It seems that fans of every MLB team are never satisfied with the work of their front office. Even when seasons culminate in championship wins, the inevitable ups and downs of the baseball season are met with calls for immediate change.
In fact, if you do a quick search on social media for the name of any baseball executive, you’re almost guaranteed to find more hate than appreciation. Ultimately, fans are biased and have short memories.
But what if you asked the front offices to grade each other? Where would the Seattle Mariners rank amongst their peers?
That’s exactly what Tyler Kepner of The Athletic did, polling 40 MLB executives on the top five front offices in the league. It’s an imperfect way of gauging sentiment on this topic, but it should give us a rough idea of where things stand. And for the most part, the final results are in line with what Mariners fans should expect.
The Mariners’ front office was deemed to be average according to other MLB executives
The Mariners placed 17th overall, receiving zero first-place votes and dropping five spots from their ranking last year. Their lack of playoff results dragged down their perception considerably, but their willingness to retain their core starting pitching talent ended up as their only saving grace.
On the bright side, there were 10 teams that didn’t land in the top five of any list. Those included far wealthier organizations like the Chicago Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays.
Two good questions to ask yourself when coming up with your own evaluation of the organization are “When was the last time the Mariners fleeced another team in a major trade?” and “When was the last time the Mariners got immense value for money on a major financial commitment?” The answer to both inquiries is likely more than a few years ago.
To their credit, in the absence of big trades or free agent signings, they’ve relied on extending homegrown talent like Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh, and hopefully one of their outstanding starting pitchers. However, their apparent lack of desire to make a serious push for the postseason wasn’t helped by their lack of activity this past winter. Even given their self-imposed financial constraints, it’s not like there weren’t feasible options for them to improve their lineup.
By next year, these rankings could shift drastically. If the Mariners’ front office gets a little scrappier, makes big moves ahead of the trade deadline, converts their outstanding prospect wealth into win-now players, and builds a team around their current core, they’d be one of the most well-run organizations in the sport.
Unfortunately, that’s much easier said than done and depending on how you feel about president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, you might not think it’s possible, especially since he’ll be around for the foreseeable future. But who knows? People can change and maybe this feedback is the kick in the pants the team needs to get their act together.
