It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there
Dan Wilson, somehow still the manager of your Seattle Mariners
It’s not good when you have to write a post with the manager’s picture on top. It’s not good when you go from Game 7 of the ALCS to seven under in August with the game’s worst offense, either.
With these 2026 Mariners, you don’t need to more than describe reality to make it all sound quite dire.
It has never been more what it is than what it is right now.
The Mariners needed to walk-off wins to get a series victory over the Minnesota Twins last weekend but a series dub is a series dub nonetheless and the Mariners have too few of them.
It was something to build on—especially with Taylor Ward and Brendan Donovan set to bolster the lineup after the day off.
Naturally, they get smoked 8-0 by the Tigers in Game 1 of that series on Tuesday—the same Tigers who sold heavy on the trade deadline the day before.
Then they fight back, a little. They win Wednesday to even the series and give them a chance at—gasp—back-to-back series wins.
Oh you thought they’d build on that? Do you know these guys?
They were down 3-0 before they had two outs in the rubber match, trailing 4-0 by their second turn batting—yet another game where it’s obvious from the jump they weren’t ready to play.
How many times do we find ourselves thinking “Alright, they have to have this one. They got to find a way to win this game or things are going to get really bad.” only for the team piddle their pants?
If anyone thought they might show some bounceback, a bit of fight and resilience for the 50th Anniversary Weekend—the tentpole event of the entire home slate—I envy your optimism.
Because of course they wouldn’t do that. Swept away by the Rays.
They score 22 total runs on the nine-game homestand. They were outscored 30-8 vs. the Tigers and Rays.
It’d be oh so fitting for the nadir of the most disappointing season in Mariners history to land exactly on the celebration of the club’s 50 years but every serious M’s fan knows there is no floor.
No, no—now it’s time to circle half the country while playing two of the best teams in the sport sandwiched around the Astros, who lead the Mariners by 4.5 games with their worst roster in years.
The wild thing about seasons like this is you slip from competitiveness to irrelevance and indifference quicker than you’d think.
I’ve only had surgery and general anesthesia once but it’s a bit like that— you’re laying on the table, talking to the doc, nurses and anesthesiologist and then ████████████████████████ oh wow you’re already on the other side feeling like shit.
What now?
I’m out. Whatever happens happens. If they make the playoffs, that’d rock. They won’t.
I got an email the other day about Postseason tickets and I’ll probably put the money down for mine, but it’d take a miracle for the Mariners to not follow up in October to see if I want to apply that payment to next year’s Flex Plan. (I do not, we’ll take that refund—thanks.)
Allow me to refer to this time-worn chart from the old LL days.
I don’t know if I’ve fully crossed that Tropic of Cairo but I’m, at best, straddling it. This team will surely piss me off on this road trip but there’s only so much energy and emotion I can expend on this team when they don’t seem to care a lot themselves.
The tepid trade deadline, expectedly, was not out of character. Michael Arroyo and Lazaro Montes (elevated strikeout rate, I know) are still with the Rainiers. There’s no chance Kade Anderson is called up any earlier than whatever date would still preserve his rookie status for 2027.
If these guys aren’t trying to do everything they possibly can to win ballgames right now and save their season, why should I or anyone else care when they do neither?
Which brings us to....
Should the Mariners fire Dan Wilson?
Yes.
Will the Mariners fire Dan Wilson?
No. Not midseason. Probably.
Ryan Divish at the Times has a lengthy story that leads up to this bit towards the end:
He’s beloved within the organization, including the ownership group and the players. He has a close bond with several players, specifically Raleigh, building relationships with them as they climbed the minor-league ranks. Right or wrong, he’s given them his trust to hold themselves to the standards set.
Would the Mariners owners want to embarrass one of their own due to the failures of this season? It doesn’t seem likely.
With this type of stuff, specifically following this team with our whole hearts day after soul-sucking day, it’s good to get a reality check.
