Seattle Mariners: Pressure not on players, but Jerry Dipoto to perform

Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto’s decision to rebuild is not just a risk for the organization, but for his career in baseball.

Rebuilds in baseball are usually a four-to-six-year process, and fans of these particular teams witness a lot of bad baseball over that time. While the Mariners’ acceptance and acknowledgement of their own mediocrity is admirable, their specific rebuilding plan falls back on bad habits.

Dipoto, the face of the organization’s upper management, has openly expressed a desire to compete as early as next season and no later than 2022. Every move the Mariners have made this Winter has reflected that, with the offseason’s biggest acquisitions featuring prospects set to make their debut within the next year.

At times, Dipoto has foregone the acquisition of prospects in favor of Major League talent with three-to-four years left of club control. Even if these players were to become key contributors to a quick turnaround, arbitration numbers will go up, those years will start to expire, and the Mariners will have significant questions moving forward.

Of course, the most likely outcome is that Dipoto will trade the likes of Domingo Santana and Mallex Smith whether they produce at a high level or not. Such moves will also heavily rely on return and the development of Jarred Kelenic, Kyle Lewis, and others.

What Dipoto has successfully done is given himself plenty of avenues to avoid total failure in this rebuild. Santana and Smith are just a small portion of the ammunition Dipoto still has to acquire more talent, including Mitch Haniger and Marco Gonzales.

In a perfect world, however, it appears that Dipoto would like for both to be in Seattle once they’re ready to contend. That’s a risky mindset, as both players carry serious questions. Haniger, to many, has greatly overachieved and could significantly regress; Gonzales, on the other hand, was one of the more underrated pitchers in the American League last year, but has shown a bit of inconsistency as he continues to work back from Tommy John surgery in 2016.

It’s possible that there will be no better time to deal either player than now, but Dipoto envisions a bright future for the Mariners with them involved. Of all the risks Dipoto has taken this offseason, none may be greater than that.

But the pressure to perform doesn’t ride on the shoulders of Haniger, Gonzales, Kelenic, or any other player Seattle hopes to build a World Series contender out of. It rides on Dipoto, who’s attempting to do something the baseball world has rarely seen and turn the Mariners into a premier organization seemingly overnight.

Such a plan feels destined to fail. If it does, Dipoto would be fired without hesitation and his career may never recover. These are the circumstances Dipoto has ultimately put himself under, and it’s unquestionably one of the gutsiest career moves any executive could make.

For his sake, I hope he’s right. For Mariners fans, they have no other option but to hope he is.