Seattle, WA

Seattle Mariners Executive Jerry Dipoto Comments on Team’s Payroll Situation

Published

2 years ago

October 1, 2024

Seattle Mariners Executive Jerry Dipoto Comments on Team’s Payroll Situation

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners will have one month to watch the playoffs before being able to officially start the offseason after missing out on the postseason for 22nd time in 23 years.

The Mariners will have a lot of options to try and improve the team. They’ve been tied to big name free agents like Pete Alonso and with other potential difference makers like Alex Bregman, Tyler O’Neil, Juan Soto and Anthony Santander available, there’s a lot of different avenues for Seattle to pursue. And that’s not even considering possible trade targets.

Of course, all of this depends on what Seattle President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto is permitted to do via payroll restrictions.

The Mariners ranked 16th in the league this season in payroll and there’s been some speculation that the team could still be looking to salary dump this offseason with Randy Arozarena set for a third arbitration and Cal Raleigh and Logan Gilbert due for raises as well.

There’s also various kinds of options for players like Jorge Polanco and Mitch Haniger to sort out and several decisions to be made whether to non-tender players like Josh Rojas, Luis Urias and Sam Haggerty.

Seattle is unlikely to be big-money spenders in the offseason. But according to comments by Dipoto on Saturday, they might have more to spend than initially thought.

“The only thing I do know going into the (offseason) is how (payroll) is going to play out for us,” Dipoto said before the Mariners game against the Oakland on Saturday. “And it’s not going to be nearly the concern that it was this past year.”

Dipoto also mentioned that the budget for in-house spending would also increase with Julio Rodriguez’s salary jumping to $18 million next year and players like Raleigh and Arozarena just two of several players likely due for big raises with arbitration.

“That’s going to jump payroll quite a bit anyway,” Dipoto said. “But it won’t be the only rise that we see in payroll. I can’t give you an exact number; I don’t know what that is. I can tell you we’re not going the other way.”

According to Dipoto, it seems like the Seattle won’t be nearly as hard-strung for cash as it has been in previous years.

Or, at least it did. Until an article was released by the Seattle Times on Monday.

According to the a joint article from the Times’ Ryan Divish and Adam Jude, team owner Jerry Stanton doesn’t seem too interested in the big-name free agents according to an interview he gave in June:

“We’ve got the resources to be able to do the things we need to do to put a good team on the field. We’ve never been focused on free-agent bats, [those] kind of big-dollar free-agent bats as a matter of strategy, not because of anything having to do with resources.”

The article had an interesting excerpt mentioning the team feeling the “scars” of the Robinson Cano 11 years after signing him. But it’s interesting to wonder what those scars actually are.

Cano had an OPS of .826 in his five years with the Mariners, was an All-Star selection in three of those years and finished top 10 in MVP voting twice and was a big reason the team was able to sign Nelson Cruz.

When Cano was eventually traded, Seattle was able to get off the hook for most of his salary. Aside from an 80-game suspension for violating the MLB’s performance-enhancing policy in 2018, Cano performed up to his 10-year, $240 million deal. The only thing that he didn’t accomplish during his time with the Mariners was making the playoffs, which could hardly be blamed on him.

And if Cano is really being used as the benchmark as to why the Mariners are refusing to spend, then the organization is failing to realize the apples to oranges situation.

Seattle was over a decade deep into a playoff drought at the time of signing Cano and saw an opportunity to add one of the biggest bats in the league at the time to the team.

Flash forward to now, the Mariners are coming off their fourth consecutive winning season with just one playoff appearance to show for it. And they likely have one more year with this current core of players before needing to consider either shelling out big money to Raleigh, Gilbert, George Kirby and others, or seriously re-tooling in the trade market and free agency.

Seattle doesn’t need Soto to be a playoff team. He would help the team exponentially, but the Mariners don’t need to add him.

But players like Alonso and Bregman seemingly off the table — who would be instant upgrades at first and third base, respectively, (two positions of need) — makes it a curious thought as to what the payroll increase could actually be used for.

But those are questions Seattle fans will likely get the answers to in the offseason.

FORMER MARINERS RELIEVER HELPS LEAD METS TO HE PLAYOFFS: Former Seattle Mariners pitcher and current New York Mets hurler Edwin Diaz played a major roll in sending his current squad to the postseason on Monday. CLICK HERE

MARINERS CATCHER MAKES MLB HISTORY: Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh broke a franchise and an MLB record during the team’s season finale against the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. CLICK HERE

MARINERS, ATHLETICS LEGEND THROWS OUT FIRST PITCH: Baseball Hall of Famer and the MLB’s all-time stolen bases leader, Rickey Henderson, added a nice bow on the rivalry between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics on Sunday. CLICK HERE

Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch and @wdevradiobrady

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Seattle, WA

Detectives Investigating Drive-By Shooting in South Seattle – SPD Blotter

Published

4 hours ago

April 9, 2026

Press Room

Detectives Investigating Drive-By Shooting in South Seattle – SPD Blotter

Seattle police detectives in the Gun Violence Reduction Unit (GVRU) are investigating a drive-by shooting this afternoon that injured a young man in the Rainer Valley and shut down multiple intersections.

