Mariners GM Has Candid Dan Wilson Message After Much-Maligned Bullpen Move

Second-guessing is one of the cruelest parts of the Major League Baseball offseason.

The Seattle Mariners are living proof that one choice can make or break a season. They brought in setup man Eduard Bazardo to face Toronto Blue Jays slugger George Springer as the go-ahead run in a do-or-die game, and Springer went ahead, crushing Seattle's dreams with a three-run blast.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson has taken all sorts of flack (including from this writer) for choosing Bazardo in that situation over closer Andrés Muñoz, because it was pretty obvious that the season was on the line in the moment. But general manager Jerry Dipoto has his skipper's back.

Dipoto sounds off on Wilson after loss

Dec 9, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto speaks with the MLB Network at the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

On Thursday, Dipoto publicly defended Wilson in his first comments since the Mariners' loss kept them from making their first-ever World Series appearance.

“It’s hard to be a manager, and it’s hard to make those decisions in real time, and we do the best we can to collaborate with Dan and (the coaching) staff and give them a menu of different thoughts and options,” Dipoto said, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. “And I’ll never begrudge him for making a move he believed in and trusted.”

Wilson, the former catcher on the last Mariners team to make it to a championship series, undoubtedly helped galvanize this Seattle team to restore this long-suffering franchise to prominence.

However, he and Dipoto can make all the justifications they want. The fact is that with the season on the line, they not only neglected to use their best pitcher against the other team's most decorated postseason performer, but they threw him the exact same two-pitch sequence he'd seen against Bazardo the night before.

The odds were in the Mariners' favor, and it took bad decisions from Wilson and catcher Cal Raleigh to swing them in Toronto's direction -- not to mention a poorly located pitch from Bazardo himself.

That said, one bad decision shouldn't define a manager's legacy, especially not after his first full season, and Dipoto is justified in standing behind his guy.

More MLB: Mariners Brass Doubles Down On Back-Breaking George Springer Decision