Ex-GM advises against M’s making manager, front office changes

Barring an incredible and improbable September run, the Seattle Mariners are nearing the end of one of the most disappointing years in their 50 seasons of baseball.

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Expectations were sky high for the M’s this year after they reached Game 7 of the American League Championship Series – the deepest postseason run in team history. And with the AL West looking nowhere near as formidable as it was earlier this decade, the path to club’s first-ever run of back-to-back division titles appeared to have little hurdles.

But with just 21 games left in the season, Seattle is nine games under .500 (66-75) and running out of time to make up a six-game deficit in its division and 4 1/2-game deficit for the AL’s final wild-card berth.

There has been speculation by multiple MLB insiders that Mariners manager Dan Wilson may not return in 2027. However, MLB Network analyst and former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips doesn’t believe that the franchise should make drastic changes in the dugout or front office, as he explained during a conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Friday.

Phillips, who helped the Mets reach the 2000 World Series, said that while it has been a disappointing season for Seattle, he isn’t sold on the thought that the decision making of a manager who helped guide the team to a 90-win campaign in 2025 is what has resulted in what could end up being around a 15-win difference year over year.

“This is just that the players have underperformed and, for whatever reason, they’ve not been able to get the ship righted from a coaching perspective,” Phillips said. “So, a lot has gone wrong.”

The Mariners have struggled throughout the season offensively. They’re last in baseball averaging 3.96 runs per game. But their regression on the pitching side – the Mariners’ 4.16 team ERA is 16th in baseball – is the underperforming part of the club that stands out most to Phillips.

“They’ve not hit, but they’ve also not pitched. The pitching has regressed from what we all thought and what they thought,” Phillips said. “(Mariners president of baseball operations) Jerry Dipoto was so reluctant to ever give up any pitching… to give up a pitcher to get a bat. He wanted to hold on to those young arms, but they’ve gone backwards in their development at the major-league level. In order to make a run here down the stretch, they’re going to have to outpitch everybody and then score enough, because they’re not ready to stand toe to toe and slug with anyone. So, I think to myself, well, can the pitching do it? Well, based on what we all thought they were, the answer is yes. But based upon what they’ve been, the answer is no.”

In the end, Phillips said he would “have a hard time letting a general manager or a manager go who went to the league championship series last year and were outs away from going on to a World Series.”

“I think that there’s got to be some evaluation of the pitching process and the hitting process and what’s going on with it to understand why are we not making the adjustments at the big-league level, why are we not improving in the area,” Phillips said. “So, I think you have to do a full evaluation on it, but for me, I would not change the general manager and I would not change the manager. I mean, you don’t go from being a manager who did a great job and took a team to the American League Championship Series and a Game 7 and then the next year be fireable. In my mind, I don’t think that you can be that bad. Unless there’s things that go on in the clubhouse and relationships and such that aren’t right based just upon that performance, I don’t make a change on it.”

Listen to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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