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Dipoto: 'Prime Babe Ruth' couldn't fix underperforming Mariners right now

Alika Jenner / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto understands adding one player won't fix the struggles his team is going through, not even if that player is the greatest of all time.

"We could go out and acquire prime Babe Ruth, and it's not going to help us," Dipoto said, according to Seattle Sports' Brent Stecker.

"We're not one player away or one magic spell from fixing this. This is a commitment from 26 players on a roster to reverse our course, and between now and the end of July, if we show progress in that way, then we'll go out and solve what problem or problems we can solve. But we're not going to flip out our roster for six or eight new players."

The Mariners sit fourth in the AL West with a 30-31 record after making the postseason last year and adding several veteran players in the offseason. Those veterans and other key players from the previous campaign are underperforming compared to 2022.

Mariners 2022 & 2023 stats

PLAYER 2022 2023
Julio Rodriguez .853 OPS 146 wRC+ .742 OPS 110 wRC+
Eugenio Suarez .791 OPS 131 wRC+ .632 OPS 86 wRC+
Teoscar Hernandez* .807 OPS 129 wRC+ .700 OPS 96 wRC+
AJ Pollock* .681 OPS 92 wRC+ .548 OPS 53 wRC+
Kolten Wong* .770 OPS 117 wRC+ .424 OPS 29 wRC+

* offseason addition

Dipoto held himself accountable for the additions made during the offseason. He added that he won't focus on the negative emotion of how the team has played during its current 2-6 slide in which opponents have outscored them by 38 runs.

"I don't really know anybody to blame but me," the executive said.

"This is what we put together, and we're a .500 team. I don't think we intended to be a .500 team by the time we got to this point in this season, and I don't think this makes us a bad team. I think it makes us a very talented team who has struggled a lot, especially in the batter's box, and we have to find our way out of it because we do have the talent."

The Mariners have an off day Thursday before beginning a three-game set against the Angels in Anaheim on Friday.

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