Mariners players speak on manager Dan Wilson’s exit

SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners on Sunday announced Dan Wilson will not be returning to the club as its manager in 2027.

Wilson’s departure comes after the M’s wrapped up a disappointing year with a 76-86 record after entering the season as a favorite to reach the World Series.

What Dan Wilson said after last game as Seattle Mariners manager

Players spoke about Wilson and hearing the news that he would not return, which he relayed to the club in a team meeting before Sunday’s game.

Below is what Cal Raleigh, Bryan Woo, Julio Rodríguez and Logan Gilbert had to say about Wilson’s departure.

Cal Raleigh

“It was tough… I really kinda haven’t wrapped my mind around it yet, obviously with the game (being) early and everything that’s going on. Tough situation. Feel terrible, feel responsible – I think every guy in this clubhouse does. But unfortunately that’s how it goes sometimes, and that’s unfortunately what happens when you don’t perform.”

Raleigh also addressed Wilson’s character.

“If you ask anybody, nobody will ever say one ill word about him. He’s a great person. He’ll do anything for you. Just a great, great human being in every aspect of life. It makes it that much more difficult.”

Bryan Woo

“(Hearing the news) was just tough. Big league managers, you wear so much of what goes on throughout a season. If the team does well, it’s because the players. If the team struggles, it’s because the coaches, the managers or whatever it is – and he wore so much this year. It’s tough, man. You build a relationship with a guy like that – it’s really difficult to see him just wear everything this year… The interactions with him and seeing the relationships and everything that he meant to everyone in this clubhouse and in the building, it’s hard to describe. I think as a group we failed him much more than he failed us.”

Julio Rodríguez

“It’s a tough job. I feel like we can always sit on the couch and think, ‘Oh, I can do this, we could have done that.’ There’s always a lot of things around that, but I think he’s a great guy that helped us to get better in different ways, and I’ll always have love for him (and) the person that he is. He always treated me with respect and that goes for a lot of the guys. I’m just happy that I got to know him better as a manager here, as a person too, and I wish him the best.”

Logan Gilbert

“Really sad, to be honest. I love Dan… Who he is as a person, his values, integrity, is very apparent, and he lives it out. So, it means a lot as a player. Like, that’s the type of guy you want to play for, and I feel like we let him down, to be honest. That’s kind of the nature of the business, that we underperformed and lost games and sometimes we pay the price with our jobs as players, and sometimes other people pay price. So, definitely feel responsibility and accountability for that. That’s the business of the game, but it’s really sad.”

Gilbert said getting the news Sunday was a shock, but players were aware of some of the outside conversations being had about Wilson.

“I feel like it’s definitely shocking because of the success that we had last year. But it was so drastic of a turnaround this year, and in today’s age, we see what’s online, we see some of the stuff like that.”

Gilbert was also thankful for Wilson joining the team when he did late in 2024 after the departure of Scott Servais.

“Playing for the city in the 90s and all the success (he had) and then he wants to come back – it would be very easy just to not fill that hole when we needed somebody a couple years ago. He had all the success and (was) loved by the city, but he kind of put his neck out there again to try to win and took the heat for a lot of things throughout the last couple of years. So, that says a lot about him, too.”

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