The Seattle Mariners are still considering how to approach this year's MLB trade deadline, according to president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto.
Dipoto was the featured guest on Seattle Sports' "Brock & Salk" on Thursday. The executive talked about the state of the team coming out of the All-Star break, as well as what the franchise is working on behind the scenes as July winds down.
The Mariners are currently sitting in fourth place in the AL West at 48-48, which also puts them 5.5 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot. Dipoto admitted that, as a .500 team, it may be difficult to justify going all-in on 2023.
"We’ve not really separated ourselves in a meaningful way to be aggressive on the buying end, but we’re constantly trying to find ways to make ourselves better,” Dipoto said. “We’ll use these next couple of weeks of July to consider those ways, whether it’s better to make a push for the '23 season or to better situate ourselves for '24.”
Dipoto called the Mariners' offense "average" at the moment, all while recognizing that it needed to progress beyond that.
However, with the young core of center fielder Julio Rodriguez, left fielder Jarred Kelenic, catcher Cal Raleigh and first baseman Ty France still relatively new to their everyday major league roles, Dipoto clarified that there was not a wave of young reinforcements to call up from Triple-A this season.
Dipoto even went as far as saying selling was not off the table when asked if that would be an option this summer.
"We are always one foot in the camp of buyer and one foot in the camp of the seller, believing that the best way to approach any trade deadline is with the mindset of ‘How do we make the Mariners better?'" Dipoto said. "Last year, we were very aggressive in the trade market for what I would call 'The Big Fish' when we were able to land Luis Castillo. This year, we’re probably not going to be in that market. We’re going to be more in the margins market, or trying to find a way that we can get a little bit better in '23 and better situate ourselves for '24."
Second baseman Kolten Wong, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez and outfielder AJ Pollock are Seattle's three highest-paid impending free agents, making them possible targets for contending teams looking for rental bats. Third baseman Eugenio Suárez is also making eight figures with just one more year of guaranteed money on the books.
The Mariners' trio of under-27 starting pitchers with sub-4.00 ERAs – George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bruce Miller – are likely to remain with the team, but relievers Paul Sewald, Matt Brash and Justin Topa could net solid returns from other clubs.
On the other hand, Seattle went 35-23 after swinging a couple of deals at last year's deadline. Another finish like that might just push them into the playoffs for the second consecutive season for the first time since 2000 and 2001.
Regardless of what the Mariners end up doing in the next 11 days, Dipoto said he's already gathered plenty from his team's on-field results in 2023.
"One way or the other, we’ve learned a lot in the first half of this season.”
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