Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto’s frequent roster tinkering is now legend. It’s only natural to wonder whether the club’s fast start to the 2019 season will spur another round of action, and Dipoto discussed the matter with Larry Stone of the Seattle Times.
Dipoto’s most recent round of tweaks was intended to set the club up for near-future success, with the idea being to spend a year regrouping in hopes of a breakout 2020 campaign. While he says an 11-2 run to begin the year won’t likely result in a mid-season buying spree, the top Seattle baseball exec did seem to acknowledge that the performance could impact the team’s roster calculations.
First and foremost, Dipoto made clear that the M’s “won’t take anything away from our long-term plan in order to address short-term needs.” But he wasn’t shy to admit that he’s “intrigued” and “excited” by the development and output he’s seen from the roster he has already assembled. If the club is “still performing like the best lineup in history” at the trade deadline, he says, “clearly we’ll address areas of need.”
It sounds as if the door is at least potentially open to some win-now movement, then, though the Mariners will likely see how things play out and may not be overly bold when the time comes. As Dipoto says, though, he has been “creative” in his past dealmaking — including an early-season, buy-side swap last year — so it’s tough to rule anything out.
Putting aside the possibility of additions, the early run may be enough to stave off or even eliminate some veteran departures that might otherwise have been anticipated. “The way guys are playing together right now, I have no interest in changing the rhythm and mojo going on,” Dipoto said when asked about some of the team’s short-term, elder statesmen. “Let’s let it play out a bit.”
That attitude seemingly represents a departure from the late-spring dealmaking posture that the M’s seemed to take. Their decision to hold onto sluggers Edwin Encarnacion and Jay Bruce, in particular, seemed mostly to reflect a lack of demand. Keeping them on the roster was supposed to help keep the team competitive and provide a showcase for a potential mid-season swap.
Now, there’s a greater likelihood that the Mariners will at least hold steady and let the roster take things wherever it can. But as Dipoto and Stone both caution, there’s still plenty of time in advance of the trade deadline for the situation to change. For now, the GM is just watching and enjoying.
Don’t count out A’s and Astros yet…
Of course.
Very early. Very.
How early?
Very very.
Cool. Angels were 11-3 last season. Look where they ended up.
angels are upwardly mobile. they seem like a dangerous team.
They are mostly a danger to themselves
Angels have a bitter injury history
13-3 at there best
Angels have Ausmus as manager. He had a roster of all-stars in Detroit and they were in last place. He had JV, Miggy, JD, Upton, Kinsler and he had the same record Gardenhire had with a bunch of AAA players.
ausmus is now a puppet of the gm.
Ausmus will always be remembered as the manager who got swept out of the ALDS with a rotation of Verlander, Scherzer, and Price.
It is hard to find a better team then 2014 Tigers. It is harder to find a manager performance worse than 2014 Ausmus performance. Probably not his fault though. Just a bad hire, bad fit.
i guess he likes living in newport beach better.
2010 Rangers were pretty stacked..
The M’s are hitting waaaay above their heads at the moment. They aren’t close to being this good. Stros win the west imo
Anything can happen and usually does. I think the Mariners and Rays had the sneakiest good off-season’s.
Hype is not real. Mariners finish 3rd in the al west.
I got Astros, As, Mariners, Angels, and rangers
think again!
Astros, Angels, Athletics, Mariners, Crotch Grabbing Rangers.
It’s Walker: Crotch Grabbing Rangers to you sir.
lol. For the record, I have no problem with their crotch grabbing.
But what about
the children
watching these
role models?
Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. The hype about this team crushing multiple homers everyday isn’t real but this team contending moving forward is real. Why not? Yes the ‘pen is a problem but that is the easiest part of a roster to fix via trade. Dipoto’s specialty.
Nothing “sneaky” about the M’s offseason.
There are also guys hitting below, so it cancels out. Is Domingo Santana hitting above his potential? 1.047 OPS vs .875 OPS two years ago with everything comes together in his age 26 season? Maybe a little high on average, but there is trade off with Haniger about .150 OPS light on his potential offensive ceiling. Which says if Domingo falls off a little and Haniger picks it up, there is a wash there.
