Lack of history with Jerry Dipoto spelled the end for Lloyd McClendon as Mariners manager

As new Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto looks to take the organization in a new direction, he will do so with a new manager, the team parting ways with Lloyd McClendon on Friday.

“In the end I just didn’t feel it was a very good match between Lloyd and I,” Dipoto said on a conference call with reporters. “I respect his baseball, I admire his professionalism in having the players play hard through the final day. He’s a good baseball man and an honorable person, so I thank him for his time with the Mariners as well as his coaches, but now it is time to move forward.”

Move forward with a clean slate with a new manager. While there is often value in continuity, there can also be conflict if the ideas and philosophies are not aligned. Dipoto is right • it is admirable what McClendon did with what he was left with after the trade deadline. It could not have been easy to take his seat in the dugout night after night wondering what he would get from a hodgepodge bullpen if the game was on the line. Especially not easy when he, his players and everyone else were expecting so much more. He kept the team together, he kept it playing hard, and even well enough at times to make me think perhaps they punted too soon when Jack Zduriencik traded pitching at the deadline.

This is all a credit to McClendon, and it no doubt earned him fans in that clubhouse. In the end, however, his history with Dipoto dated only back to Sept. 28, and there was no way that was going to be enough. Dipoto had inherited a manager once before, when he took joined Anaheim and its longtime skipper Mike Scioscia, and that did not go well. As it happens most often in these situations, a clean break was needed, and a clean break he gets.

So Dipoto moves on to the task of hiring his first manager. While he is often seen as a numbers guy, he is looking for far more than a manager who can read and utilize charts. The first word out of his mouth when asked what he was looking for was energy. The next words: positive interaction with the players. A good baseball background. A teacher. Someone who can create a plan and lead people.

“I think too much is made of the metrics, how it will affect the teams, a little overblown,” he said. “A lot of it is about the environment you build and the people you surround yourself with and leadership. Energy will be an important element. Players need to be energized. They need to be inspired.”

Energy and inspiration are not things you find in a daily report. It’s much more than numbers for Dipoto. A player told me in the last week of the season that when Dipoto was introduced to the team he said he wants to have a loose clubhouse. He sees environment and energy as important to day-in, day-out success, and you could hear it in his voice when he talked about getting to know the two coaches who would be asked to stay with the big league team, infield coach Chris Woodward and hitting coach Edgar Martinez.

“I came in with no history with Woody,” Dipoto said. “I listened to him. I watched how he interacted. He has the type of passion and energy that I’m looking for, and that we will value in building a staff going forward. In Chris Woodward I felt we were watching a real impact coach.”

Dipoto added that it was admirable that Woodward was able to gain the respect of veterans including Robinson Cano as a young coach.

I would hope that Edgar Martinez would be an automatic keeper, and I was interested to hear that Dipoto picked up on what numerous players have told me was important to them behind the scenes • the positivity and commitment Martinez brings to his hitters.

“Whether it’s the obvious, Edgar’s history as a player and his character traits, he’s a wonderful human being,” Dipoto said. “Sitting with him this week and listening to him talk about the players, listen to him break down hitting, clearly how invested he was in making the players better, very excited. I am very excited about the opportunity to bring him back and I think this is where he wants to be. That’s a good thing.”

The staff of two will grow, and the manager hire will be made sooner than later. Tim Bogar’s name has been mentioned the most and is considered by a number of people in baseball to be the favorite. Bogar was hired by Dipoto as a special assistant in Anaheim after spending a year as the Rangers bench coach and interim manager when Ron Washington stepped down.

Scott Servais was also a Dipoto hire in Anaheim, and many expect him to come to Seattle for a front office job in scouting or player development. An interesting twist has arisen, however, as the Padres are interviewing him for their open manager position. He could be a candidate for Seattle, as well.

Other names that have surfaced, or are bound to, include current ESPN analyst Alex Cora, Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez and ex-Padres manager Bud Black.

Another interesting name that will come up is Raul Ibanez. While he has no coaching or managing experience, he was a finalist for the Tampa Bay job last year. Dipoto’s thoughts on hiring a manager without managing experience?

“Baseball experience counts for a lot no matter where they came through,” he said. “I think having a major league background somewhat, whether it be through coaching, managing, playing, etc., is important. I think that lends to credibility in a clubhouse, but other than that it’s gong to be about leadership, about team building, about the ability to inspire an environment.”

Ibanez, who Dipoto signed in 2014 with the Angels, checks off a lot of those boxes. He is also good friends with Woodward and Martinez, two coaches Dipoto clearly was very impressed with. It’s a long shot but worth keeping an eye on.

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