Jerry Dipoto on Mariners’ skid: ‘We have to maintain big-picture view’
Jun 23, 2016, 3:59 PM | Updated: Jun 24, 2016, 10:05 am
June has been the toughest month not only for the Mariners this season, but also for Jerry Dipoto in his first year as the team’s general manager.
After Detroit completed a sweep of Seattle on Thursday, the Mariners fell to 6-16 this month and 36-37 on the year.
A big reason for the swoon has been an onslaught of injuries, especially to the pitching staff, which had been impacted drastically before but somehow found a way to get even worse. Adrian Sampson, a rookie who was called up just last week to take the place of the injured Wade Miley in the rotation, was pulled from his scheduled start Thursday before even throwing a pitch due to elbow discomfort. That had a domino effect, as a bullpen that has been taxed greatly over the last two weeks (58 1/3 innings pitched) had to throw all 10 innings in the extra-inning loss.
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With all of the wheels appearing to come off at the same time, Dipoto could be scrambling trying to keep them attached. Instead, he told “Danny, Dave and Moore” that it’s times like these that he and the team need to focus on the long-term goals they’ve set.
“It’s been a really tough month. For the last 30 days or so we just haven’t played well. From the day we started putting this club together to where we sit today, we have to maintain the big-picture view,” he said. “If you get caught up in 10- or 15- or 20-game stretches as a club, or even as a general manager, as a staff, you will lose it in a 162-game baseball season. You can’t focus on the day-to-day.”
Dipoto is taking an optimistic look at the situation. The Mariners’ great first two months of the season gave them enough room that this current rough patch hasn’t buried them. They may have fallen into third place in the American League West, but they are neck-and-neck with the surging Astros, and will still be in the wild-card conversation if they rebound as their pitchers get healthy.
“I still look at the glass as half-full,” Dipoto said. “If you would have told me leaving spring training that on June 22 we would be a game over .500, having been without Felix (Hernandez) for close to a month, second place in the division, second in the league in runs scored and second in ERA, I’d tell you, ‘You know what, I can’t complain. I think I’d take that.’ I just hate how we got here.”
You can hear the full interview with Dipoto at this link.
