When closer Paul Sewald started the 2023 season, he thought he'd be playing in the World Series for the Seattle Mariners, not the Arizona Diamondbacks.
But the M's slumped through the first few months of the season, hovering right around .500, and Sewald was traded to the D'Backs at the trade deadline.
Seattle ended up making a run over the last two months of the season, but ended up missing the playoffs by 1.0 game, failing to capitalize on the momentum of 2022 and on one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.
Speaking to the Seattle Times before the World Series, Sewald spoke about the frustrations he had with the 2023 Mariners, a feeling that was shared by several players.
"I had things to say before the season, and it turned out exactly how I thought it was going to," he said. "That's frustrating but (Mariners president of baseball operations) Jerry (Dipoto) and those guys have their work cut out for them to try and figure how to make the Mariners better... I felt like we could have gotten better than we did. I understand the moves they made. It's just, they didn't work out, and it was frustrating."
After winning a wild card series in 2022, the M's did next to nothing in the offseason to get better. They traded for Kolten Wong, who was ultimately designated for assignment. They signed AJ Pollock, who was traded away, and made a few low-level claims to help the bullpen. The frustration that Sewald has was shared by current M's Cal Raleigh, Ty France and JP Crawford at the end of the season.
You juxtapose what the M's did with what the Texas Rangers did (spend, a lot, now in the World Series), and the frustration is even higher for the M's players and their fans.
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