Disappointed Reason #1: This team needed more hitting
This has been the biggest gripe all season with the team, and arguably for quite a while. It stems from Wong and Teo, two additions that really did seem like they were going to help the team. Instead, Wong looked broken and was arguably the worst hitter in baseball. He had an OPS+ of 34 and 44 total bases.
Sorry, i just threw up a little bit.
Teo hasn't been impressive either. He's played passable defense and has a 1.0 WAR, but we need a lot more from him. The league leading strikeouts don't help, either.
There were hitters out there, and ones that seemed reasonably available. The only additions to the team came in the Sewald trade, and maybe they can be enough to make us all look dumb and say "Trader Jerry has done it again". But for now, I really wanted another proven hitter added onto the team.
Disappointed Reason #2: A strong farm system
The Mariners just had three first round picks, and there is an argument to be made that the team has a top ten, possibly pushing into the 5-8 range, farm system. That's a lot of strength and depth that they could've used to trade for a proven hitter. I don't necessarily like trading away prospects, but getting an impact bat would've been a wonderful feeling to have. With their depth, maybe losing a few of our top ten guys would've been palatable to push for the playoffs again.
Disappointed Reason #3: The Rangers, Angels, and Astros made big moves
I think this is why the possible inactivity hurts. We saw the Rangers add Scherzer, Verlander go back to the Astros, and the Angels make a couple of moves to bolster both their staff and lineup. The Mariners traded away Sewald and obtained Josh Rojas, Dominic Cazone, and Ryan Bliss. Can Rojas and Canzone be impactful enough the remainder of the year? That remains to be seen. If not, it's going to seem like a big miss to not improve at all when the other three teams made big deals.