What’s next for Kevin Mather, Mariners in search for a new GM

CHICAGO – The search for a new Mariners general manager is on.

Team president Kevin Mather said Friday he has a list of possible candidates and that he had placed a call to the Commissioner’s office to learn more about some of the up and comers in the ranks of assistant general managers throughout the game. A plan has been formulated to replace Jack Zduriencik and a timeline somewhat set. There is work to be done in the coming weeks.

Related: Zduriencik reflects on tenure with Mariners, wishes club well

I spoke with Mather twice Friday – once in the group media session in the morning and again when I interviewed him for the pregame show. A number of things jumped out at me from both interviews. On the good-news front, Mather is focused on turning this around quickly. While he will keep his ears open to what his GM candidates have to say about what they see next for this club, he does not believe they are heading for another rebuild.

“Are we going to tear it down to the studs and start over, or are we tinkering?” he asked on the pregame show. “If I have 10 interviews and five of those say we should tear it down to the studs and start over, I’m going to say ‘Uh oh. Maybe I misread this.’ My guess is the nucleus of the club is solid. We have time here in September to get GM candidates in here to make an evaluation and get them on board in October and we can tinker in October and November and the offseason and put a winning product out there in 2016 and get this thing turned around quickly because I think we are really close.”

Players will need to be added, and without great trade chips in the farm system they will need to spend to fill a number of positions. Mather is undaunted by this.

“Our franchise is in really good shape,” he answered when I asked what the strength of the organization currently is. “We have a great fan base. They have been unbelievably supportive. I feel terrible that 2015 didn’t go like it was supposed to go but our fans turn out. We have a great partner in ROOT, in 710 ESPN, we have great corporate sponsors and we have a good ownership group. So the strength of this franchise is, we have resources available to get this fixed quickly and now I just have to find the right person to do this for us.”

That right person will most likely be someone with experience as a general manager. Mather pointed out in all his interviews today that in this day and age the general manager oversees so many different areas that it is impossible to be a master of all.

“A GM, the second word is manager,” he said. “It’s too big a job for one person to know everything about it. I am overwhelmed by the … it’s coming at you from 10 different directions. I need a manager who knows that he needs help and is wise enough to listen to all the departments. And at the end of the day he makes the decisions.”

Mather said it was not out of the question that the new GM could be hired before the end of the season but I would expect more realistically we will see the new GM in place in the first or second week of October. He expects whoever that person is has already been watching the team closely and doing a thorough evaluation of the organization. In other words, this person will hit the ground running.

This will be Mather’s hire. Chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln will be a part of the process, and Chairman Emeritus John Ellis will most likely be consulted. Final candidates will meet with ownership but when all is said and done, it will be his candidate they go with. He is ready to find that person, but he will practice what he preaches when it comes to asking for help. He will use his resources.

“I’ve been in baseball since ’89,” he said. “I know a lot of baseball executives. I have people I can call, I have people I can jump on an airplane and go see and vet candidates. There’s a lot of close, longtime steady baseball people that I am going to lean on. I also have a great ownership group. Their opinions matter and I am gong to make sure that they are heard as well.”

According to a number of national reports, the job in Seattle is very desirable. Two former GMs I talked with today indicated as much, saying the talent in place and resources seemingly available make winning quickly very much a possibility. Mather has a list of candidates that he expects will grow in the coming days. The expectation for the new hire will be great.

“It’s not about 2015, it’s about the next 10 years,” he said. “It’s about putting a winner on the field year in and year out. The support this franchise has received from the Seattle area is so outstanding, there’s no excuse for it. We need to play games late into October that matter.”

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