ORLANDO, Fla. -- After assembling a roster that won the Mariners their first American League West title in 24 years, Jerry Dipoto was recognized in a big way on Tuesday.
Seattle’s president of baseball operations was honored as Baseball America’s Executive of the Year.
He’s the first Mariners exec to receive the award since former general manager Pat Gillick in 2001, who oversaw Seattle’s most recent division title before last season.
“It truly takes a village,” Dipoto said at the Winter Meetings. “I've said it for years. We work with unbelievable people. Most of what we have been able to do, we have done through building an awesome foundation through scouting, development, trades. And it's the people in this room, some people who are no longer in the room, that really -- we put together a good organization, and I'm proud of it.”
En route to the 2025 AL West crown, Seattle went 90-72, finally supplanted its rivals in Houston in a race that went down to the wire and then came one win away from reaching the club’s first World Series berth. And the Mariners did so via players that Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander either drafted and developed or made key trades to acquire.
And that tandem has already brought back one of those key players from last year’s Trade Deadline this offseason, with first baseman Josh Naylor returning on a five-year, $92.5 million contract signed last month. He was the sport’s first Major League free agent to sign with a team this offseason, underscoring the comfort that he felt in his brief time in Seattle, his relationships with Dipoto and Hollander and, moreso, the financial backing from ownership for what is the most expensive free-agent contract for a position player in the Dipoto era (since 2015).
Other key players from the 2025 roster who Dipoto and Hollander made bold trades at the Deadline to acquire included Eugenio Suárez (‘25), Randy Arozarena (‘24), Luis Castillo (‘22), Matt Brash (‘20) and Andrés Muñoz (‘20). J.P. Crawford (‘18-19 offseason) was another trade acquisition, and he also signed a lengthy extension, along with Castillo and Muñoz.
And that doesn’t include the homegrown talent that has defined this era, headlined by the Mariners’ MLB Draft picks (Cal Raleigh and Logan Gilbert in 2018, George Kirby in ‘19 and Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo in ‘21) and international signees (Julio Rodríguez in ‘17).
“One of the reasons that he wins that award, and one of the things that he's great at, is empowering people to do their jobs and grow and try new things,” Hollander said. “And I've screwed [stuff] up over the years. And he's never come in and closed the door and say, like, ‘What the you-know-what? It's like, 'Let's learn from this.' And that's something that I've tried to learn from.”
Moreover, while the Mariners are thriving in the present, their future also appears bright -- as Dipoto and Hollander have assembled a farm system that MLB Pipeline ranks No. 3 in the sport. That group includes a league-high-tying seven players within Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list, headlined by infielder Colt Emerson (No. 9 overall prospect), a 20-year-old infielder who is expected to impact the MLB team in 2026.
Dipoto is entering his 11th season at the helm of Seattle’s baseball operations department, making him the longest-tenured executive in that position in team history.
And now he is the fourth member of the Mariners' organization to win a Baseball America yearly award since 2022, joining Rodríguez ('22 Rookie of the Year), Major League pitching coach Pete Woodworth ('22 Major League Coach of the Year) and Everett AquaSox manager Zach Vincej ('24 Minor League Manager of the Year, then managing Single-A Modesto). The Mariners were also named Baseball America’s 2022 Organization of the Year.