The Seattle Mariners will enter Friday with a losing record (30-31) and in fourth place in the American League West. Their seasonal run differential dropped into the red this week after a miserable start to June that has seen them get outscored by a combined 25 runs over their first five games. 

It's fair to describe the Mariners as one of the majors' most disappointing teams — to the extent that top executive Jerry Dipoto does not believe that adding Babe Ruth at the peak of his powers to the Seattle lineup would help. No, really. Dipoto said as much on Thursday during his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports. Here's the notable quotable, per the station: "And this is just being honest, we could go out and acquire prime Babe Ruth and it's not going to help us. We're not one player away or one magic spell from fixing this."

Obviously Dipoto is being somewhat facetious, but his broader point is fair: the Mariners don't have one or two holes in their lineup that could be patched with midseason trades. What they have is a group of hitters that so far this season have made underperforming the rule rather than the exception.