Seattle is obviously going through a full rebuild right now. Teams that do that will always slash payroll. You hope the prospects turn out and then spending will increase when the team is on the right course. Seattle has had a history of spending money, perhaps not even wisely, so you would expect them to do so in the future. I remember when Crane bought the Astros. Their payroll was slashed several years in a row. They were horrible but fans were outraged at how cheap the new owner was. Never made sense to spend a bunch of money when the team overall is horrible. Houston got good and their payroll rose accordingly.