Jerry Dipoto calls Mariners’ season ‘incredibly frustrating,’ hints at offseason plan

SEATTLE – The formality of a planned news conference from the interview room of T-Mobile Park with a dais, microphones and Mariners’ logo backdrop was replaced by a wooden bench in the first-base dugout on a chilly Saturday afternoon before the penultimate game of the regular season with a handful of media members surrounding him.

Given how last year’s season-ending news conference went awry and then so very wrong with comments that left the fan base largely incensed while providing endless memes and countless references on social media, there might not have been an ideal scenario for Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to discuss the season that was and the offseason ahead.

The last time Dipoto had spoken to the media publicly was via Zoom conference on Aug. 22 – the day he fired manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart and replaced them with Dan Wilson and Edgar Martinez.

For the eighth time in his nine years leading the front office, the Mariners missed the postseason despite having a 10-game lead in the American League West on June 19. The Mariners will finish with less wins than the past three seasons.

“Incredibly frustrating,” Dipoto said. “It’s part of the reason why we’re trying to figure out a different way, a different message. Philosophically, we’re all wired to do the same thing, you know. In some ways, what we’ve done, organizationally, we’ve achieved so much. We’ve put a good team on the field for four consecutive years. We have talked about creating a sustainable roster. We’re just having a tough time figuring out how to climb the wall from a good team to a very good team or a great team. That’s going to be our challenge this offseason.”

The Mariners went 18-8 against the Rangers and Astros but also went 36-45 on the road and 5-9 vs. the 100-loss Angels. Their starting pitching was outstanding. Their offense was somewhere between abysmal and inconsistent. Their bullpen was beat up and not up to typical standards. They raced to a 44-31 record on June 19 to build a 10-game lead in the division. From that day to Servais’ firing, they went 20-33, losing the lead in the division in only 24 days. They came into Saturday with a 19-13 record under Wilson with two games left to play.

“We have to find a way, over the course of a six-month season, to be more consistent than we’ve been,” Dipoto said. “This year is a great example. We’ve shown high highs and low lows, and we have to figure out how to create more of an even performance across a six-month season.”

What has he seen from the team since Wilson took over?

“The last five weeks, pretty proud of the way the team has responded,” Dipoto said. “Tough, tough summer, really. We were in a tough position for a couple of months. Obviously, Dan and Edgar coming on was a pretty dramatic time and the team responded very well. I think we’ve played very well for the last five weeks. I think in many ways, this gives us some insight into just how good we can be. We’ve seen the offense score in a lot of different ways than maybe we weren’t scoring before. We’re not reliant on a home run or a walk. We push offense. We’re stealing bases. We’re moving on the bases. We’re playing a more aggressive style.”

Does the team’s performance over the last five weeks of the season with Wilson as the manager provide any sort of change to their offseason plans or thinking?

“Not a ton,” Dipoto said. “We’ve always believed in the foundation of this team. Obviously, we need to improve in some areas, and we’ll take a look at that as we get into the offseason. But we like the group here, the group that’s come through and formed our foundation. We’ve got some holes that we’ll need to address and areas of improvement. All in all, I think the group has shown us over these last five weeks why we believe in them.”

While Dipoto wouldn’t get into specifics, he did mention the improvements need to come from the infield. The outfield group is set with Julio Rodriguez, Victor Robles, Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley, who can also play first base.

The starting rotation will likely remain intact next season despite the thinking that the Mariners would need to trade from it to acquire an impact hitter.

“On the continuum of A to Z, that would be ‘Plan Z’ times some denominator,” Dipoto said. “We could shoot ourselves in the foot by getting too crafty in what we do. Our pitching is how we are built.”

But the infield could look very different. J.P. Crawford is under contract through the 2026 season and will likely remain at shortstop. But the rest of the positions are up for grabs. The Mariners will have to make a decision on Jorge Polanco’s $12 million club option for next season, which seems unlikely to be exercised. Other new additions could come at third base and first base.

“Areas we’ve been piecing it together,” Dipoto said. “We will get a better version of J.P. next year. He hasn’t had his greatest year, but he’s shown us, over time, how good he can be and my guess is we’ll get a better version next year.”

Adding pieces to the roster means the payroll budget will increase. The Mariners’ projected payroll is likely to go up with Rodriguez’s contract bumping up to $18 million and players like Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Cal Raleigh and Arozarena getting significant raises in salary arbitration.

“That’s gonna be a big number,” Dipoto said. “That’s gonna jump payroll quite a bit anyway, but it won’t be the only rise that we see in payroll. I can’t give you an exact number. I don’t know what that is. I can tell you we’re not going the other way.”

Last offseason, the phrase and strategy of “creating payroll flexibility” was said often by Dipoto and other executives around baseball. It forced him to make several trades to clear MLB salary commitments to try and improve the roster.

Will it be uttered and used again?

“Not for us, I know we are at a certain payroll this year,” Dipoto said. “You don’t have to look very hard to find out what that is. I don’t think we’re going down.”

Per FanGraphs, the Mariners are estimated to be running a payroll of around $140-145 million. The organization, which owns the controlling interest in ROOT Sports Northwest, has yet to announce what will happen next season. The Mariners do feel they have a better idea of what to expect if they go with the same production operation next season.

“Last year, we had a pretty good feeling that there were a number of teams that were in a unique situation due to the RSN (regional sports network) issues,” Dipoto said. “I don’t know how that’s going to play out this season, or what it’s going to mean for other teams in the league. The only thing I do know going into this offseason is how it’s going to play out for us, and it’s not going to be nearly the concern that it was this past year.”