Jason Kanzler proves Jerry Dipoto isn't messing around with Mariners' manager search

After a season that somehow felt worse than its 76-86 record, it seemed as if Jerry Dipoto had learned a lesson about hiring managers. Neither Scott Servais nor Dan Wilson had prior experience, and both their tenures ended in smoldering ruins. Ergo, experience matters. Right?

Maybe not, if the report about Jason Kanzler tells us anything. He's a 36-year-old who hasn't managed in the major leagues, with his current post being as the Chicago Cubs' director of player development. Yet Patrick Mooney, Chandler Rome and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that Kanzler is among the candidates to become Seattle's next skipper anyway.

It's worth boomeranging back to what Dipoto actually said after he kinda-sorta fired Wilson in September. He did talk about hiring a manager with previous experience, but specifically said that it was "preferred" and not a "prerequisite." What he wanted above all was someone who could bring a sense of freshness to the franchise.

“We will go outside to hire our manager,” Dipoto said. “We need fresh thought. 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. We’ll collaborate with whoever our future manager is and try to find the right person.”

Dipoto can have it both ways, whether it were to mean hiring Joe Espada, Rocco Baldelli, Brandon Hyde or (somehow) Stephen Vogt. Yet a search like this one was invariably going to produce a wild card, and Kanzler's candidacy is as sensible as wild cards get.

Jason Kanzler could bring some magic pixie dust with him after working for Astros and Cubs

What Kanzler lacks in managerial experience, he makes up for with his past proximity to experienced managers. And, perhaps just as importantly, proximity to a whole bunch of winning at the major league level.

He coached under Dusty Baker while he was with the Astros, and was thus around to win a World Series ring in 2022 and to soak in the vibes of one of the great vibes managers in history. Since 2024, his time with the Cubs has overlapped with Craig Counsell's spell as their manager. He's one of the great in-game strategists in any dugout today.

The Athletic article notes the key role that Kanzler played in unlocking Jeremy Peña back in 2022, when he dunked on the Mariners en route to winning ALCS and World Series MVP honors. Kanzler's history with Alex Bregman was also instrumental in luring him to the North Side. Right there alone, you have bona fides for instructional work with youngsters and for cultivating strong relationships with veterans. The Mariners are at a stage in their timeline where both qualities have equal value.

Besides which, anyone who can promise to bring energy from the early 2020s Astros and mid-2020s Cubs deserves serious consideration. The latter won a bunch of games this year with a high-SLG offense and a shutdown defense. The former had those things as well, but with better pitching. Those Astros are the ideal model for the Mariners (and everyone, really), so it makes sense that they would go after anyone with any kind of connective tissue to those teams.

To this end, Kanzler has the same appeal as Espada, minus the stink of three seasons of diminishing returns as Houston's manager. So if he's ultimately the pick, Dipoto's allusions to experience won't necessarily make it a disappointing hire.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow