ESPN MLB Insider Discusses Industry Perspective of Seattle Mariners' Jerry Dipoto
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The Seattle Mariners put together a frustratingly slow offseason in which they essentially did nothing other than re-sign infielder Jorge Polanco and bring in veteran Donovan Solano. And for a team that missed the playoffs by one game last season, that didn't seem like enough to most fans of the team.
As a result of the tepid offseason, Mariners owner John Stanton and President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto found themselves in the crosshairs of angry fans, a place that Dipoto continuously finds himself.
Speaking on the "Refuse to Lose" podcast this week, ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney spoke about Dipoto's perception within the industry, saying that he's respected and that people understand he's dealing with significant ownership restrictions.
He's respected and, people understand that, when we talk about the Mariners, I mean, you framed it right. It's not about the person running baseball operations. If you don't have available funds and you don't have available resources, then it's going to be really tough to make changes. And so you have to be Pennywise as you make choices. It doesn't give you a lot of latitude. And so during the winter, when we all talked about 'boy, Pete Alonso would be a great fit for the Mariners, or this other player would be great fit for the Mariners,' not only was Jerry sort of swimming upstream against the reality that a lot of free agent hitters don't want to go to Seattle because it's not a great place to hit, but he didn't have any money. I mentioned to you before that what I heard from agents was that the Mariners had about $20 million to work with in terms of funds this winter. And that's not going to get it done...
Olney joins the "Refuse to Lose" podcast each Thursday. Other episodes are available on Tuesday's and Friday's.
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