Dan Wilson says what literally nobody is thinking in baffling defense of Mariners

When considering the Seattle Mariners' current plight, the Tom Petty hit song "Free Fallin’" comes to mind. We're 99.9 percent sure Petty didn't have the M's in mind when penning the song, but it sure feels like an apt summarization of what's currently going on with Seattle's favorite baseball team.

Not that you would think this, if purely going on comments made by Mariners manager Dan Wilson following Tuesday night's frustrating 6-5 loss in Tampa Bay to the Rays. As per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, Wilson said:

"A loss is a loss; it's frustrating one way or the other. But our guys, like I said, the effort they put forward tonight, we're heading in the right direction, and we've just got to continue on this path."

Dan Wilson to reporters

On the surface, this seems like an almost asinine comment to make and a classic case of not reading the room. After all, we're talking about a Mariners team which has now lost six consecutive road series, is 6-15 on their travels since the All-Star break and is overall just 6-13 in their past 19 games.

We appreciate that the Mariners do still sit in the third and final AL wild card spot. However, the hold on this position is becoming increasingly tenuous at just 1.5 games, while they are also now 3.0 games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West and slowly losing hope of winning their first division title since 2001.

Nothing is going well for the Mariners at the moment, with the offense not clicking despite the arrivals of Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez, along with a pitching staff which has a 5.61 ERA for the last 19 games. So what gives with Wilson's comments?

Getting to the bottom of Dan Wilson's comments

In defense of the 56-year-old, he's renowned for being positive and always looking for the best in any given situation. Still, there will be those who consider last night to be an odd moment for a "rah rah" chant on his part.

The thinking is that Wilson should be pissed at what's going on, as opposed to being patient and focusing on how hard his players are trying to turn things around. However, it's important to realize that just because he portrays a positive and calm demeanor on the surface, it doesn't tell the whole story.

Underneath it all lies a burning passion to succeed, which has transferred from Wilson's time as a catcher to now managing the team he spent the majority of his Major League playing career with. All that you're seeing publicly is a decent man who does not want to embarrass his players or throw any of them under the bus.

Just to be clear, this doesn't mean the Barrington, Illinois native is getting into shouting matches or fights with his players in private. At the same time, he has no problem getting a point across to someone if and when needed, with those same players showing him the appropriate respect and always willing to listen to him.

It was somewhat ironic that Wilson was thrown from Tuesday night's game in front of the Mariners’ all-time winningest manager Lou Piniella, who met with the team prior to the game. Not that Wilson channelled the fiery Piniella's approach to managing, after suffering one of the softest ejections you're ever likely to witness:

Some could argue that Wilson's managerial approach isn't working and that he needs to be more like the combative Pinniella when it comes to his players. However, in fairness to the former he still has the better winning percentage managing the Mariners even despite the recent funk, albeit he's now down to the minutest of edges at .543-.542.

In fairness to Wilson, we believe he should continue with the managerial approach he's deployed up until now, because the reality is this is now on the players to get the job done. In any event, if the M's do fall just short of a playoff spot for the third consecutive season, don't expect to hear their manager criticizing the players publicly for their failings just to appease anyone.