Mariners fans piling on Dan Wilson for slow start are punishing the wrong scapegoat

Dan Wilson is not above criticism. We have all watched enough of the Mariners by now to know that bullpen decisions under his watch can invite real scrutiny, and what unfolded on Monday did not exactly ease any of those concerns.

The 6-4 loss to the Athletics gave fans another reason to circle Wilson, and the circumstances made that easy enough. The Mariners were short on late bullpen options, and the postgame messaging only sharpened the frustration. Reporting after the game said Andrés Muñoz, Gabe Speier, and Eduard Bazardo were unavailable because of recent workload. 

That part is fair. But the bigger problem with the latest round of Dan Wilson outrage is that it lets the actual offenders off the hook.

The Mariners are not losing these games because of Dan Wilson. They are losing because too much of the offense keeps disappearing when there is real damage to be done. He is not waking up every morning looking for new ways to torment the fanbase. The lineup is doing plenty of that on its own.

Monday night was the cleanest example yet. Seattle went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position in that loss. It’s been a recurring theme in the early part of this season, and it is the biggest reason this lineup keeps turning decent setup work into wasted nights.  

Mariners’ roster construction is becoming impossible to ignore, no matter what Dan Wilson does

Managers can definitely swing a game. And bullpen choices do matter. The explanation around Bazardo being unavailable unless conditions were just right is the kind of thing that makes fans want to throw a chair. But none of that changes the more obvious truth sitting right in front of us. A team that strands chances all night and keeps shrinking in run-scoring spots is asking for trouble. The Mariners scored four runs Monday, got 10 hits, got homers from Cal Raleigh and Dominic Canzone, and still somehow made the offense feel smaller than it should have. 

And then there is the roster issue, which is less about Wilson and more about how this thing was built.

When Rob Refsnyder came up as a pinch-hitter against lefty Hogan Harris and struck out, it felt familiar in the worst way. Refsnyder has opened the season ice cold against left-handed pitching, and this is supposed to be the reason he is here. More broadly, the Mariners as a team have been awful against lefties, carrying an OPS of .534 which ranks near the bottom of the league. That’s not a manager problem nearly as much as a roster-construction problem. If your right-handed answers are not answering, and your lineup has no real counterpunch against lefties, the weakness was baked in long before first pitch.  

Wilson is the easiest face to blame because managers always are. They make the pitching changes. They deliver the quotes after the game. And that’s part of their job, to absorb the heat. But Wilson didn’t go 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. 

If anything, what we are seeing now is the exact offensive threat people worried about before the season cashing in. And once that starts happening, blaming the dugout every night starts to feel like a dodge.

The Mariners absolutely need Wilson to be sharper in high-leverage moments. That much is true. But if we are being honest about why this offense keeps wasting games, fans are punishing the wrong scapegoat. 

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