The Mariners need to pursue Gerrit Cole.



There, I said it.



You’re probably laughing. I get it. That would be a rational reaction to what appears like a preposterous suggestion: the pairing of one of the planet’s top pitchers and perhaps the most irrelevant team in baseball.



Still laughing? OK, fine. But here’s why it makes sense:



The Mariners are coming off a 68-94 season in the first year of the organization’s much-publicized rebuild. They were bad and maybe even worse, uninteresting. We knew things could get ugly but maybe didn’t realize it would get that ugly. And “ugly” doesn’t just describe Seattle’s play on the field, either.



The Mariners fell below the two-million mark in attendance for the first time since 2013. Worse still, television ratings for their flagship station — Root Sports Northwest, in which the Mariners have a controlling interest — dropped an alarming 34...