As we roll into the offseason, there’s obvious wondering about who the next manager will be and I think whoever is hired as the next manager is the make or break for whether this teams window closed last year or it gets extended 5+ years.
I’m sure we can all agree this season was an absolute disaster and I think the biggest reason was fragility, this was essentially bound to happen if one piece of the team didn’t absolutely carry. Cal hitting 60 historic home-runs last year and the pitching having a historic year prior are pretty much the reason those teams had 80+ wins.
Dipoto is great at development and the numbers have shown that in recent years, consistently having 4+ Top 100 prospects. He has a great process for his farm system.
What Dipoto has yet to do in all his years as general manager and I think is definitely capable of doing is finding a manager who has a clear strong defined approach and building around the manager instead of trying to implement his own strategy and process.
A great example is the guys across the street, the Seahawks. I don’t how many people watch them in here but John Schneider has done a great job at finding a guy with a clear scheme, identity and approach in Mike Macdonald and understanding it and sourcing the players/staff that fit it.
Dipoto is good at acquiring dudes who are good players. Taylor Ward is a good player and acquiring him was a good idea because the team was struggling against lefties. But it was more of a patch instead of a fix and that was because there wasn’t a clear role for him, and there wasn’t a clear role for him because Dipoto didn’t have a manager with a clear approach/identity. So acquiring Ward was more a statistical fit than schematic fit.
I think the biggest thing that stands in Dipoto’s way is himself. He’s shown good signs of progress by saying he’s exploring outside the organization and looking for fresh thought.
But the biggest thing that stands between this team and truly competing for a championship is Dipoto not only finding that “fresh thought” but understanding it and supplying a pipeline of schematic talent to it.
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I'm curious about the issue with platoon bats (Rob, Ward- maybe everyday players too) and defensive alignment. I'm sure everyone's at least partially to blame, but I wonder if our scouting/analytics department will also need a retool. Some of Jerry's statements pointed to their department.
Actually one of the stipulations ownership gave Dan when they offered him full time manager without Jerry’s input was the ability to hand pick his own staff, which he DID for a good chunk of our hitting coaches! Jerry scouted/assessed/“ran the numbers” to a team literally everyone in the world thought was going to be top 3, them all turning to shit is because of management/coaching, not the GM.
I don’t think Dan kept refsnyder on roster until late July. Any serious gm would’ve realized refsnyder isn’t it and cut them mid may. But not Jerry. Every year Jerry brings in a new free agent he loves and every year they sick and every year they’re on the roster until the trade deadline.
It’s funny to me the amount of people that say “I know Dipoto is handcuffed by budget but here’s why it’s his fault for having to acquire budget players”
Did he miss on basically all budget players this year? Yes. Did he hit on Polanco last year? Yes. Was letting Polanco walk the right move? Yes. Was Dipoto criticized when it happened? Yes. Is he praised now for it? No. Is the probability of hitting on these guys low? Yes.
If Dan got more production out of his talent and the team hadn’t been ravaged by injuries, I don’t really see Refsnyder sucking as a key reason the team failed. For years 3/4 of the lineup did nothing. With the talent on the roster this year, 3/4 of the lineup should have been producers.
The issues this year were so clearly in Dan’s court, the Dipoto hate is just cope from people that probably hopped on the bandwagon a couple years ago and want immediate gratification from a sport that is notoriously long in its timelines. Look at the Braves, they were good, they sucked, they’re good again - over the course of years - and because they developed good in-house talent many of the same players are still there from the start and fairly young.
The Braves are actually the perfect counter example of a well run FO that under spends compared to their division and out performs them.
The Phillies and the Mets both run higher payrolls than the Braves every year since 2019
In that time the Bravo's have won the NL East 6 times and won the WS once. That's should be the bar for success for the Mariners and Jerry's FO is no where near it over the same time period. Two things can be true at the same time. Servais and Wilson can be bad at managing on field and the front office can also be bad at assembling a winning roster.
The Braves were also hot garbage last year, and rather than blowing it all up, kept the core together for another run with a retooled, less injured squad. They won 94 games this year.
Sometimes baseball happens and firing everyone after one bad season in a run of five good ones is overreacting.
An intelligent and informed observation. The Mariners have a culture and identity problem. We cannot say what this team is about because they are an assembly of good players who are not living in a culture that is specific and cohesive. Hopefully leadership understands we need a manager with a very strong identity and culture process. However, accountability, discipline and selflessness are not really Seattle traits,so……..
Dipoto gets medium budget good player that come to Seattle to slack off because the culture isn’t set for winning in the playoffs or shooting for a World Series. Our culture is losing. Longest playoff drought in pro sports before we lost in a wildcard. This team was ripe to make a few big name moves and make a real run but instead Jerry opted for a platoon of aging, injury prone, and or stat trending down medium players with the hopes he stayed above .500 this year. Winners win. It’s entirely possible with our budget to win a World Series. But with Dipotos sorry stat driven philosophy of stay safe and stay in the black he will never win.
This is the part where Jerry hides under the rug and claims Dan was the big bad boogie man the whole time. Dan wanted Refsnyder. Dan was the reason Bazardo choked every save. Dan caused all of our defensive woes. What about the last 14 years of ball. 2 playoff appearances.... Jerry is the greatest conman in sports mantaining a job with his resume.
Jerry has been in charge for 11 years and the Mariners have made the playoffs twice in that span. This is not great at all. Jerry needs to go and the owner needs to either sell the team or do something else. They need a huge change in the front office because the current people aren't doing anything to make this team successful.
The team has existed for 50 years and has made the playoffs 6 total times.
Multiple owners, front offices, managers. Half a century.
The reality is that this franchise has been nothing but the biggest losers out there. Hoping for some magical new owner to swoop in that is both absurdly rich and hyper dedicated to winning probably isn’t happening. Expecting the current ownership to go find a much better front office is also a pretty big pipe dream considering the attendance numbers this year were the best since 2004.
I’m 43 and I’ve come to accept the fact that this team may never be genuinely good for any lengthy period of time all through the rest of my existence.
I’m 43 and I’ve come to accept the fact that this team may never be genuinely good for any lengthy period of time all through the rest of my existence.
I just turned 70 and I've given up on them ever being consistently good or winning a championship. I've witnessed all 50 years of futility.
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