Seattle Kept Dipoto, Gutted the Staff, and Learned Its Two Best Bats Were Broken

The Seattle Mariners' 2026 season ended with a 7-3 win over the Angels, a 76-86 record, and a manager walking away from the podium. Dan Wilson, who a year earlier had taken this franchise to Game 7 of the ALCS, told reporters he wouldn't return in 2027. "This season has been very difficult," he said, "and of course the results have not been what any of us had expected." That is a diplomatic way of describing a team that finished with the AL's fourth-worst record one season after coming within a game of the pennant.

The fallout was swift and broad. A day after Wilson's exit, Seattle dismissed four coaches: bench coach Manny Acta, infield coach Perry Hill, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, and first base coach Eric Young Jr. The pitching staff was spared, which is its own interesting signal, given a 4.21 team ERA and 208 home runs allowed.

But the most consequential move of the week was the one that didn't happen. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto remains in place, reportedly with chairman John Stanton's backing — even as Dipoto himself publicly allowed that he might not deserve the job. He now presides over a managerial search that already lost a target: Torey Lovullo re-signed with Arizona on a two-year deal. Reports indicate Seattle prefers an experienced skipper, which keeps Cleveland's Stephen Vogt in the rumor mill, along with speculation about a Kristopher Negrón reunion.

So: same architect, new staff, one year to prove the plan still works.

Then came the surgeries — and the explanation

On October 3, the Mariners announced that Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor both underwent procedures. Raleigh had a left shoulder AC debridement; Naylor had TFCC repair on his right wrist. Both are expected to be fully recovered by spring training.

Read those injuries against the numbers and the season starts to make a different kind of sense. Raleigh, who slugged 60 home runs with a .948 OPS and 125 RBI in 2025, collapsed to a .182 average and a .664 OPS in 2026, striking out 164 times in 126 games. Naylor's power evaporated entirely — 20 homers and a .815 OPS in 2025 became 10 homers and a .667 OPS, even as he stole 30 bases for the second straight year.

A catcher with a shoulder issue and a first baseman with a wrist injury are two very specific mechanisms for a lineup-wide power outage. Seattle hit 188 home runs as a team and posted a .234/.319/.376 slash line with 1,506 strikeouts. That's not a club that got unlucky. That's a club whose two middle-of-the-order bats couldn't physically do the thing they're paid to do.

There's an optimistic reading here, and it's not naive: if the medical explanation holds, the Mariners' roster may be considerably better than the 2026 record suggests. Naylor is the same player who drove in 92 runs the year before.

The complications

Two things complicate that optimism. First, health is a projection, not a guarantee — Seattle is betting a winter of rehab restores two players who just had their worst seasons at the plate, and the same roster produced a -58 run differential with both of them on the field.

Second, the calendar. The CBA expires December 1, and a lockout would be uniquely damaging to a club in the middle of a culture reset with a new coaching staff that couldn't communicate with players all winter. Whoever takes the manager's job inherits a shortened runway.

Seattle's path back is coherent: get the two bats healthy, hire the right voice, and let Dipoto — apparently on his last stand — finally be aggressive. The Mariners have spent two years proving the margin between Game 7 and 76-86 is thinner than anyone wants to admit. The question now is whether the same front office that built the 2025 roster can fix the 2026 one before the window closes on it.