Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto discussed the next steps for his organization with reporters, including Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times and Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Seattle trailed off late in the year and missed the postseason for the 16th-straight season, but it doesn’t sound as if a major roster shakeup is in order.
To the contrary, Dipoto stressed that he’s not anticipating anything approaching the kind of player turnover he oversaw during his first two years in charge of Seattle’s baseball operations. While he acknowledged there are “holes to fill,” he also said that he doesn’t expect “frantic movement” in the offseason to come.
Most broadly, the club’s top baseball ops official noted that his front office’s prior efforts have resulted in a more youthful slate of MLB talent that should provide a solid base moving forward. “I feel like we’ve made a significant move forward,” said Dipoto. “You just don’t really see it in the standings quite as much as we might see it in future planning.”
He also acknowledged that it remains a tall order to put together a team that’s truly competitive with the division-leading Astros. “That’s going to take some time and frankly a little bit of luck,” he said.
It’s unclear what kind of payroll space will be available for what moves the team does make. Seattle finished 2016 with over $170MM on the books and opened the 2017 campaign at over $150MM. Even if the team spends at that level again, there likely wouldn’t be much room to work with, since the Mariners already have $110MM on the books for 2018 before accounting for some significant arbitration salaries.
Looking more particularly at the roster, Dipoto suggested that he doesn’t see the M’s as being particularly in need of adding starting pitching. While he acknowledged that adding a quality starter would be nice, he indicated that the team is no more needy in that area than are most others around the league.
Dipoto sees both “depth” and “quality” in the existing staff. Notably, he also suggested that Seattle is prepared to utilize its staff in a more flexible manner going forward. “We’re going to see a different style of pitching staff and how it’s set up,” said Dipoto. “… We are adjusting toward what the world looks like now for starting pitchers, which is a 15-to-18-out starter (rather) than the complete-game starter.”
Of course, like most teams, the Mariners have interest in young Japanese star Shohei Otani, who is poised to represent a unique bargain given his unique circumstances. He’d represent a potentially game-changing addition to the pitching staff and Dutton says the club is going to do everything it can to land him, perhaps hoping its history with Japanese players will provide an edge. Dipoto did not comment on the two-way performer, but did note that he thinks it’s possible a player could see significant action as both a pitcher and hitter — though he added it’s unlikely that both could be done on a full-time basis.
Elsewhere, the club needs to add an outfielder and consider its options at first base. Dipoto said that the Mariners won’t necessarily need to add a center-field-capable player to cover for the loss of Jarrod Dyson to free agency, citing the potential to utilize Mitch Haniger and Guillermo Heredia up the middle. (Notably, though, manager Scott Servais did mention the need to improve on the bases, as Dutton reports. Dyson was easily the team’s best performer in that department.) That stance ought to help with flexibility as the Mariners sort through the options on the open market (and, perhaps, the trade market).
At first base, the GM suggested there’s a real possibility of bringing back Yonder Alonso, though he also emphasized that there will likely be “a lot of different options” to be considered. Certainly, the free-agent market has a variety of possibilities, perhaps representing opportunity to target a given player or to achieve some value through patience. Though he indicated that the team still believes in Dan Vogelbach and Evan White, Dipoto noted that it “remains to be seen” whether either will be a major part of the solution for the season to come.
“I’ll try to keep it under 45 trades, but no promises.”
Get up, have breakfast, make a trade, check emails, make another trade, lunch, trade again, another trade for good measure, dinner, waiver claims, a quick trade before bedtime, brush teeth, go to bed and dream about trades. Repeat.
Does more trades before 9am than most GMs do all season.
What a terrible GM. He is really good at making something out of nothing but he never wins anything that matters. It like he wants to show how smart he is by making a competitive team by adding a bunch of nobodies to his team’s base rather than holding himself accountable to produce a championship team. One of the worst GMs in the game.
