Mariners Rumors: Search for Dan Wilson's successor will begin at least a day too late

The last day of the Seattle Mariners' season is just three days away on Sunday, September 27. Dan Wilson's last as their manager might come only a day or two after that.

Only John Stanton, Jerry Dipoto and other members of the Mariners' high-level brass could tell you when Wilson became a dead man walking in 2026. Yet the exit has been awaiting him for some time, to a point where Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic seemingly had to restrain himself from breaking the news that Wilson was doomed back on September 10.

In speaking on Puck Sports on Wednesday, Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times dropped the most definitive timeline on Wilson's exit that we have gotten so far: "My expectation, and from the sources I've heard, is that we're going to have some resolution on Dan's future with the team probably on that Tuesday after the season. It could become Monday."

Also according to Divish, there's probably going to be a press conference featuring Dipoto. It's otherwise a question of how Wilson's departure will be framed. Rather than a straight-up firing, it's more likely that Wilson will step down or that the two sides agree to a "mutual parting of ways."

The Mariners will have time to find Dan Wilson's replacement, but could they have acted sooner?

The sooner the Mariners hire Wilson's replacement, the sooner they can get on with fixing a team that is badly damaged, but not necessarily broken.

As for who could be Seattle's next manager, we're hoping that Dipoto breaks from his usual mold of hiring someone without experience managing in the major leagues. Alex Cora is a free agent. Torey Lovullo could be soon as well. And if the Mariners want to make a run at former bullpen coach-turned-Cleveland Guardians skipper Stephen Vogt, we won't complain.

For the meantime, the question that will haunt Mariners fans for years to come is: What if the Mariners hadn't waited to move on from Wilson?

This season began with maybe the highest expectations the Mariners have ever had, but things began going wrong on Day 1 and the hits just kept coming. Wilson's inability to be part of any kind of solution only became more glaring. For him, it was just one "tough one" after another.

Wilson was a key figure in the Mariners' 50th anniversary celebration weekend, which went down at T-Mobile Park between August 7-9. If the Mariners wanted to wait until after then to can him, it would have been frustrating, but at least understandable. His successor would have had 43 games to salvage a season that was still salvageable. The Mariners were 56-63 at the time, but still just 4.0 games off the pace in the AL West.

Instead, Wilson lasted beyond the Scott Servais threshold and is still overseeing a team that is somehow still 4.0 games out despite having fallen to 10 games under .500. The AL West gave Wilson and the Mariners an opening. He and they haven't taken it.

Maybe another manager wouldn't have been able to do better, but it isn't unfair to wonder why the Mariners didn't want to find out.

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