With a historic meltdown it is time for the Mariners to fire Jerry Dipoto

In nine seasons with Jerry Dipoto in the front office, the Mariners have made the playoffs once. Seattle won the Wild Card series against Toronto, before proceeding to get swept by the Astros in the ALDS. Now, before Dipoto defenders start, John Stanton is a mediocre owner looking to make the most amount of money for the least investment possible. That's also most owners, at least two-thirds of them I'd say. The Mariners' payroll currently sits at $147.429, roughly $90M below the $237M luxury tax threshold for 2024. Stanton can't expect consistent playoff results without investing as a top 10 payroll, but these two things aren't mutually exclusive. John puts Jerry in a tough position, and Jerry hasn't made the right moves with the resources he has been given.

From 2016 up until Scott's termination, the Mariners went 680-642. While that's not up to Jerry's 54% standard, 51.4% over 9 seasons is fine. The problem is, they've had too many fine seasons and not enough good seasons. The Mariners haven't won more than 90 games in a season in the Dipoto/Servais era, which is to say there wasn't a team good enough to win the division. There were a few teams of late that either grabbed a Wild Card or narrowly missed, but that's not good enough for a team that has the best starting pitching in the league. You could certainly make the argument for a front office dismissal based on the underperformance, but that's not the only pervasive issue with Dipoto, it's how he's treated people in the organization.

"“He hasn’t come down here. He sits up in his suite, playing fantasy baseball and rips apart our team without telling us anything.”
"

Anonymous player speaking to Ryan Divish

This quote was provided to Divish of the Seattle Times, back when Kendall Graveman was traded in the middle of an Astros series in 2021. The Mariners were only one game back in the Wild Card standings, and Dipoto thought it was a great idea to trade the closer of the club. Players were pissed off of course, but that didn't stop him from trading Paul Sewald last year. The Mariners missed the playoffs by a game last year, who knows what could have been if they had held onto their closer? Players have commented many times that the deadline is an indication of whether the front office believes in you, and unfortunately, the Mariners players have gotten the message multiple times that this front office doesn't believe in them.

On top of the treatment of players and playing fantasy baseball from the GM suite, Dipoto fired his longtime friend, Scott Servais, a few weeks ago. I think they could have just let his contract expire in six weeks, but the even larger issue here is how Scott found out. Servais got a Ken Rosenthal alert and realized the new article was about his own termination. Nine years working for the Mariners organization, and he gets to read a fully flushed-out article by Rosenthal. Clearly, there was a leak, but they should have just told him over the phone if they couldn't meet in person with Scott flying back from LA with the team the previous night.

Now, of course, we have the Mitch Garver signing, along with the Jorge Polanco deal that hasn't worked out particularly well this past season. Teoscar didn't have a good year here in 2023, and trading away closers in two separate competitive seasons doesn't bode well for Dipoto. I thought he had a decent deadline, getting Justin Turner for almost nothing, and I was a fan of acquiring Randy Arozarena.

That said, it hasn't really worked out so far, and I think the Mariners need to win the division for Dipoto to keep his job. Even if they do, Seattle might need a culture change from the top down. We can't fire John Stanton, but we would if we could. Firing Jerry is actually feasible, and the right decision. It's time for a new attitude and philosophy in the Marine Layer. The question is, should Justin Hollander get the job, or should it be someone else altogether?