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The 2022 season continues to be an outlier for the Seattle Mariners as they missed the playoffs again in 2024.
After the Mariners lost their American League West lead to the Astros, they never recovered in the standings despite stellar pitching and improvement from star outfielder Julio Rodríguez. Seattle fans and media are at odds trying to come up with the root cause for their team's struggles.
Mike Salk, co-host of the "Brock & Salk" show on Seattle Sports, said the team could've come through on the field more often. He named the Mariners' series against the Tigers in Detroit as an example. They were swept in three games despite having leads in two of them. Seattle struck out 31 times in those three games.
Aaron Levine, sports director at KCPQ Seattle, doesn't agree with Salk's take. He responded to the radio host on Twitter and stated that more blame should be placed on the Mariners' ownership group and front office, which tries to get away with fielding a competitive team on a budget.
“It’s not the #Mariners, it’s baseball.”
— Aaron Levine (@AaronLevine_) September 25, 2024
This is the most absurd thing @TheMikeSalk has ever said.
It IS the Mariners, Mike. It’s ownership. Their unwillingness to fully financially commit. It’s Dipoto’s hubris thinking he can do it w a limited budget.
Don’t give them a pass! https://t.co/pMRIH6rElh
Seattle media personalities dispute the Mariners' biggest issues of the 2025 season
It's been a tough year in MLB for neglectful ownership. John Fisher's dream ultimately came true after the final game was played at the Oakland Coliseum on Sept. 26; the White Sox broke the single-season loss record; and the Pirates may never sign another free agent again after Bob Nutting's latest roster shenanigans. Levine is right — it's a great time to hold ownership groups accountable for the way their teams play and operate.
Seattle's 2024 payroll ranks No. 16 in the league, right in the middle of the pack. The Astros and Rangers have the third and sixth-highest payrolls in the league, respectively, and it shows in Texas' 2023 World Series win and Houston's perennial postseason participation.
The Mariners' payroll will need to increase next year for them to make it back to the playoffs, as a few possible blockbuster trades have been taken off the table — at least, for now. Seattle's president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently shared that the team doesn't plan to deal from its MLB-best starting rotation to add offensive talent.
Salk and Levine both have a point. The players need to pick up their performances every day and learn from their mistakes, but it's ownership's job to provide them with the best resources possible to pull that off. There's enough room to place blame on multiple people, but ownership has a responsibility to provide on-field and coaching reinforcements to its players, which hasn't happened enough in Seattle.