He makes trades just for the sake of doing so. I think he has a big ego and wants his “own” guys. The Dodgers destroyed him on 2 trades and im sure many other teams have
Lol you’re an idiot if you actually think he makes trades for the sake of making trades. When your farm system is trash, you’re forced into making a ton of smaller moves to try to build a contender. He’s done a great job considering the terrible situation he inherited.
A great job? He traded Taylor for nothing. Undersold on Montgomery. Traded 5 years of Boog Powell for 2 months of Alanso. Got killed in the Smyly deal. Traded a decent SS prospect for Chase De jong who is mediocre. Traded 3 prospects for 1 year of Lind. The list goes on. He is an awful GM and you are the idiot if you think he had made good moves. Even his best trade getting haniger and segura is questionable
Chris Taylor was not doing anything for the mariners. he had a .240 avg in 256 PA in 3 season for the M’s. Plus we gained Segura in the process. Segura > Taylor.
We didn’t need Powell…we have Haniger (trade), Gamel (trade), and Heredia (signed) who are able to produce in the MLB. Traded from an excess to get something we were lacking.
Smyly got hurt, no one was able to foresee that happening.
Name one GM who has been perfect with trades?
They traded marte to get segura not Taylor
Yeah.. Taylor was also nothing when we traded him, so hindsight is really 20/20 on that trade.
Trading Montgomery was the right call at the time; a reliever/spot starter having an incredible season. With the volatility of pitchers you should aim to sell high, which Dipoto did. Only problem is he valued the return asset incorrectly.
Boog Powell will be nothing more than a 4th outfielder. Alonso has been a beneficiary of the flyball revolution, unfortunately he couldn’t keep it up in Safeco. But to flip a 4th outfielder for him? Highway robbery.
Smyly got hurt and hasn’t pitched for us at all. Can’t really call that getting killed as much as its just unfortunate luck. Not like we gave up much to acquire him.
I’d call Drew Jackson for De Jong even. Jackson has hit well in the Cal League, but so does everyone. He lost all his power in AA. De Jong tore through AA/AAA for the Dodgers. Tough year in our system but I’d bet on him before I did on Jackson.
We traded 3 rookie ball pitchers for Lind. Maybe they pan out, more likely that they don’t.
The Haniger+Segura trade has worked out extremely well for the Mariners, I’d be interested in hearing why it is questionable to you.
Justification is not an excuse for a bad result. Giving up a 5 WAR player for nothing is inexcusable no matter what narrative there is. Other than ben gamel there isnt 1 deal out of the dozens dipoto has done where you can say the Mariners win that deal easy.
@shelteredsoxfan – I know we traded Marte for Segura…i meant we still ended up with the better SS out of the 3 players. Taylor is not even a SS for the dodgers.
To say Powell os a 4th outifelder is another ridiculous assumption that does not justify bad traded. It was highway robbery to get Alanso just over 1 month for 6 more years of team control of powell. Glad your not my teams GM
If you think Chris Taylor is going to be a 5 WAR player year-in and year-out, that’s absurd. I’ll acknowledge that the change of scenery has done him well, and it’s likely he would have never blossomed in Seattle being blocked at most positions. But consider that before this year, there has only been one season in which Taylor had a HR/FB% greater than 8.0%. This year it spiked to nearly 16.0%. I just don’t think you can count on it again.
And there’s plenty of deals I could say we won, easily: Jarrod Dyson for Nate Karns, Ariel Miranda for Wade Miley, Nick Vincent for nothing, Pazos for a minor leaguer, Andrew Albers for nothing, Mike Leake for a minor league infielder who can barely hit.
You can’t just cherry pick deals because you have some weird hard-on for Chris Taylor
Powell would not start over Haniger, Gamel or Heredia, so technically, on the M’s roster, he would be considered a 4th OFer…Also we have all three of those guys until 2023. That’s 5 more years of service from them, so why do we need Powell?
Again, JD traded from a strength to fill a weakness (1B). And we might have Alonso for longer if he signs as a FA with the M’s since there is mutual interest bringing him back.
