Mariners fans should be thanking top baseball exec Jerry Dipoto and team ownership for not going all-in this year, which ultimately resulted in missing the playoffs.
That’s the actual take from Dipoto after his Mariners failed to build off last year’s drought-ending postseason appearance and missed the playoffs by two games.
“If what you’re doing is focusing year to year on, ‘What do we have to do to win the World Series this year?’ You might be one of the teams that’s laying in the mud and can’t get up for another decade,” Dipoto told reporters Tuesday.
“So we’re actually doing the fan base a favor in asking for their patience to win the World Series, while we continue to build a sustainably good roster.”
It’s one thing if a front office has their metrics and beliefs behind closed doors, but it’s yet another for Dipoto to come out and tell his fan base the team is doing them a favor by adding yet another season without a championship.
As the saying goes, patience flies forever.
Dipoto explained the reasoning behind his logic by citing a .540 winning percentage as the goal of the team over a 10-year stretch, compared to a one-year aspiration that could derail the long-term aim.
“If you go back and you look, in a decade those teams that win 54 percent of the time always wind up in the postseason. And they more often than not wind up in the World Series. So, there’s your bigger-picture process,” Dipoto said. “Nobody wants to hear the goal this year is, ‘We’re going to win 54 percent of the time.’ Because sometimes 54 percent is — one year, you’re going to win 60 percent, another year you’re going to win 50 percent. It’s whatever it is. But over time, that type of mindset gets you there.”
While Dipoto’s numbers surely have merit, the issue is it’s not a given the team will win a title by using the “patience” model, and the Mariners don’t have a track record of sustained success
It’s hard to tell a fan base that hasn’t won a World Series that his methodology, which has resulted in just one playoff appearance in Dipoto’s eight years, is the way to go.
There’s also the issue that analytically based beliefs do not sound the best for fans, who would rather hear their team is in to win it all than having its sights on 88 wins (a .540 win percentage).
The Mariners added Teoscar Hernandez this offseason, but didn’t sign any high-profile free agents.
They later traded closer Paul Sewald to the Diamondbacks at the trade deadline in a move for the future.
It’s not a given that a more active offseason or holding onto Sewald gives the Mariners a few more wins, but looms large when they missed the postseason by two games.
“It was a fail,” Dipoto said of his offseason, according to MLB.com. “And sure, I regret it. I wish I could go back and do it over again. All you can do is just fix things as you move forward.”
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh has already said he wants the team to go for it, but Dipoto didn’t make it seem as if a pursuit of Shohei Ohtani is in the cards.
After all, patience can be better than results.
“I don’t know that the solutions to our problems are big-name players. I’m not sure that we have big problems,” Dipoto said, per ESPN. “Would I like to have big-name players? Sure, I think we all would.”
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