Seattle Mariners leaders still reeling with raw emotions from Game 7 loss to Blue Jays

SEATTLE - For a long time, fans of the Seattle Mariners could legitimately question whether the organization actually cared about winning.

They had done the opposite so well and for so long that picturing a winner and a team that truly yearned for success was folly.

Not these Mariners.

Between the pained scream of Julio Rodríguez and the bloodshot eyes of Cal Raleigh in the clubhouse after Game 7 in Toronto, to the cracking voices of president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander during Thursday's season-ending media availability, the Game 7 loss to the Blue Jays to has cut the team deeply and it won't go away soon.

"Disappointed. Disappointed and I know everyone else is too," Dipoto said, starting to choke back tears.

"Disappointed."

The Mariners were so close to breaking one of the last barriers in franchise history and reaching a World Series for the very first time. They were nine outs away. And then it all went haywire in the seventh inning of Game 7.

"I will see George Springer on the ceiling of my sleep for years to come," Dipoto said.

"I don't know what stage of grief I'm in, but I'm in one of them and I imagine everybody else is too. … To come within eight outs of making it to the World Series, painful."

While chairman John Stanton – or anyone else associated with ownership – didn't speak with reporters on Thursday. Those that did wore their emotions from the agonizing loss on their sleeves, still trying to come to terms with the sudden end of their season.

"I'm not sure how long the sting is going to last," manager Dan Wilson said. "I think for a lot of us, you know, it's a tough way to go out, and it's a tough way to end a pretty outstanding season, and in some ways overshadows a lot of the positives that have happened. 

"It just doesn't seem fitting that the way these guys played, how hard they played, how well they played, you know, the fight that they had the entire season. And I think that's the toughest part, and that's the part that stings."

Cal Raleigh said immediately after the loss that he still believed this season – unquestionably the greatest season in franchise history – was still a failure because it didn't reach the goal of a World Series title.

"I hate to use the word failure, but it's a failure," Raleigh said. "That's what we expected was to get to a World Series, win a World Series and that's what the bar is and what the standard is. It's what we want to hold ourselves accountable to. It hurts."

Hollander said in the aftermath of the loss, he feels similar to Raleigh while acknowledging time could ease that pain.

"We didn't achieve what we wanted to and, you know, in our minds what we probably should have," Hollander said. "It doesn't mean that there weren't positive steps or good things that happened along the way. 

"Right now, I'm closer to Cal that it's a failure than Giannis, which is there are no failures in sports. And maybe I'll evolve over the next couple days and weeks, and think more big picture about where we are organizationally, but yeah, we didn't get it done. We did not get far enough, and I take responsibility for that. There's more that we could have done to give our players one percent more of a chance to get there, and that will be sort of where my head is at once I wrap my mind around that we're home right now instead of playing tomorrow is what else? What more can we do to go get there? Because we have a group of players as a core that is good enough to go be playing tomorrow, and we're not."

Listening to Dipoto, Hollander and Wilson talk through the crushing end of their run Monday night in Toronto, there's no doubt that trio desperately wants to win. Hollander cracked describing Eugenio Suárez's grand slam in Game 5 of the ALCS and describing the response he received from people afterward.

"Probably one of the coolest parts of Game 5 was all the people that I'm friends with or that have been around us that sent me videos of hugging in the stands after Geno hit the grand slam, and just seeing what that means to people in Seattle, they deserve it. They really do. I'm sorry, guys," Hollander said, pausing to catch himself. "And I was so happy for them."

Dipoto agreed.

"Can't say enough about our fans and the way they showed out," he said. "From the workout days to putting people in the bowl (for watch parties), and the environment and the atmosphere that we played in in both the ALDS and the ALCS was unlike anything I've ever experienced. And I've experienced a lot of cool things and that was unbelievable."

Dipoto said he was trying to get away from baseball briefly to try and ease his mind in the aftermath of the loss. However, the front office will return to work next week to prepare for a pivotal offseason, which includes Josh Naylor and Suárez as unrestricted free agents, and Jorge Polanco likely to decline an option for $6 million to reach free agency as well.

"I look at the core of our team and most of them are in their mid-to-late 20s, most of them are having what should be the best years of their career," Dipoto said. "Our starting rotation returns in full. You've got core players like Cal, Julio and J.P. through the middle, and young players that populate other spots on the field. Productive veterans all over the field that return and we're right in the prime of what we should be doing. It's exciting. The only thing that makes that different is that this year we go in being the divisional champions and that means something to us as part of our goal."

Naylor clearly appears to be priority No. 1 for the front office. Naylor hit .299 with nine home runs, 10 doubles, 19 stolen bases and an .831 OPS over the final two months of the regular season with Seattle. He then backed that up with a .340 average in the postseason with three home runs, two doubles, two stolen bases and a .967 OPS.

"We didn't quite know what we would get in the big picture with Naylz," Dipoto said. "We knew we were getting a hardcore player who was going to go out and drive and he played with a grit and a fire that we really wanted. Couldn't have been more impressed with everything he brings to the table. The leadership, just a quality human being. He's got the snarl on the field, but he's a wonderful guy, incredibly smart, high baseball IQ, good teammate, hits just about every box and couldn't have performed any better for us from start to finish."

Naylor also spoke favorably about his time with Seattle late in the season. He was frequently seen wearing a customized Seattle Kraken third jersey, including in the team's celebrations after beating the Detroit Tigers to advance to the ALCS.

"Josh just got, you know, two months plus the playoffs of what Seattle was like as a sports town," Hollander said. "He got a behind the scenes tour from the Kraken. I believe he's negotiated some ice time with Ron Francis as well. He's a really good dude, and I really do think he liked it here a lot, not just downstairs, teammates, coaches, hopefully, Jerry and I, but I think, you know, the city, the environment, the region, the whole vibe of it all. I think it was a big positive for him.

"I think that you know the best thing that you can hope for when you acquire someone is they go play great you go deep in the playoffs. They love it and want to be here. And I think we checked all those boxes, so we'll try and figure it out."

Dipoto said they believe the year-ending payroll of the roster will be a starting point for next year's team.

"This was always goal was to methodically build toward what we were doing and I'm comfortable that the resources that we're given, we're going to have every ability to go out and put together a championship quality team," Dipoto said. "And like we have in recent years, when we get into the right position, I'm certain that we'll be aggressive in doing the next thing.

"The commitment that we get from ownership is real. This year, the uniqueness was that we added two of those types of players (Naylor and Suárez) and I think it shocked people, but we have the support of our ownership group and they've always been open to us pushing it, and we did push this summer in a way maybe we didn't quite push before.

"It's the first time in our organization's history we've had five straight winning seasons. We've won 90 games three of the last five years. We've been to two of the last four postseasons. We've now won a division title. We're just checking off boxes and there's two big boxes left for us to check off; one is to be American League champs and the other is to win the World Series."

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