And regarding Boog Powell: he’s not athletic enough to play center field full time, he has barely been able to post ISO’s above .100 in most of his seasons meaning he doesn’t hit enough to play a corner full time, and he’s not a particularly adept fielder or baserunner in general. That’s not even mentioning off-field issues.
He had a nice year in Tacoma, but fact of the matter is he’s blocked in Seattle, his tools don’t translate to a starting outfielder, and the Mariners were in a playoff race.
What good is 6 years of team control if you’re controlling a back-up outfielder who doesn’t do anything especially well? I’ll make that Alonso trade every time.
Its not a hard on for chris taylor its 1 trade out of multiple i listed. Shows how immature and stubborn you are. Even with Karnes injury thats was a bad trade because dyson is not good. He just has speed. The leake trade is way too early to judge. Dipoto is a real life fantasy baseball trader and it doesn’t work. I didnt know pazos came from a trade so ok thats 2 that worked out. 2 out of over a dozen is still an F.
Dyson has put up 14.8 fWAR/15.4 bWAR in his career. Never had a negative WAR season. That’s ~$110-$115 million in value. For a player who has made just over $7 million. If you value a win conservatively at like $7.5 million, then the Mariners got about $12 million in surplus value last season from Dyson. If you think a win would be valued higher than $7.5 million then it gets even better.
He doesn’t embarrass himself at the plate, evidenced by his SO% being well below the league average. In fact, Fangraphs shows he has added positive value at the plate over the course of his career. This doesn’t even compare though to the considerable value he adds as a defender and on the base-paths (stealing bases and being a good baserunner). Dyson is an outstanding baseball player, and it shows how immature and stubborn you are that you don’t think realize that.
And if the Leake trade is way too early to judge, how can you really judge the other trades made at various points in the year by Dipoto? Boog Powell only had 90 at-bats for Oakland. Most of the minor leaguers traded by us are still in the minor leagues. Leake added actual value to our club, more than 1 win, and considering he did it in only 32 innings I would say that was a killer trade.
You didnt have Dyson for the amount of time you claim he is worth 110 million. Club control is the key element to most of the trades dipoto has made. And no Dyson is not even close to being worth 100 million anyone who would pay him that much is insane. Leake was a salary dump by the cardinals. So you have to see how the contract plays out. Obviously player for player the mariners do better in that deal but its the money and his performance over the contract. You can say all you want powell didnt have a role which very well may be true. But that doesn’t just mean can him for a rental. Someone would have gave them a prospect lottery ticket which is more valuable than 1 month of Alanso. And speaking of oakland how about danny valencia for paul blackburn? Thats a disaster
That’s why I specified the amount of surplus value he gave the Mariners last year; he was worth about $15 million, conservatively, and the Mariners paid him about $3 million. I’m not saying he’s worth $100+ million going forward, but that’s how much value he’s given the Royals/Mariners. Sorry, I just couldn’t agree with you saying he’s not a good player.
Judge your GM by his number of championships, then things like playoffs and records as tiebreakers. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the trade looked like a good move at the time, as a GM you’re paid to be right.
Nonsense
Interesting that they may be moving to a more reliever based approach
DiPoto kinda had me up until the end when he said the team still believes in Dan Vogelbach at which point I nearly choked on my drink.
Plans are to trade the entire roster twice over and still finish under .500
TRADETRADETRADETRADETRADETRADETRADETRADETRADETRADE.
I love how people are quick to trash a GM for not immediately reversing a teams fortunes. Jack Z left the Mariners in a shambles. The farm was garbage and devoid of any top end talent and the 25-man was old an unathletic. In short order Jerry has infused the major league roster with much younger, controllable, athletic guys with legit upside. He actually has a plan and will stick to it, unlike Jack who just blindly threw darts at a dartboard and spent each offseason looking for band-aids. Without the injuries this season ta a playoff team. I believe he’s going to be a GM for a long time and will eventually get the M’s back to being a perennial contender.
