Could the Seattle Mariners Fire Jerry Dipoto Amid Recent Stretch of Poor Play?
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The Seattle Mariners have won two games in a row against the Cleveland Guardians and will go for a sweep on Sunday, but before those wins, the team had lost eight of its last nine.
Furthermore, the Mariners went from 3.5 games up in the American League West to 4.5 games back in just three weeks, and they have only a 53 percent chance to make the playoffs, per Fangraphs.
This recent stretch of poor play, coupled with back-to-back seasons of missing the playoffs, has several Mariners fans calling for Jerry Dipoto (president of baseball operations) and Justin Hollander (general manager) to be replaced.
How likely is that? What goes into a decision like that? We asked Buster Olney of ESPN on the most recent edition of the Refuse to Lose podcast:
And every team is different, in part because the owners are different. The personalities of the teams are different. I mean, my God, the New York Knicks just made the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA for the first time in decades, and they just fired their coach. Their owner is really volatile. So to me, that's what this situation comes down to, is how volatile are the owners in the Mariners' situation? Are the people behind the scenes clamoring for change?
Most Mariners fans would tell you that they don't think the ownership is clamoring for change, which is why Dipoto and his regime have been allowed to work in the organization for 10 years, but we'll have to see how the team finishes down the stretch.
You can listen to the full interview with Olney in the podcast player below (from 6/12, prior to the two-game win streak):
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