Dan Wilson Could Pay for the Mariners Collapse Jerry Dipoto Helped Create

Bob Nightengale dropped the Mariners into baseball’s rumor mill on Aug. 16 with one sentence that shouldn’t surprise the fan base, but should grab everyone’s attention anyway. According to Nightengale’s report for USA Today, Dan Wilson is “expected to be fired if the Mariners miss the playoffs.”

Let’s get the obvious disclaimer out of the way: Nightengale has been wrong before. Plenty of times. Don’t be surprised if he’s wrong again. His Sunday notes column is not a termination letter, and Seattle has made no public announcement or even hinted at Wilson’s future.

Still, this report passes the common-sense test. National reporters don’t usually place a manager’s job security into circulation for no reason. There is likely some truth here, whether it came from a legitimate leak, an organizational trial balloon or somebody connecting obvious dots. Wilson cannot reasonably believe he’s safe after one of baseball’s most disappointing seasons.

The Mariners entered Sunday at 58–66, five games behind the Astros in a deeply uninspiring AL West. The M’s were 48–49 and only 1 1/2 games out at the All-Star break. Since then, they’ve gone 10–17. There’s no other way to say it: it’s a collapse.

Dan Wilson Has Earned His Share of the Mariners’ Blame

Wilson deserves to be under pressure here. His first full season produced 90 wins, an AL West championship and a trip to Game 7 of the ALCS. He finished third in AL Manager of the Year voting. That success bought him credibility. But it didn’t buy him job security. This season has exposed too many of his weaknesses.

His bullpen management has repeatedly turned winnable games into very weird experiments. Lesser relievers have been asked to record the most important outs while stronger options waited for a save situation that never arrived. His starter hooks have often felt rigid, and the team's various piggyback plans became a midseason exercise in managing around problems instead of solving them.

We can relitigate a ton of odd decisions this season. But the pattern is what’s most important. Wilson has too often appeared committed to a predetermined plan after the game demanded more improvisation.

If the Mariners miss the postseason, moving on from him would be defensible. But it shouldn’t be the only move.

Jerry Dipoto Cannot Use Dan Wilson as Cover

If Wilson is on the hot seat, Jerry Dipoto should feel the heat beside him. When Wilson replaced Scott Servais in 2024, Mariners chairman John Stanton made the chain of responsibility clear. Stanton told MLB.com that installing Wilson as manager was “Jerry’s choice, to be 100% clear.”

Those words matter now more than ever. Dipoto handpicked Wilson. He built the roster Wilson manages. Dipoto oversees the organizational philosophy influencing bullpen usage, lineup construction and player deployment.

Wilson isn’t alone in creating this mess. He didn’t build an offense that entered the All-Star break with baseball’s worst OPS against left-handed pitching. And he certainly didn’t cause Cal Raleigh’s staggering decline after a 60-homer season.

Firing Wilson would be an accountability measure. But it wouldn’t be an organizational solution. Removing another manager while preserving every layer above him would allow the people who chose the manager, built the roster and established the process to pretend they had identified the lone source of failure.

There are still 38 games left, and the AL West remains weak enough to reward anyone capable of playing three competent weeks of baseball. The Mariners have been putting up runs in this series against the Astros. The body of work doesn’t suggest that we should count on a turnaround.

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