Mariners fans get validation from The Athletic with front office criticism

With spring training now underway, The Athletic revealed their MLB offseason awards (subscription required), which included the best trades, signings, most improved team, and so on. However, such is the often tortured sporting life that Seattle Mariners fans lead, it stood to reason that it would be their beloved team given one of the few negative accolades handed out.

However, before anyone wonders if this was yet another example of East coast media bias, this was actually a situation where Mariners fans will probably agree with the uninspiring award. That's because The Athletic chose Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander as the most passive general managers in the Majors.

Now, it should be noted that these MLB offseason awards were determined by Jim Bowden, the former Major League general manager. As recently covered by Sodo Mojo's Tremayne Person, Bowden made an appearance on 93.3 KJR on the Softy and Dick show and ripped the Mariners' offseason as he said: "It’s disgusting gross embarrassing and makes you want to go to the toilet and throw up."

The Athletic has no mercy for the Mariners' offseason moves

With this in mind, it was no surprise that the Mariners were Bowdens's pick for being the most passive organization this offseason. And we have little doubt M's fans will have been sadly (or angrily) nodding their head in agreement while reading what the 1999 Sporting News Major League Executive of the Year listed as his reasons in The Athletic.

The main criticism by Bowden was his disbelief at the lack of moves made to improve a lineup which led MLB in strikeouts, had the second-worst team batting average, and overall ranked in the bottom-third for most offensive categories last year. The only significant moves were re-signing Jorge Polanco after declining his 2025 club option and bringing in 37-year-old Donovan Solano.

It's only fair to point out that ownership apparently gave Dipoto and Hollander limited funds to improve the roster, with around only $15 million of spare payroll. However, even here Bowden wasn't having any of it, pointing out that the Mariners could have used their strong farm system and/or one of their starting pitchers to trade for quality help in the middle of the lineup.

Bowden also repeated what has been said by plenty of Mariners fans: the organization doesn't have an offense to match arguably the best rotation in the Majors. Although we would add that even an average statistical offense would be enough to adequately complement their starting pitchers.

In this respect, while not believing the Mariners lineup will perform at the same high level as last September for the entire 2025 season, we do predict they will not be as bad as last year. This confidence comes from having Dan Wilson as manager for his first full campaign, along with a coaching staff that includes M's legend and Hall of Famer Edgar Martínez overseeing the hitting strategy as senior director.

Still though, we can appreciate why Bowden wrote what he did for The Athletic, as the Mariners prepare for one of the most important seasons in franchise history. With a potential MLB strike looming in 2026, the M's may only have two more years to take advantage of an elite rotation that deserves to pitch on the big stage in October.

Recent Posts