Last week we buried the Dan Wilson era. Turns out the organization wasn’t done digging.
Last Monday’s end-of-season press conference with Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander made one thing clear: this isn’t a managerial change, it’s a full reset. Four more names joined Wilson on the way out: bench coach Manny Acta, infield coach Perry Hill, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, and first base coach Eric Young Jr. will not return in 2027. Dipoto’s line in the announcement — “significant changes are required as we look toward 2027 and beyond” — is the kind of sentence executives write when they want you to know the easy part is over.
And honestly? Good. A 76-86 team in a division won by an 81-81 Astros club doesn’t get to keep its coaching staff because everyone’s nice. Acta spent over a decade in this organization, Hill’s infielders won Gold Gloves — but the offense finished 28th in runs and the defense was dead last in outs above average. At some point “meaningful contributions” is just a press-release way of saying “we loved them, and we lost anyway.”
The presser’s real news was the search criteria. Dipoto said the club will prioritize an experienced manager this time. That’s a genuine shift — Wilson had never managed anywhere before taking over in August 2024 — and it’s Dipoto admitting, without quite saying it, that the rookie-manager experiment ran its course. He also took the blame first (“the blame falls on me first”), which is the right thing to say and will be remembered exactly as long as the next hire wins.
He and Hollander are “making phone calls around the league,” which means the real shortlist is being assembled right now, and everything we’ve heard so far is the first draft.
Speaking of which: the candidate board is already crowded — and already wrong in one spot. Bob Nightengale’s early “leading candidate” report on Torey Lovullo got joined by Adam Jude’s list — Stephen Vogt, Rocco Baldelli, Chris Woodward, and Brandon Hyde. The fun details: Vogt has a close bond with Cal Raleigh and winters in Olympia, which makes him the fan-fiction favorite and also, per Jude, “highly unlikely” to shake loose from Cleveland. Update, October 15: Cleveland won Saturday’s ALDS Game 5 and is now in the ALCS against Tampa Bay — Roundtable’s take is that the Vogt-trade pipe dream is now off the table, since a manager in the ALCS can’t plausibly walk out, even for the Olympia homecoming. That’s opinion, not reporting, but the logic is airtight. Baldelli is a Dodgers special assistant after the Twins years; Woodward coaches first base in L.A.; Hyde is a senior advisor in Tampa. All experienced. All fits the stated criteria.
Here’s where it gets messy. Torey Lovullo is off the board: Arizona extended him on a two-year deal before his old contract expired, so per Nightengale, he never became a free agent and the Mariners never got to formally contact him. All that “I wanna be wanted” drama ended with the guy getting wanted in the desert. Forget the tea leaves.
More names, in no order of likelihood: Adam Jude’s list also includes Pirates bench coach Kristopher Negrón — a familiar face, since he ran the Tacoma Rainiers in 2021 and coached first and third in Seattle from 2022–25. The Athletic floated Joe Espada as a fit — and the Astros resolved the conditional themselves on Wednesday: they announced they won’t renew his contract (256-229 over three seasons, two AL West titles, swept in both wild-card trips), a day after granting Seattle permission to interview him. He’s a free agent now, not a poach. Per FOX 13, via the Seattle Times’ Adam Jude: Seattle’s initial candidate list had upwards of 40 names, and the first Espada conversation is expected to be virtual — no in-person meetings scheduled yet. Cora looks headed to Philadelphia: the NY Post reports he has the inside track there with Mattingly expected to step down. And a new name for Seattle’s list: Carlos Mendoza, whom the same piece names as fitting the Mariners’ experience requirement.
One more genuinely new name: Albert Pujols told Nightengale he interviewed for the Angels and Padres jobs last offseason, denied reports of heavy contract demands, and hopes a managing job materializes. He’s available — but he’s not a reported Seattle target, just a new name on the shelf.
And one opinion piece now worth retracting: SI’s FanNation argued Seattle should interview Don Mattingly if he parts ways with Philadelphia. Update, October 15: he’s not parting ways — the Phillies removed his interim tag Wednesday and signed him to a two-year deal through 2028. He stays in Philadelphia, where his son Preston is the GM. The case is moot.
One more thing, because it’s easy to lose in the wreckage: Kade Anderson — the kid whose rookie season ended with a line drive off his forearm in last Sunday’s finale — just won Baseball America’s 2026 Minor League Pitcher of the Year. That’s the future, bruised forearm and all. The next manager inherits him, Gilbert, and Woo. There are worse foundations.
So: Wilson’s gone, the coaches are gone, the experienced-manager mandate is public, and the phone calls are happening. This is the third dugout change in four years, and Dipoto knows he can’t afford to get it wrong. Neither can we — which is why we’re holding this one for the next shoe to drop.
Update, November 9: the search is over — and the “experienced manager” mandate didn’t survive it. The Mariners have officially named Jason Kanzler, 36, as their 22nd manager, choosing the Cubs’ director of player development (since 2024) over fellow finalist Joe Espada. Kanzler has never managed at any level — he was an Astros minor-league hitting coach 2019–2021 and on the major-league staff in 2022–2023, including the World Series-winning team — making him the second-youngest manager in baseball. Worth noting: Dipoto is now 3-for-3 on hiring first-time managers in Seattle, which is a funny way to prioritize experience. Kanzler’s line in the announcement: “This team has an immense amount of talent in all facets of the game, and my coaching staff and I are excited to access and unlock this team’s full potential.”
At Wednesday’s introductory press conference, Kanzler said the brand of baseball he wants is “step on their throats” — but that he won’t impose an identity, believing it will surface organically. He called building player relationships probably his top priority, joked about his Astros past — “the team that shall not be named… this atmosphere is electric” — and said he wants to “ride the lightning with this team and this city.”
The staff is taking shape around him. Pitching coach Pete Woodworth and director of pitching strategy Trent Blank are confirmed back next season, with the search for the rest of the staff underway. The Athletic reports the Mariners are hiring CJ Gillman as hitting coach — the first new staff appointment of the rebuild, reported before a manager was even named, filling the chair vacated by Kevin Seitzer. One correction to the early color on that hire: Kanzler pushed back on reports that he and Gillman are “close friends” — said that wasn’t accurate, though the two know each other from Gillman’s years as Seattle’s minor-league hitting coordinator. His description of Gillman: “no-nonsense, high-standards, high-challenge, high-support.”
And the bench chair is filled. The Mariners announced Friday that Tanner Swanson, 44, a Washington native from Cle Elum and Central Washington University alum, is Jason Kanzler’s bench coach. Swanson spent seven seasons with the Yankees — catching coordinator since November 2019, then director of catching and major-league field coordinator — and was Great Britain’s bench coach in the 2026 World Baseball Classic and filled in as acting Yankees manager for a game in July. A catching-development hire, landing on a team whose leader is Cal Raleigh. We’ll have more on what that means.
One more piece of good news from the same stretch: Cole Young won his first career Gold Glove on November 1 — just the third Mariners second baseman in history to win one. The reset is about the dugout, but the infield it serves just picked up its first hardware.
Two quick housekeeping notes: nobody has clarified whether Wilson was fired or stepped down, so we’re not picking a version. And the Lovullo line: he’s not a candidate, he’s not a free agent, he’s not coming — the earlier version of this post said otherwise and was wrong. The correction is above.