GMZ was obsessed with DH/1B type players…that drove me insane when he kept trading for those types of players.
Jack Z may have left the Mariners in shambles but Dipoto left the Angels in shambles.
Arte Moreno controls the show in Anaheim. JD was nothing more than a scapegoat.
JD will probably be fired before he’s given the opportunity to build something stable.
And the next GM will take all the credit…
What surprised me were his comments on SP. I see Paxton and Sir Felix but he’s a ? and very little else. I would think 2 SPs are needed.
Trade the whole franchise to Oklahoma City…
“That’s going to take some time and frankly
a little bit of luck”. (In Dwight K. Schrutes voice) FALSE! It’s going to take a good organization with smart baseball people like the Astros have and something the little league organization in Seattle hasn’t had for decades.
And how long (with how many 90+ loss seasons) did it take the Astros current regime? Give it time. DiPoto is the right man.
Jerry DiPoto has a vision of what it wants the Mariner’s to be. He has spent his time trading away the players gathered under Jack Z. He has gotten what he considers his type of players in return. If you buy his vision than you support if not than you nitpick about individual trades. Only time will tell if his vision is the right move for the Mariner’s.
All the Mariners needs to do is totally get rid of all the players and scouts and upper management and start all over. They can’t and will not never have a winning season if they keep doing what there doing.
The M’s need to move Cano to 1B. He make some of the best throws from the bag at 2nd but you could see it most of the season if you looked his range was affected by injuries and that may have affected his bat.
Move Cano to 1B, Stop searching for a 1B bat and bring in an athletic 2nd baseman. Chris Taylor would have looked nice at 2nd right about now. What did the M’s get for that kid? Nevermind.
I generally take defensive ratings with a grain of salt, but according to Fangraphs Cano has been a positive defender the last two seasons, and the two seasons before that he was negative. In 2014 he was only slightly below average for what it’s worth.
Moving Cano to 1B would significantly depress his value considering the large negative adjustment given to first basemen. Right now, it wouldn’t make sense to move Cano to 1B.
Shocked no mention of the horrendous O’Neill trade yet. Traded a potential middle of the order bat for a starter that will be waived three weeks into next season (Gonzales who is out of waivers and absolutely horrible. Will have a 12+ ERA a few starts into 2018 and be waived)
Probably because O’Neill isnt that good
First off, I just gotta say this comment section is lit! You guys are wild! Comments are more entertaining than the article is haha.
DiPito has made more trades than anyone could pull off in a single season in MLB the Show. Were they all good trades? Not really. Were a lot of them needed? Maybe.
The Mariners roster got shelled with injuries. You can’t blame DiPito for that. Most of the trades literally just seemed like he was acquiring bodies to throw in front the bullets the roster kept taking. However, that being said, you can’t deny the fact some of these trades were wasteful and unfavorable.
What little prospects we had have been depleted almost entirely leaving out farm system even further weakened. I will say getting Dyson, Leake, Vincent, Pazos, Segura/Haniger were bright spots. Miranda for Miley was good because Miley is awful, Miranda has potential if it can be developed. But, again, one can argue the trade for Miley to start with was absolutely idiotic, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Smyly looked great in the world baseball classic, but again injury bug got him so who knows. And as for the rest, most were questionable at best and not very favorable in any particular way.
But, if you guys reread the article after thinking on most of these trades they make sense for what he wants to do with the roster. Basically wants to fill the roster with middle relievers, long relievers, and spot starters. Plans are for the starters to only go 5-6 innings and the bullpen take over. So we’ll need a lot of arms to eat innings effectively to be in the bullpen. He wants speed on the base paths and good defense. Gonna play small ball, hence the outfield. The only real bat he wants to add is 1B, which it seems he does realize needs to be an effective bat to slot into the 6th spot in the order most likely. He would like vogelbach to be that guy but he seems to be little more than DH potential.