The Mariners are fine. Let’s get that out of the way. Even after a rough weekend in Texas that saw them get swept by the Rangers and fall below .500, they are not a dumpster fire or a disaster or an embarrassment. In fact, they are fine in exactly the way every baseball pundit on earth predicted they would be before the season: great pitching, solid defense, and a limp, inconsistent offense. After an offseason in which the front office opted to make marginal moves instead of finding a way to acquire elite hitters, this is also what makes them maddening.

Despite significant injuries, their pitching staff has been, by some advanced metrics, the best in baseball. They walk fewer hitters than any other club, and have a knack for turning obscure relievers and lower-level prospects into solid performers. Meanwhile, their lineup struggles with really simple stuff like putting the ball in play. They strike out more than almost everybody. 

This was the team everybody knew they were getting, and the team that everybody knew was not quite good enough as constructed. Which—when they are not playing the Oakland A’s, who might be the worst team in baseball history—makes these Mariners extremely frustrating to watch. The strikeouts pile up. Baserunners linger at their stations. Heroic pitching performances are wasted. It’s a visceral, stressful experience, made even more agonizing by the fact that this is an extremely likeable group of players. We want them to do better, for their own sakes, and because we know, after last year’s playoff run, that they are close to being great.

But this is what happens when you build a team with no margin for error; when, despite being named by Forbes as the most profitable club in baseball, and breaking a generational playoff drought, and hosting the All-Star Game, and introducing the world to a legit superstar like Julio Rodríguez, you don’t meaningfully invest in the most glaring deficiencies on your roster. It’s nice that the Mariners signed Rodríguez to a long-term extension. But it would be really nice if they surrounded him with players who could pick up the slack when he slumps like he did at the outset of this season. After all, he's just one guy.

Over the past couple seasons, the Mariners have overcome their offensive struggles by simply winning every close game they played. This was exhilarating and magical. It was charming when the expectations were relatively modest. But as we’re seeing now (they are 6-12 in games decided by one run), it’s not a viable strategy for continued success. Especially when the fanbase is no longer satisfied with being the charming underdog.

What’s even more frustrating is that for the most part, the Mariners brought back from last year’s team have been good: Rodríguez is crushing the ball again, Jarred Kelenic has tapped into his potential, J.P. Crawford and Cal Raleigh are improved ballplayers. If you squint, you can see the outlines of a contending team. But not one of the newly acquired hitters has been even mediocre.

Maybe greatness is still in store for the 2023 Mariners. Despite the recent drubbing they took from the Rangers, this pitching staff deserves to be the foundation of a championship club. The new guys can, and should, be league average hitters, which might be enough. A frustrating, stressful spring can still give way to an exciting, dominant summer. Fans aren’t only thinking about the Mariners team they have watched thus far. They’re thinking about the team they wanted to enter the season with; they’re thinking about building on last year’s playoff run. They are feeling the urgency of the moment, still waiting, in the club’s 47th year, for its first World Series appearance.

Fine is no longer good enough, and nor should it be. Team president Jerry Dipoto recently acknowledged that the club was shopping for “a bat, wherever that might fit.” Truth is, it could fit anywhere. And any Mariners fan could have told you that months ago.