The Seattle Mariners won seven of their last 10 games before the All-Star break to get back into the playoff picture.
At 45-44, the M's are 4.0 games back of the wild card right now. They certainly aren't out of it, but they aren't necessarily squarely in it, either.
With that in mind, Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto discussed how he was feeling just two-plus weeks out from the trade deadline.
He made the comments to the 'Brock and Salk' Show on Seattle Sports 710:
"...We're still waiting to see where we end up in this thing. Our plan, and the way that it has been for years, has been 'find ways to get better.' We tend to think longer-term than short, even though the Luis Castillo at the trade deadline last year... we weren't looking at is 'this is the piece that gets us to the postseason, this is the piece that brings an ace to town, and we think we can lock him up for a while...'
Dipoto continued on with an extension of that thought by saying that the team will look for players who can grow with the organization, rather than just short-term rentals.
While this may be disappointing to some fans, it's largely the way the Mariners have operated under Dipoto. They have looked for players who can be multi-year Mariners and have been hesitant to shell out any prospect capital for guys who won't be around beyond just the rest of the year.
The Mariners kick off a 10-game homestand on Friday against the Detroit Tigers.
Perhaps the M's can force Dipoto's hand over those 10 games...
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