At about 4:40 p.m., patrol officers responded to reports of a shooting at Rainier Avenue South and South Othello Street. Officers found three related crime scenes, with the initial location being the intersection of Rainier and Othello. There, officers recovered dozens of shell casings and bullet damage to a nearby business.

Police recovered additional ballistic evidence at the second scene, near Holly Park Drive South and South Myrtle Place. Officers discovered the third crime scene directly in front of the South Precinct, where they stopped one of the involved cars, a Tesla, that sustained significant bullet damage.

The driver of this car, an 18-year-old man, did not have any injuries. The passenger, also 18, sustained a grazing gunshot wound to his head. Firefighters arrived to treat his injury, and medics took him to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) in stable condition.

Police determined that the suspects fired on the Tesla from another vehicle at Rainier and Othello. The victims sped away from the intersection and the suspect vehicle fled the area. Multiple cars drove away from the gunfire and pedestrians ran to safety. The Tesla sped off towards the precinct before being intercepted by officers.

Seattle police and King County deputies searched for the suspects but could not find them. Police did not make any arrests. GVRU detectives responded to the shooting. Police processed all three crime scenes and investigators conducted interviews at HMC. SPD’s Video Unit responded and recovered video footage from the area.

This is an open and active case assigned to GVRU. The circumstances leading up to the shooting are under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000. Anonymous tips are accepted.

Incident Number: 2026-96231

*Seattle police officers close down an intersection in South Seattle as they search for evidence following a drive-by shooting.*

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Seattle, WA

Who are your all-time favorite late-round Seattle Seahawks draft picks?

Published

16 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Who are your all-time favorite late-round Seattle Seahawks draft picks?

We’re continuing our theme of Seattle Seahawks NFL Draft discussion today with a trip down memory lane.

The Seahawks have a deep history of finding some gems in the later rounds of the draft. Three Legion of Boom members were taken in the fourth, fifth, fifth, and sixth rounds, while Seattle’s first Super Bowl MVP was seventh-round linebacker Malcolm Smith. The only offensive touchdown scored in Seattle’s second Super Bowl win was by fourth-round tight end A.J. Barner, who might be on the cusp of stardom beyond the Seattle sports bubble.

We want to know your favorite Seahawks late-round draft picks of all time, but there is a clear restriction to eliminate some obvious candidates. A “late-round draft pick” is defined as no earlier than Round 4, which means Russell Wilson and Tyler Lockett are ineligible as third-rounders. Once upon a time, the NFL Draft was longer than seven rounds—the Seahawks’ inaugural season had a 17-round draft—so if you want to really choose players from before the change-over in 1994 then go right ahead! Undrafted players like Doug Baldwin do not count because, well, they were literally not drafted.

You don’t have to reason that they were legendary, all-time great Seahawks. Chris Carson is not one of the top three running backs in Seahawks history but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a joy to watch a seventh-round pick become a quality starter whose career was cruelly cut short due to injury.

And yes, Michael Dickson (fifth-round pick) counts because punters are indeed people.

Refer to Pro Football Reference for the Seahawks’ draft history in case your memory needs jogging.

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Seattle, WA

Seattle area Iranian-Americans, activists react to ceasefire deal

Published

1 day ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Seattle area Iranian-Americans, activists react to ceasefire deal

SEATTLE — People from Seattle to Redmond are speaking out about the ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran after President Trump’s threat of massive attacks.

President Trump on Tuesday announced he would suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for two weeks as part of a temporary ceasefire brokered by the Pakistani government.

The suspension of attacks is contingent on Iran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

ALSO SEE | Oil prices drop and stock futures jump as US and Iran agree to a 2-week ceasefire

Iran responded by claiming victory, saying ships will be allowed to pass through the strait, but only under the management of the Iranian military.

Shayan Arya is an Iranian-American with cousins and friends in Iran, who have detailed by phone their experiences being near recent warfare.

“In the middle of our conversations, the bombing started,” Arya explained. “And so she said, ‘Can you hear the bombs dropping?’”

He said he was concerned about power plants being bombed in Iran, and is grateful they won’t be targeted, for now.

Meanwhile, on the steps of Seattle City Hall, a group rallied against the Trump Administration’s foreign policy and actions.

On the steps of Seattle City Hall, a group rallied against the Trump Administration’s foreign policy and actions. (KOMO){ }

“Perhaps we should stop bombing the cradle of civilization and calling it freedom. We should be investing in people, the communities,” one woman chanted through a megaphone.

Counter-protesters showed up, leading to heated confrontations for a short time.

Arya said he feels relief, for now, amid the ceasefire, but that there’s ongoing concern about Iran’s future under its current regime.

“It’s just a matter of time [until the regime collapses], and at what price?” he asked.

CNN reports the White House is preparing for in-person negotiations with Iran to help broker a long-term peace deal.

The developments come just hours after the president posted a message online, threatening, “A whole civilization could die tonight… Never to be brought back again.”

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