Astros' sudden Dana Brown decision raises the stakes for Mariners and Jerry Dipoto

It already wasn't a good look that the Seattle Mariners were 3.0 games out of first place in the AL West after 131 games. It's now an even worse look following the Houston Astros' sudden parting of ways with general manager Dana Brown. If that's an implicit admission that he had failed to build a real contender, then what does that say about the Mariners and Jerry Dipoto?

We're not usually of a mind to extend "you gotta hand it to 'em" olive branches to the Astros, but that really is appropriate in this case. They won the World Series under Brown in 2022, but that was largely with a roster that he inherited from James Click. It's been diminishing returns ever since, as even Houston's first-place standing right now comes with a million asterisks.

The Astros are 65-66 with a -44 run differential. The only reason they would be the AL West winners if the season ended today is because of their 9-4 record against the Texas Rangers. One supposes you also have to hand it to 'em for that…but still, not good.

How safe should Jerry Dipoto be after 3 of 5 AL West GMs have lost their jobs?

In any case, Brown is the third AL West front office chief to lose his job this year. There was also David Forst (Athletics) and Perry Minasian (Los Angeles Angels) before him. As this is happening amid an all-time bad year for the AL West, it's only fair to wonder: How safe are Chris Young in Texas and Dipoto and Seattle?

Young's fate is best left to our friends over at Nolan Writin'. Around here, there's still a natural instinct to defend Dipoto as the Mariners' president of baseball operations.

Sure, the Mariners have made the playoffs just twice since they hired Dipoto at the end of 2015. Yet that's twice more than they had made the playoffs between 2002 and 2015. It was also just last year that he was MLB's Executive of the Year following a run that lasted until Game 7 of the ALCS.

More broadly, you can look back and appreciate Dipoto's ability to both develop and secure cornerstone players. The homegrown starting rotation is thanks to Dipoto, and ditto for Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Colt Emerson and their respective extensions. To these extents, he's built something of a model operation for other mid- and small-market contenders.

Even so, it's amazing how much of that shine has worn off during this year's 62-69 slog.

Maybe Dipoto could not have anticipated Raleigh and Rodríguez falling off as drastically as they have, but the Mariners might have been better prepared for it if he had built a deeper roster. The roster has also suffered from a culture of playing through pain and the drawbacks of an overcrowded starting rotation. Dipoto owns those. And since Dan Wilson was apparently his choice in 2024, Dipoto owns all his faults as a manager as well.

The Mariners still have time and an open door to save their season

All of the above is not necessarily a steadfast determination that Dipoto's job is on the line. For one thing, we don't know when his contract ends. And if owner John Stanton ultimately shrugs 2026 off as one bad year, it wouldn't entirely be unfair.

Rather, the middle ground here is that Dipoto's job is not not in jeopardy after all that has transpired. And if Stanton wants to tie Dipoto's fate to the club's playoff outcome, that wouldn't be unfair either.

To this end, the Mariners have more hope than is usually allowed for clubs that are seven games under .500 with 31 left to play. Their AL West deficit is hardly insurmountable, and they're even trending up (6-4 in their last 10) while the Astros are trending down (4-6 in their last 10). To boot, the Mariners have the easiest remaining schedule of any team in MLB.

The general image is that of a Hail Mary against a defense that only has a couple of defenders guarding the endzone. The Mariners can complete it. If they don't, maybe there should be Hell to pay.

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