Everyone hates the Mariners.

No, not the players. 

They haven’t done anything wrong.

But John Stanton and the full ownership group?

Or Jerry Dipoto, who runs the baseball operation?

Right now, there are lifetime Mariner fans — spread across the entire Northwest, and maybe beyond — who want the whole bunch gone.

Everybody out of the pool.

The fan base feels they’ve been sold a pack of lies.

This isn’t about the two recent trades (not entirely, anyway) that shipped out Eugenio Suarez, Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales and Evan White.

Yes, yes, those deals need some defending, especially if the gang doesn’t replace Suarez and Kelenic, in particular, with some bona fide major leaguers.

Remember, the Mariners are in the midst of a window in which they really CAN go deep in the playoffs, maybe even reach the first World Series in franchise history.

That window is based, more than anything, on an outstanding pitching staff — with a rotation that will even improve when former Cy Young winner Robbie Ray if fully healthy after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

THERE’S also a terrific spine that isn’t going anywhere — catcher Cal Raleigh, shortstop J.P. Crawford and young superstar Julio Rodriguez in center field.

And yet fans are furious.

Go back a year, and the Mariners were coming off their first playoff appearance in two decades, plus a win over Toronto in the wild card series and a fierce battle in the division series with Houston — the team that DID go on to win the World Series.

The whole region was on fire, and waiting to see what the club would do to build on such a solid foundation.

Dipoto takes the blame for what happened, although there should be an asterisk attached to that.

Sure, he traded for Kolten Wong, who had been a productive second baseman his entire career and then stunk out the place in Seattle.

Jerry also signed Teoscar Hernandez to play right field, and Teo added power alongside J-Rod, particularly down the stretch.

It honestly looked like a good team, especially if Kelenic could blossom into the star the Mariners had expected.

Before we assess the team and what’s been done to it in the past couple of weeks, however, I want to talk about that asterisk I mentioned.

See, one area where I suspect the fan base is correct concerns Stanton and his fellow owners.

They ARE cheap.

I HATE to bore you with numbers, but a few need to be part of this discussion.

The Mariners franchise is worth $1.8 billion (per Sportico), a value that continues to rise every year, and well it should — Seattle now has the 12th highest number of households in cities with sports teams, and just down the highway, Portland is No. 22.

By the way, the Mariners are one of the few fortunate teams that have their own TV network (ROOT Sports), which provides cash flow from viewers across the region (Portland and all of Oregon are very useful additions, since ROOT also carries the NBA Blazers).

Attendance this past season was 2.7 million, 10th in MLB.

That was just behind the Cubs, and AHEAD of the big-market Mets, Red Sox, Angels and Rangers.

Player payroll, however, was down at 18th ($137 million).

Now, I don’t claim to be a baseball economics guru, but several people and organizations who know such things insist that all those suggestions that the Mariners can spend considerably more money are right on point.

In other words, they COULD afford to bid on Shohei Ohtani without hocking the family heirlooms, but they like to keep a nice even profit margin — presumably for their own pockets.

IN OTHER words, give Dipoto the blame for putting Wong at second base, but a lot of the time, he’s carrying the can for his bosses.

Presumably, Stanton and the gang believe that Jerry and his very sharp baseball operation folks can keep a winning team on the field with modest payroll increases from year to year.

The Mariners’ excellent scouting and instructional corps has kept talent flowing upward, producing stars like Julio and several of the young pitchers.

In theory, Dipoto can trade some of that young talent for players to keep the major league pot bubbling.

The problem, of course, is that teams like Houston and Texas (both in the same division, both having won the Series within the past two seasons) have spent FAR more on free agents or rich extensions for their own talent.

This leaves the Mariners stuck right on the edge of contention, and Dipoto trying to juggle personnel and somehow pull 10 extra wins out of a hat each year.

That’s where we’re sitting now.

Seattle has holes in the outfield, at second and third, and on the fringes of the bullpen.

With about $105 million already committed to payroll (and a guess that Stanton would allow a bump to the $150 million range), Dipoto now tries to trade the team back into contention.

Since some of that young pitching must be used in any meaningful deals, the only way the Mariners can take a serious leap upward is with breakthroughs from their own minor leaguers, or from the young players they’ve acquired in various trades (Ryan Bliss, Dom Canzone, Carlos Vargas, etc.). 

It's a high-wire act.

Maybe Stanton will have a sudden urge to host the World Series and change the finances, but don’t count on it.

For what it’s worth, I still believe you’ll see an exciting team next spring — and maybe, maybe, maybe a playoff team, if Dipoto trades and spends wisely.

Beyond that, no promises.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”