Dipoto answers big questions about sliding M’s in article by The Athletic

Aug 21, 2024, 10:10 AM

Seattle Mariners Scott Servais Jerry Dipoto...

Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Seattle Sports

In the midst of a brutal stretch for the Seattle Mariners, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto answers some big questions in an article published Wednesday morning by The Athletic.

Seattle Mariners ‘running out of levers’ to stop their slide

In the piece written by longtime MLB inside Ken Rosenthal, Dipoto speaks about the Mariners’ season-long offensive issues that have overshadowed their elite starting rotation, took ownership for some of the team’s shortcomings this year, and addressed the possibility of a change at manager.

The Mariners enter a Wednesday night series finale in Los Angeles against the Dodgers with a 64-63 record, sitting five games back of the Houston Astros (68-57) for first place in the AL West and 6 1/2 games back in the wild card race. Seattle led the division by 10 games on June 19 but has gone 18-32 since, including 1-7 on its current road trip. Meanwhile, Houston has won 11 of its last 13 to overtake the M’s and move into a comfortable lead.

Seattle reached the playoffs in 2022 for the first time since 2001, but it now has a tough final month-plus ahead if it is to avoid missing the postseason for a second straight year after that breakthrough.

Here are the most notable quotes from Dipoto in Rosenthal’s article, which is headlined, “Listless in Seattle: The Mariners’ flailing offense is wasting their dominant pitching staff.”

Jerry Dipoto on Seattle Mariners’ slide

• The first quote from Dipoto in the article covers both the Mariners’ roster construction and offensive philosophy at a time when Seattle ranks 27th in MLB runs scored, 29th in slugging (.365), has the most strikeouts in MLB and a league-worst .216 batting average.

“Coming into the season, we all thought this was the most talented group that we’ve had. We’re looking at everything. There is no stone unturned. We’ve talked about getting back to grassroots with what our hitting philosophy is and what we are about, the way we message it to our players. Or, are we overcomplicating it with the information we provide and the strategies we employ?

“I can say this: Me, our coaches, our staff, none of us is blameless. We have really struggled to play offense this year. And it’s not just on our players for not doing that. That would be a cop-out.”

• How responsible does Dipoto believe he is for where the Mariners have fallen short?

“Very. Ultimately the dirt roads lead back to putting the roster together, and that’s me. I don’t want to minimize the contributions of (general manager) Justin (Hollander), our scouts. But ultimately the responsibility is mine.”

• Would the Mariners consider moving on from manager Scott Servais, who has been with Seattle since 2016?

“It definitely has to be a consideration for us, to talk through everything. That’s just reality. We’ve underperformed and there is some discussion for each of us to have about the part we have played in coming up as short as we have to this point.

“I say that, but until a week ago we were in first place or a game within for roughly the last 120 days. I don’t know that the season could have gone much better considering how inconsistent our offense has been. I don’t want to act like this has been an unmitigated disaster. But we have very much underperformed our own expectations, based on our talent.”

Click here to read the full article from The Athletic by Ken Rosenthal.