Seattle Mariners Roundtable: Should G.M. Dipoto keep his job after 2018?
By Ed Stein
Jordan Cordano
If you want to point to maybe the biggest head-scratcher of the season and talk about the front office thinking “in the moment” you can point to July 5th when the Seattle Mariners announced they would extend General Manager Jerry Dipoto, and shortly after Scott Servais.
Hardly ever does a general manager or manager receive a contract extension mid-season. To me, it felt like an impulse move because that the Mariners were a season-high 24 games over .500 on that day. Sitting in a playoff spot and coming off of a series win at home vs the Angels.
The Mariners were in definite need of another starting pitcher and possibly another power bat or even another back-end bullpen arm? He failed to acquire all three by the non-waiver deadline while other playoff contending teams (Oakland, New York, Cleveland, and Boston) all added key pieces.
So then most Mariner fans said “ for sure Jerry will add something at the Waiver deadline” and as I kept scrolling through my phone seeing other teams continue to make moves and yet nothing worth noting on the Mariners front. It’s at no coincidence that the Mariners faded in the second half.
Did Dipoto deserve the extension at the time? Sure if you’re talking about living in the moment. But sports often lean on “what have you done for me lately” in terms of players and in this case GM’s. For 2019 I would give Dipoto one last crack at it. Make it or break it.