So far this offseason, we’ve learned the winners of the Gold Glove Awards, Platinum Glove Awards and Silver Slugger Awards for the 2024 season.

Those traditional awards were good to the Seattle Mariners, with catcher Cal Raleigh capturing both the Gold and Platinum Glove honors. Dylan Moore also won a Gold Glove at the utility position in the American League.

Furthermore, Raleigh is currently up for the Heart & Hustle Award, which would be another notch in his belt for a fantastic 2024 campaign that saw him hit 34 homers and drive in 100 runs.

While the traditional awards are certainly impressive, there was also a fun award that went to a Mariners player on social media.

That’s right, Randy Arozarena won the PitchingNinja Award for “most disrespectful at-bat” of the season. The “PitchingNinja” is obviously known to be pitching dominant, so for him to even acknowledge an offensive player is a shock in and of itself. It goes to show how awesome the moment for Arozarena was.

Playing against the Texas Rangers on Sept. 15, Arozarena stepped out of the box on three consecutive pitches before wailing a home run on a 3-0 count. It’s not usually advised for hitters to step out of the box and give no appearance of swinging the bat, but Arozarena was able to use it to his advantage.

Perhaps he frustrated the pitcher on the first three pitches and then baited him into throwing a cookie in pitch four.

Acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in a trade deadline deal this year, Arozarena hit 20 homers and had 60 RBI this year. He also stole 20 bases.

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Speaking on Seattle Sports 710 on Tuesday, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times offered some more insight into the future of Seattle Mariners executive Jerry Dipoto. Dipoto serves as the President of Baseball Operations.

The comments were relayed over by popular M’s “X” user, @MarinerMuse:

Interesting note from the Divish interview on 710 today:

Salk asked about Jerry Dipoto’s contract, and Divish indicated that the Mariners and Dipoto agreed to some sort of short-term extension in August about 1-2 weeks before Scott Servais was fired.

Now, we don’t know the exact length of time that Dipoto was given, but it was certainly something that gave him the freedom and power to move on from Servais. The thought had been that both parties with free agents after the 2024 season and that both could be replaced after the season. Evidently, Dipoto was extended and given the control to make moves he felt were necessary. The team fired Servais and hired former M’s catcher Dan Wilson as his replacement. Seattle still missed the playoffs by 1.0 game.

Dipoto has been with the Mariners since the 2016 season and has only produced one playoff berth. It’s not for lack of trying though, as the M’s have been one of the most active teams in baseball over his tenure.

Despite the playoff berth in 2022 and a number of other “near misses,” the fanbase has grown tired of the underachieving. On a short-term deal, Dipoto likely has a sense of urgency to get things done this offseason, but the question will be if ownership green lights the kind of spending necessary to make those things happen.

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. You can subscribe to the “Refuse to Lose” podcast by clicking HERE: