53% of Mariners fans think the off-season “could have been better”

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in-fans from each team. If you’d like to be included in the survey of Mariners fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

It’s the second week of FanPulse results already? But I didn’t get you anything! Wait, I did, and it’s these poll results. Last week, if you will recall, we asked you if you approved of the job Scott Servais is doing as manager, and 96% of you gave him the thumbs-up. One week and one Zac Rosscup left in to face Mike Trout later, that number has plummeted to 79%. In happier news, the number of fans who feel confident in the direction of the team has increased from 88% to 92%. That’s what a hot start will do for ya.

This week, we asked about the off-season, and the results are in:

We also tried something new this week and asked an open-ended question:

“What would you have done differently?”

Here are some of the responses we got:

• “M’s did not get enough for Jean Segura. Would have kept him or traded him for more than what we received.”
• “Signed Craig Kimbrel.”
• “I’m just not sure on the result we got for Paxton. Also the Segura trade was a little iffy for me.”
• “I’m not sold on the Jean Segura trade. We trade a great 29 year-old shortstop, two decent relievers, and clear money in 2021/2022 for a potentially great 24 year-old shortstop and a great designated hitter. Seems like we should have gotten more out of trading Jean Segura. Perhaps Jean Segura wasn’t a good personality fit and they see more upside in Crawford. And the freed up money about half pays for Yusei Kukichi.”
• “The trades and acquisitions were fine; would have been nice to avoid off-field issues.”
• “Ideally I would have moved Bruce and/or Encarnacion but realistically that wasn’t an option.”
• “I wish they didn’t package Díaz and Canó. However, I still like that trade, but since they did it I wish we saw more bullpen additions whether it be young guys or veterans.”
• “I would have preferred to go all in, or collected higher ceiling prospects/stripped the team down. I thought packaging Díaz with Canó was a mistake, especially with taking on part of the contract.”
• “Nothing. Dipoto did what had to be done.”
• “I wasn’t sure we needed the full dismantle, but I’m optimistic of what the team could achieve over the next few seasons.”
• “Ate the 27 million dollars and cut Felix.”
• “I wish we had received more prospects or young big leaguers in the Edwin Díaz trade. Trading a closer at peak value is generally smart, even though it hurts that Díaz is still young and cheap. But it seems like the priority was including Canó as a salary dump rather than acquiring talent. Díaz is the most coveted player at his position, and the best return we got was an A-ball player. The Mariners are all-in on Kelenic being an All-Star, and this trade becomes a failure if he’s not.”
• “I’m nervous about the quality of return in the “rebuilding” trades.”

The general theme here, then, is that survey respondents are on-board with the rebuild, but unsure about the quality of prospect return. No pressure, Jarred. Given the Mariners’ checkered history with developing players, it’s certainly understandable that fans are hesitant about trading an Edwin in the hand for two potential Monteros/Ackleys/name it in the bush. We’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on the farm this year to see how these young players are performing. In the meantime, the big-league club is playing surprisingly good baseball, which makes it easier to stress less about prospect returns and enjoy the fun baseball in front of our noses.

If you’d like to be included in the next group of respondents, sign up for our FanPulse at the link above. You can read more about FanPulse here.