SEATTLE -- In the aftermath of the most significant shakeups to Mariners leadership of this era, Jerry Dipoto was asked on Monday about his own status atop Seattle’s front office.
Specifically, why he survived after one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history -- and will now head into his 12th season at the helm of Seattle’s baseball-operations department.
“I say that it's fair that they ask those questions,” Dipoto said. “I wake up and I look in the mirror every day trying to figure out why this happened. For the last five years, we're one of the winningest teams in Major League Baseball. This year, we stunk and it never got on track.
“If I didn't have a job today, it'd be justified.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, Dan Wilson’s tenure as manager was concluded, then on Monday morning, the club announced that it parted ways with four from Wilson’s staff -- bench coach Manny Acta, infield coach Perry Hill, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and first-base coach Eric Young Jr.
All four, and Wilson, had been in place a shorter span than Dipoto, who was brought on after the 2015 season and will now have more managerial hires (three) on his ledger than postseason appearances (two, in 2022 and 2025).
“The blame falls on me first,” Dipoto said, “and I guess part of my job is making decisions for how to get better and make sure this doesn't happen again. And it happened. And failure is only failure if you don't learn from it. We're hoping to learn these lessons and move forward in a productive way.”
Conclusion of Wilson’s tenure
Wilson’s departure was presented by the organization as “concluded,” a word he also used when reading from a prepared statement shortly after Sunday’s season finale. He did so while trying to hold back tears.
Dipoto declined to delve into the specifics of Wilson’s departure -- specifically, if Wilson was let go -- and instead said “those are personal issues that I think should remain personal.”
Wilson used a team meeting he called on Sunday morning as a platform to inform the clubhouse that he would not be returning in 2027. He wanted players to hear it from him.
“Those conversations don’t just pop up,” Dipoto said. “You don’t wake up one morning and say, ‘This is it.’ It was a thought as the season went along. But out of respect to Dan, the clubhouse downstairs, we decided at a certain point, this is our group. We’re either going to make it with them, or make decisions once the season draws to a close. And we did.”
The first domino fell way back on July 23, when Dipoto dismissed assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes. And Dipoto hinted that the club considered moving on from Wilson well before Sunday.
“Making in-season change is difficult,” Dipoto said. “I’ve only done that once in my entire career. Obviously, at midseason, we did something that we’ve really not done, which is upset the apple cart. Letting go of Bobby Magallanes was step one. We had been trying to find ways to create more urgency with the team on the field than we were seeing day to day.”
‘Accountability’
It’s a word that was used regularly among the fanbase throughout a frustrating summer, then one that players organically initiated in interviews after Seattle was eliminated from postseason contention on Thursday.
Dipoto was asked if accountability was an element that slowly but surely slipped away this season.
“'Accountability' is just a word unless you’re accountable to a standard that is preset, everybody understands what that standard is, and then we hold ourselves accountable to it,” Dipoto said. “The bigger issue is the standard itself, and that’s on me.
“I’m the one person who has the ability to drill down to the bottom, say we are not upholding these standards, we need to do better. I did an ineffective job of making sure that we held one another accountable, because we started with standards and it faded. That’s not just on our players. That’s on me. It’s on our front-office group. It’s on the staff and the players, collectively.”
Managerial search underway
Accountability will be “a heavy piece of the criteria” that Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander consider when finding their new manager. They will also hire from outside the organization, and most likely, someone who has MLB experience in the role.
That process will begin immediately, if it hasn’t already.
“We need fresh thought,” Dipoto said. “We need something new. It could be a shift in programming. It could be a shift in messaging. It could be a shift in language.
“Most of what we’ve done in recent years, especially, has been insular. And this year’s failure requires that we look outside to find someone who might be able to poke holes in what we’re doing and help us see something that perhaps we’re blind to.”