A year-by-year look at Mariners payroll

In the last couple of years, it seems as if the Mariners have been a bit tight with their money, choosing to pinch pennies over spending a bit more money to try and force the contention window open. Well, some fans continue to blame Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander for this, the blame should actually fall to John Stanton, as he is the one signing the checks and giving them the salary cap number.

Has it always been that way? Those who have been around more than a few years will remember that the strings weren't always pulled tight on the proverbial moneybag, and that this squad actually used to spend a bit of money. Some of that was just from a handful of a big contracts that were handed out, but it was still enough to rank them up there in spending, more in line where lots of fans think they should be year over year.

That's been the big qualm that the collective fan has had recently, with the team not spending enough money. There is an argument to be made that it's low now to be able to afford re-signing all of the youth that the team has (i.e. Kirby, Gilbert, Raleigh), but it still doesn't make fans happy when the signing of Mitch Garver makes noise as the first multi-year deal handed out to a hitter since Dipoto & Hollander started building the team, back around the time Stanton took over.

Just where does that salary cap number rank, though? That's what we are here to look at today. How the Mariners payroll has ranked across baseball. Let's dive right in.