is now overextended because of their contracts with the Trailblazers and Kraken, it could be that the way out of that is to unwind the complicated partnership that owns the Mariners, which in turn owns the majority of ROOT, and bring in new partners, or one big partner in place of several smaller ones.

I can see the M's using this as an excuse not to go after FA. They could argue that they are getting less cash from broadcasting games and viewship is down.

This argument would be utter bullshit. If ROOT sports is severing ties with the M's, it's because it's not profitable. It's not profitable because no one gives a shit about a team that is happy wallowing in mediocrity. I'll bet the Rangers have made back all of the money they spent on Corey Seager - and then some. People want to go see the Rangers now because they have an all star roster and they win championships.

If the M's want a lucrative deal with ROOTS, then go out and spend like you want people to watch games and buy merch. Can you imagine how many new fans this team would draw if they landed Ohtani and local fan favorite, Blake Snell. And then went out and traded for Arozorena and Paredes?

Instead, they have B-listers and has beens taking up roster space, they jettison fan favorites without replacing them with legit talent, they project and 84 win season, and then they claim to not understand why ROOTS is screwing them over and that they can't understand why "fairweather" fans are abandoning a franchise that has shit all over their fanbase the last 20 years.

Do you understand that the Mariners own the majority of ROOT? They own 75% of it or something like that.

My guess is not. lol

[tehmc]

One possibility is that we're seeing the first moves in what will end up being a sale of major shares of the team, or maybe even the whole thing. If what's going on here is that ROOT is now overextended because of their contracts with the Trailblazers and Kraken, it could be that the way out of that is to unwind the complicated partnership that owns the Mariners, which in turn owns the majority of ROOT, and bring in new partners, or one big partner in place of several smaller ones.

I can see the M's using this as an excuse not to go after FA. They could argue that they are getting less cash from broadcasting games and viewship is down.

This argument would be utter bullshit. If ROOT sports is severing ties with the M's, it's because it's not profitable. It's not profitable because no one gives a shit about a team that is happy wallowing in mediocrity. I'll bet the Rangers have made back all of the money they spent on Corey Seager - and then some. People want to go see the Rangers now because they have an all star roster and they win championships.

If the M's want a lucrative deal with ROOTS, then go out and spend like you want people to watch games and buy merch. Can you imagine how many new fans this team would draw if they landed Ohtani and local fan favorite, Blake Snell. And then went out and traded for Arozorena and Paredes?

Instead, they have B-listers and has beens taking up roster space, they jettison fan favorites without replacing them with legit talent, they project and 84 win season, and then they claim to not understand why ROOTS is screwing them over and that they can't understand why "fairweather" fans are abandoning a franchise that has shit all over their fanbase the last 20 years.

I heard Ryan Divish addressing the issue with ROOT Sports on the radio, its because they were budgeting based on the expected revenue generated by having ROOT Sports being on the basic package for Comcast subscribers but then Comcast moved ROOT Sports to a higher tier which means they will be generating less revenue.

I agree with you though that they should not being using it as an excuse for not going after players that will help the team.

[Michael K.]

Yes, sorry, his point is valid. Comcast has every right to up the rates. People can cancel Comcast and go another route or pay the extra to watch what is basically unwatchable. The Mariners issue is they know that people will not pay more or go a different route because they don't give a fuck if they get to watch the team or not. I wouldn't pay more to watch the product that this organization is putting out. Does anyone think the Yankees would be worried about someone making their channel be a part of a more premium plan?

The Mariners are going to lose money because their fan base is apathetic at best and pissed off at worst. That base isn't paying more to watch their dogshit product. SO? These fucks decided the solution was to cut salary and make the product less watchable. I wish I was surprised.

[D-train]

Think about this. Is the Mariners/ROOT fees they are paid from Comcast based on number of subscribers or total revenues generated by ROOT that Comcast receives from their customers.

If the former then the M's are idiots for agreeing to this because Comcast can increase their revenues by raising prices. If the demand is inelastic then their revenues will go up even if # of subscribers go down AND they don't have to pay ROOT Sports as much. Win Win for them.

For example if they have 1 million subscribers now at $20 per subscriber that is $20M a month. Lets say they have to pay ROOT $10 per subscriber. They would net $10M in revenue per month.

Now they raise it from $20 a month to $38 a month. They lose 300k subscribers so $38 x 700k = $26.6M instead of $20M and only have to pay root the same $10 per subscriber so that is only $7 million. $26.6M -$7M is almost $20M vs. the current $10M now. So they double their revenues and ROOT is left holding the bag.

[GL_Storm]

One possibility is that we're seeing the first moves in what will end up being a sale of major shares of the team, or maybe even the whole thing. If what's going on here is that ROOT is now overextended because of their contracts with the Trailblazers and Kraken, it could be that the way out of that is to unwind the complicated partnership that owns the Mariners, which in turn owns the majority of ROOT, and bring in new partners, or one big partner in place of several smaller ones.

I can see the M's using this as an excuse not to go after FA. They could argue that they are getting less cash from broadcasting games and viewship is down.

This argument would be utter bullshit. If ROOT sports is severing ties with the M's, it's because it's not profitable. It's not profitable because no one gives a shit about a team that is happy wallowing in mediocrity. I'll bet the Rangers have made back all of the money they spent on Corey Seager - and then some. People want to go see the Rangers now because they have an all star roster and they win championships.

If the M's want a lucrative deal with ROOTS, then go out and spend like you want people to watch games and buy merch. Can you imagine how many new fans this team would draw if they landed Ohtani and local fan favorite, Blake Snell. And then went out and traded for Arozorena and Paredes?

Instead, they have B-listers and has beens taking up roster space, they jettison fan favorites without replacing them with legit talent, they project and 84 win season, and then they claim to not understand why ROOTS is screwing them over and that they can't understand why "fairweather" fans are abandoning a franchise that has shit all over their fanbase the last 20 years.

I heard Ryan Divish addressing the issue with ROOT Sports on the radio, its because they were budgeting based on the expected revenue generated by having ROOT Sports being on the basic package for Comcast subscribers but then Comcast moved ROOT Sports to a higher tier which means they will be generating less revenue.

I agree with you though that they should not being using it as an excuse for not going after players that will help the team.

It's potentially a lot worse than that. I think they might actually be in danger of getting almost no money from ROOT this year. It's hard to know for sure since we don't know exactly what sort of liabilities ROOT is on the hook for. But the Mariners, very likely, are going to be last in line for whatever revenues are left over after operating costs have been paid for.

My guess is that ROOT has probably seen their subscriber base cut in half, or something close to that. They may have to go into bankruptcy. And sure, the Mariners owners, collectively, will all be fine. But individually, some of the smaller owners may be sweating the liability. That by itself could see some of the partnership shares getting sold.

But for this coming year, I think it could very easily be the case that the ROOT revenue stream simply dries up.