Shannon Drayer: Inside the Mariners’ choice of Jason Kanzler as manager

In the simplest of terms, it appears the choice of Jason Kanzler to lead the Seattle Mariners came down to a choice between experience and fit, and it was a battle that fit was fighting from behind as experience was clearly the “safe” choice.

Jason Kanzler shares what to expect from him as Mariners manager

President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander went into this manager selection aware of the risks but still left the door slightly ajar for a candidate who had not managed, and it was that candidate who was at the podium Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.

Kanzler was not an unknown to the Mariners, having interviewed for a hitting coach job with the team after 2021 season. The Mariners liked what they saw but were unable to hire him away from the Astros at the time. He was someone who had clearly impressed, with Hollander saying he gave perhaps the most impressive interview he had ever been a part of.

That interview kept Kanzler on the Mariners’ radar and put him on the initial manager search list this fall. It did not, however, put him ahead in the early rounds. They had liked the traits they had seen in him in ’21, but without experience as a manager, was it enough?

“It’s a unique background, it’s a unique profile,” Hollander said Thursday morning on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “And as we went through the process, I think we all were aligned that he’s going to have to win it. But if he does, we should let him win it. Otherwise, don’t include him in the process.”

The door opened wider.

The interview process by all accounts was incredibly thorough, with a larger than ever mix of coaches and baseball ops members on the Mariners’ end participating at different stages. There were initial questionnaires, phone calls with Dipoto and Hollander, Zoom calls between candidates and groups of front office members, as well as phone calls with others throughout. Information was going all ways with the Mariners wanting to learn more about the candidates, and learn more about themselves from candidates who had questions as well.

Finally, in-person meetings were set up with what is reported to have been five candidates, two of which were in Seattle last week. Then there was true get-to-know time.

Leaning into a strength

What likely was a huge draw to Kanzler was the player development background. This has been a strength of the Mariners, and perhaps the biggest strength of the organization under Dipoto, so it would make sense they would further lean into it, especially after seeing it take a back seat at the big league level in ’26.

“We need to be better about connecting what we believe in organizationally to what we do in the big leagues,” said Hollander. “I think that’s something that was identified by Jerry, myself, our baseball operations staff, and most importantly our players as we went through the end of the season. We also need to push ourselves to try new things that maybe hadn’t been on our radar. So finding someone with Jason’s skill set that can develop while we’re in the big leagues, that can connect an organization from top to bottom, was a huge part of this.”

The break in continuity the Mariners saw between the majors and minors last season was surprising. It is impossible to know how much of a role that played in the failures at the big league level, but it was very interesting to note that it was something the players themselves noticed and apparently were concerned about.

Coming from player development and having coached at the big league level, Kanzler understands the importance of continuity. The systems, values, guiding principals and philosophies should not go out the big league club’s window.

“The entire organization needs to be connected towards the common goal, which is to win the World Series and win many of them,” Kanzler said Wednesday. “I like to think that the sign of things going well is when people start using the word we way more than we or me or I. When the group starts talking in ‘we,’ then I know that things are going well.”

That “we” involves the players and everyone throughout the organization who supports them. In terms of the players, it is all about that support. It is often a matter of asking what they need, which is what was done at the end of the season in exit interviews. Kanzler is ready to deliver what he feels is important to give in his role.

“I bring intentionality and some intensity to the things that I do, and I really want that delivered to the players,” he said. “Each of these players is a human being, and they deserve individual, deep attention, especially at this scale and this stage…We owe it to the players themselves to give them what they need individually to help the collective win.”

The management style

As for the organizational-support part of the “we,” this is where fit is important. There is an entire baseball ops department, with analysts, strategists, biomechanic experts, etc., working towards putting the individuals and team in the best position to succeed. Kanzler will have a close relationship with this group, and he is comfortable with that.

“We are in an age of baseball where information is incredibly abundant,” he said. “I think we would be fools not to use good information for our advantage, and we will use good information to our advantage. The evolution of a manager, the only thing that has changed is the situation around managing is there’s new information, players are more aware of things, front offices are bigger, the fans are more aware of things. So in the end, you have to lead a group of people towards a common goal. And the way you do that is personal to you. And you have to be authentic to that as a manager.”

Much of that leading will be off the field. On the field, Kanzler expects to make informed decisions.

“I expect to have the level of autonomy that I think most managers in the game have already, which is I’m going to be trusted to make good decisions,” Kanzler told Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. “I’m going to be trusted to set a lineup. I’m going to be trusted to pinch-hit people when and where I think is best. That doesn’t come without accountability. Like if I make bad decisions, I fully expect the front office and others to collaborate, to communicate. This is not a one-man show, this will be a team effort. But yeah, I do expect a level of autonomy that I think is appropriate for the modern game.”

Because of his inexperience, there will be a learning curve. The Mariners are prepared for that according to Hollander.

“He will make mistakes,” he said. “He will make mistakes from inexperience. We trusted everything about the rest of the traits that he had that he’ll learn from those. He’ll learn from them quickly. He’ll use the people around him on the coaching staff. He will look to his left and right to try to minimize those moments.”

Hollander and Dipoto are banking on their judgement in what they saw in Kanzler in the interview process. They believe him to be the perfect fit for the Mariners and understand there could be consequences if he is not. Those consequences run far deeper than their own job security.

“I’m more thinking about the responsibility that I have and we have as an organization to maximize the talent of the 26 players on a major league team,” Hollander said,” to the coaches that are around them to maximize their careers, to the people in baseball operations and business operations who pour so much into the Mariners every season, and to our fans who commit their free time, their dollars, their energy, their souls to making sure that they do everything they can to help us win. And there’s a huge responsibility that comes with that. We don’t take that lightly.

“We failed them last year. In a lot of ways as an organization, not any one person. But we did. We won 76 games, and we didn’t play a good brand of baseball. And we failed a lot of people last year, most notably the people who invest in the Mariners as a fan. And we have to do better than that.”

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