Andy McKay knew the question was going to be asked. And as the Mariners’ director of player development, he was obviously prepared to answer it. His boss, general manager Jerry Dipoto, was so ready to discuss the topic that he didn’t even wait for the question to be asked, instead starting off his media session in Thursday’s pre-Spring Training luncheon with a lengthy statement about it.
The news that the Mariners’ farm system had been rated as the worst of the 30 teams in MLB by Baseball America — a leading publication about the subject — was not something to that could be shrugged of despite how much McKay and Dipoto disagreed with the assessment.