Mariners are irrelevant when it’s gridiron season

As the scorching sunny days of summer fade into the crisp cloudy nights of fall, the Seattle Mariners find themselves in the same place they have the last nine years: irrelevant.

Hopeless Mariners losing streaks turn into hopeful expectations for the Seattle Seahawks and Washington State Cougar football teams. Sports fans’ minds shift from pessimism to optimism, and they trade in their teal and blue Felix Hernandez jerseys for crimson and grey Connor Halliday ones.

It’s a place all too familiar for the Mariners. They will miss the playoffs for the tenth straight year having not lived up to expectations, as low as they were.

There’s an explanation for why the business has failed and why people so terrible at their jobs can keep them, and it’s a simple one. The business hasn’t failed. The product is a failure, sure, but like Skol Vodka, the business has managed to remain profitable despite putting out such an abominable concoction.

It’s a concoction of inconsistency, wasted talent, strikeouts and fastballs that don’t move. A concoction of bad trades, missed free-agent signings, and bad draft picks.

The ownership group responsible for this isn’t going anywhere. Despite never attending a Mariners game, majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi continues to run the team and makes a good chunk of change doing so since the Mariners have been profitable every year. President Chuck Armstrong and Chairman Howard Lincoln don’t seem ready to admit their failures, either.

That leaves General Manager Jack Zduriencik and Manager Eric Wedge. They are both in the final year of their contracts, and there is much debate whether they should be brought back for another season.

Those rooting for Zduriencik defend him for rebuilding the farm system, a system that was depleted by previous General Manager Bill Bavasi for washed-up B-level stars well past their prime.

That mindset has changed. The Mariners went into the 2013 season with four prospects on mlb.com’s top 100-prospect list. Even the re-emergence of once highly touted prospects Dustin Ackley and Justin Smoak give Mariner fans optimism that their team is headed in the right direction. It’s just taking a whole lot longer than Zduriencik originally said.

Those who want change cite Zduriencik’s first wave of failing prospects. They cite poor trades for misevaluated talent like Jesús Montero, Casper Wells and, to some degree, Justin Smoak. They mention giving up all-stars in Cliff Lee and Michael Pineda and trades for the likes of Michael Morse, Robert Andino, Aaron Harang and Milton Bradley, all no longer with the team. They can also point out free agent busts like Chone Figgins, who spent a year and a half on the bench eating money.

So does Zduriencik deserve another year? Simply put – who cares? It doesn’t make a difference who the general manager is if the owners won’t give any of their profits to sign players who can win games.

Zduriencik is doing a decent job with what he has to work with. If his plan doesn’t work out, then nobody’s will. As for Wedge? Managers are the most overpaid people in the world. Although it would be nice to see a pitching change before a grand slam is given up once in a while, managers are a dime a dozen.

In the grand scheme of things, it is football season. And when it comes to the Mariners, no one cares. Because when football season rolls around they fall into a black hole, a black hole that gets deeper and deeper every year.