I and most readers believe Wilson shouldn’t be managing this team. Do other, potentially more-level headed folks, feel the same?
Well, I’ve got a couple. These are guys who have been around the game and been around Seattle sports for a long time—and they both did hits with KJR’s Softy & Dick Fain Show. These are not, however, guys covering the team now—so while there isn’t as much inside knowledge, there are more candid comments.
First it’s longtime Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone:
If he wasn't Dan Wilson, franchise icon, beloved guy that everybody likes, I don't think that he would still be manager, to be honest. This is the textbook case of a team that needs a managerial change or that leads to a managerial change, a hyped team that is struggling so badly.
But I think they have a hard time letting go Dan in the middle of the season because there's still the hope that he could turn it around like they did turn it around in the second half last year.
But if that doesn't happen, I think the likelihood is either that Dan would maybe resign or they would let him go.
And then we have Jerry Brewer, now a national columnist with The Athletic after a long stint at the Washington Post and before that, a columnist with the Seattle Times.
He resides in Seattle and follows the M’s. He says:
You can't let my 14-year-old drive a luxury vehicle or what you think is a luxury vehicle. That's asinine. And I certainly think that we're all in agreement, right, that in most normal situations, the manager is only going to affect maybe two, three wins either way.[…]
I think there's a lot of stuff there that you could look back and you could say managing and or coaching has made this team five to eight games worse.
If you brought me not the best manager in the game, but if you brought me the eighth-best manager in baseball, I think this team would be in first place in the AL West.
And hey, it's another one of those moments for the Mariners. Do we want to win or do we not? […]
Let's separate the player from the manager. The player is an immortal. The manager has got to go.
The manager has got to go.
But there he is, swaying back and forth in the Yankee Stadium dugout with his arms crossed and his face blank.
I get it and I don’t.
If there is a good chance you are going to move on from at least Wilson in the winter—and how could that not be the case?—why wouldn’t you make a move now on the slim hope that it provides a jolt to the club? These guys obviously aren’t playing hard for him and have the look of a group who’s, if not checked out, close to it.
There isn’t anyone who thinks with any level of confidence that, theoretically, Manny Acta in an interim role is going to save the season but why not chuck a Hail Mary towards the end zone while there’s still time to do so?
It doesn’t make sense to me but it seems clear that if the Mariners weren’t going to let Wilson go after that disaster of a homestand, they refuse to fire him midseason—likely out of a level of respect for the franchise Hall of Famer, as indicated by Divish.
On Sunday I tweeted that if Wilson were the manager for Game 1 in New York, he’d likely be the manager on Opening Day of 2027.
I’ve since softened on that, both because of the reporting and because of this simple truth I should know by now: while their fans believe the Mariners should hold winning as their #1 priority and do everything in their power, with urgency, to accomplish that, the organization doesn’t think that way.
So what do we think transpires in the offseason?
This is getting long and there will be plenty of time to talk about it when the offseason actually arrives but I would not underestimate the probability of the organization doing nothing at all in the way of serious personnel changes.
If they are waiting to make a move, maybe the thinking goes that they can drag their heels long enough so as to not have someone in place before what’s looking like an inevitable lockout set to begin December 1st.
MLB managers are not paid like players—they are full-time team employees with year-round salaries.
Would the Mariners tight-walk this in such a way that they can save a few hundred thousand dollars by not having any manager on the books at all when they don’t have to? Do you know the Mariners?
That’s the other part of this. The names people are thinking of to step in for 2027—battle-tested guys like Bruce Bochy, Alex Cora, Brian Snitker and so on—are guys who will command more than what most managers make.
Rarely do we see the Mariners pay top-dollar for talent on the open market. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them avoid doing so here, which could even be a factor considered before deciding whether or not to move on from Wilson.
Fun stuff, huh?
For now, there’s still baseball to be played. How much it matters, I don’t know.
Like 2015, I can’t believe these guys have to play another game today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And still 40+ days after that.
Go M’s, I guess.