Are you a Mariners fan?

Yes?

Then I’m guessing that — for now, at least — your mood is somewhere between frustrated and nuclear.

With good reason, by the way.

A year ago at this time, the M’s were coming off their first playoff appearance in two decades, and seemed poised for even greater goals.

During that off season, however, the club’s front office accomplished little to nothing.

It was something of a shock, too.

Record crowds had turned T-Mobile Park into a happening place that several players called “electric.”

Clearly, it seemed like a time that the club should spend some money beefing up the offense to match a young and powerful pitching staff.

Instead, baseball boss Jerry Dipoto wound up telling fans that they should be excited about second baseman Kolten Wong and utility bats Tommy LaStella and AJ Pollock.

The Mariners actually could make a case for Wong, who had been an above-average defender with a decent hitting resume over a long MLB career.

Pollock, however, was way past his prime (such as it was) and LaStella had never exactly filled ballparks with line drives.

In fact, you could call it an omen for the season when LaStella was on the lineup card at DH for opening day.

Then ace Robbie Ray blew out his arm after less than one inning.

Sigh.

IT TOOK the Mariners forever to recover.

In fact, when the club wound up in a four-way battle for a playoff spot over the final few weeks, fans blasted Dipoto for not improving the roster around the trade deadline.

To be fair, though, the club was .500 (50-50) at that point with the Rangers far in front in the AL West — hardly a situation where you want to mortgage the future to go all-in chasing a pennant.

However, they DID wind up winning 88 games and coming within one game of Toronto for the final wild card spot.

So, Dipoto and Co. looked bad.

It wasn’t just the fans, either.

Normally reserved catcher Cal Raleigh sounded off on the night the Mariners were eliminated, blasting ownership and the front office for not spending the money to acquire some big-time players.

Team leader J.P. Crawford took the time to support Raleigh’s statements, and even though Cal issued an apology a day later, the entire Mariners universe knew what the clubhouse hierarchy believed.

Between that week and the present, Dipoto made things just a tiny bit worse with some clumsy phrasing at a fan longevent.

Now, here we are.

Seattle still has that nucleus of rich pitching, all-star level performers like Raleigh and Crawford, along with a kid superstar in Julio Rodriguez.

Texas and Houston are still adding, and it will take something special to catch them.

The grumbling fan base wants to see some action, so the Mariners just shipped third baseman Eugenio Suarez — one of club’s most popular players — along with his 96 RBIs to Arizona for a reliever who throws as hard as anyone in baseball (but has been in the minors due to wildness) and a backup catcher whose career batting average barely eclipses the Mendoza Line.

Sheesh!

DIPOTO and the club ownership will not get any benefit of the doubt this time around.

The Mariners are trying to shed strikeouts (they were the second-worst team in MLB producing whiffs a year ago), so there only seems a couple of paths available.

Would they finally cough up some cash to sign a free-agent hitter (say, Cody Bellinger or Jeimer Candelario), even though the Dipoto has NEVER signed a hitter to a multi-year deal?

Another option, assuming the Mariners are willing to break their club record payroll (roughly $140 million, middle of the pack in MLB), would be to sign a pitcher like local star Blake Snell.

That would give Seattle a stunning rotation, and allow Dipoto to trade one of his young pitchers for a legitimate bat.

This task, at least reaching the playoffs, is far from impossible.

The Mariners need to fill a couple of holes with solid major league hitters, and offload some players who provide little and strike out a lot (Jarred Kelenic, Dylan Moore).

Yet another avenue is for the Mariners organization to be proven correct about some young players, like Dom Canzone and Ryan Bliss that came in last year’s midseason deal.

I suspect that Bliss, a genuinely thrilling prospect, will earn a starting spot somewhere in the infield, and never give it up.

There are a few ways to do this, folks.

I admit that some of those ways would be easier if ownership is willing to spend some real money. 

They are chasing Texas and Houston, after all.

Yep, the last two World Series champions — teams willing to invest and enjoy the results.

Sometime in the next two weeks, I suspect, we’ll get an idea how the Mariners plan to map out their future.

Hold your breath.

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.”