Why the Mariners May Keep Jerry Dipoto Despite Their 2026 Collapse

The Seattle Mariners reached the final two weeks of the season with their postseason hopes pretty much doomed. Their series against the A’s gave us the clearest picture of how they got here. And stumbling at the beginning of their current series against the Angels did them no favors.

Dan Wilson’s future has felt increasingly bleak as Seattle’s season has unraveled. USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale reported in August that Wilson was expected to be fired if the Mariners missed the playoffs. Ken Rosenthal said last week that he was “rather confident” Seattle would move on from Wilson under that circumstance. ESPN’s Jeff Passan said Monday that he doesn’t expect Wilson to return.

The club has announced nothing, but the direction of the public conversation has said plenty. Anyone expecting Wilson’s possible departure to trigger a complete organizational housecleaning should probably prepare to be disappointed. The Mariners can fire their manager, start a search, shuffle the coaching staff and call it accountability without changing a single person who holds real power above the dugout. Under chairman and managing partner John Stanton, retaining president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander appears far more likely than clearing out the baseball-operations department.

Wilson didn’t build the roster or set the payroll. But he still owns the preparation and in-game management of a team that has underperformed for most of 2026. That alone makes him the easiest person to replace.

Why Jerry Dipoto May Keep His Job With the Mariners

Stanton can view Wilson as the part that failed without deciding the entire operation is broken. Dipoto and Hollander can point to the 2025 AL West championship, the franchise’s first since 2001, a trip to Game 7 of the ALCS, a homegrown pitching foundation and a booming MLB Pipeline. The front office will have a case that its system remains functional even after a season that crashed and burned.

Fans have every right not to like the explanation. Dipoto is finishing his 11th full season running Seattle’s baseball operation, and the Mariners have reached the postseason only twice since he took over. The same problems with offensive construction, depth and adaptation have followed despite changes in the coaching staff. That’s not to say that Wilson doesn’t deserve scrutiny. It’s just that he’s not alone. The people who handed him the job and supplied the roster also deserve some heat.

Dipoto was hired in September 2015, nearly a year before Stanton’s ownership group officially assumed control of the franchise. Stanton has never selected a different head of baseball operations during his tenure as managing partner.

When the Mariners missed the postseason in 2024, Stanton did more than retain Dipoto. He said he believed “passionately” that Dipoto was the right person to continue leading the organization. The following season rewarded that faith with Seattle’s first division championship since 2001. That bought the front office considerably more protection that is likely not to be erased by this pretty terrible season.

The Mariners fired Scott Servais in 2024 while retaining the executive who built his roster. Replacing Wilson two years later would follow the same playbook. They would change the voice in the room while preserving the architects.

MLB’s Labor Uncertainty Could Protect the Front Office

Baseball is heading toward very uncertain territory this winter, and that could work in Jerry Dipoto’s favor. The current collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2026. If owners impose a lockout, free agency and trades involving major league players would stop, as they did in 2021. When a new agreement is eventually reached, teams could be forced to conduct much of their offseason business in a compressed window and under a potentially altered economic system.

That’s not even remotely close to an ideal moment to install a new president of baseball operations. An outside hire would need to learn Seattle’s personnel, payroll limits, prospect evaluations and trade conversations while simultaneously adjusting to whatever rules emerge from the negotiations.

Dipoto and Justin Hollander already know the entire picture. Familiarity will probably become powerful protection when the owner it’s obvious that Stanton prefers stability. It still doesn’t excuse Dipoto and Hollander from the team they built. It just helps explain why Stanton is likely to give them another opportunity.

A Lockout Wouldn’t Stop the Mariners’ Manager Search

Seattle should not use the labor situation as an excuse to rush into another comfortable managerial hire. A lockout would freeze the major league player market. But it wouldn’t prevent the Mariners from interviewing or hiring a manager. During the 2021 lockout, the Mets hired Buck Showalter and the Athletics hired Mark Kotsay. Seattle could continue interviewing candidates and hire Wilson’s replacement even after Dec. 1. If there is a lockout, it might actually give Dipoto and Hollander more time to concentrate on the search while the player market is frozen.

If the Mariners immediately promote another familiar organizational figure…that would be a choice. And it would definitely not be something the labor situation forced upon them.

The most plausible offseason remains easy to see. We’re sure that Wilson departs in some fashion, several coaching changes will follow, Dipoto and Hollander stay, and the same front office receives another opportunity to reshape the roster. That could produce a better manager and a better team. It would still be a managerial change rather than a regime change.

The dugout will look different in 2027. Unless Stanton breaks sharply from his own history, the Mariners’ power structure probably will be the same.

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