Encarnacion has put up .881-.941 OPS seasons in 6 straight years prior to last season where he had a .810 OPS year. So yeah an OPS of 1.090 is unsustainable, but he’s also hitting about .50 points higher on his batting average than normal and has zero doubles. That trade off of less average and more doubles may indicate that he might be able to still run a .900 OPS this season.
Healy is hitting to a .943 OPS but his career best 3 years ago was an .861 OPS while playing in the Coliseum which stifles offenses. So is he going to keep leading the league in hitting? Who knows, but Bruce may have helped him like he did Vogelbach with good ‘ol veteran leadership, something that wasn’t very prevalent the last couple years in Seattle or Oakland.
Vogelbach is the big outlier and while he is playing above any reasonable level for even an inner-circle hall of famer, he does have the important markers you look for in a successful offensive player, patience, power, bat speed, and a successful history which includes a .923, .844, and .979 OPS for the last 3 years at AAA. Last year he walked 77 times to only 59 strikeouts while banging 20 HRs in a bout half a MLB season (84 games).
Let’s also look back at the Mariners of 2001 and all they were was a crappy replacement for Griffey (Cameron .832 OPS), a tiny little asian guy (Ichiro .838 OPS), a one-time AS 1B (Olerud .873 OPS), a scrappy little 2B who had 1 AS and 1 GG season before being bounced to 4 teams in 4 years (Boone .950 OPS), an over the hill DH (Martinez .966 OPS), and four below average regulars (Wilson, Martin, Bell, and Guillen). Yet they scored 927 runs and averaged 5.72 runs/game.
Now comparing the two teams, the starters are probably better now than the starters that season, Gonzales and Moyer, Leake and Garcia, Kikuchi and Sele, Leblanc and Halama, with Hernandez and Abbott rounding out the top 5 and Swanson/Sheffield in AAA being the equivalent of Pineiro and Stark.
The bullpen was much better in 2001, but Swarzak could be our Sasaki, Elias could be the lefty setup guy like Rhodes, Brennan could be the Nelson, and Festa could be the Paniagua. The 2001 Mariners had Norm Charlton, so the current Mariners would need to get a situational lefty, however there are less left-handed hitters in baseball that require a specialist: Bellinger, Yelich, Harper, Cano, Carpenter, Gregorius, and Freeman with guys like Gennett, Brantley, Votto, Peralta, Shaw, Schwarber, and Rosario if you want to stretch it, but this list pales in comparison to the sluggers of 2001. We live in a world with right-handed studs, so a second lefty reliever may be less necessary.
As compared to 2001 having Griffey, Bonds, Giambi, Thome, Walker, Gonzalez, Helton, Berkman, Green, Floyd, Edmonds, Chavez, Giles, Coskie, Abreu, Klesko, Palmeiro, Delgado, and McGriff (through first two pages of Fangraphs).
So in conclusion, maybe they aren’t exactly who they will end up being at the end of the season, but they are definitely a talented group that brings the best out of each other.
please write 75% less words than this in future posts, ta
Too much. Even if you made good points, your comments are longer than the article
If you have to summarize with “So in conclusion” – your post is too long.
I read the whole thing and it was well done. If it wasn’t about the Ms I probably wouldn’t have finished it though. There were some good memories for all Ms fans of that time.
You lost me after the first paragraph
Comment so long that nobody even noticed he summed up 2001 MVP and RoY Ichiro Suzuki’s contributions that year as “a tiny little Asian guy” with an .838 OPS. Check yourself my man
They’re also pitching well. Leake, Kikuchi, and Gonzales look pretty good. Bullpen may be solid too. I’m not counting them out.
Coming into the year the M’s had a very decent lineup but many people wrote them off as a rebuild. Theres no reason why this team cant at least be in the race for the 2nd wild card
No they didn’t. DiPoto wrote them off as a rebuild. There is plenty of reasons why they wont compete for the second wild card spot. But it’s baseball, strange things happen all the time.
That’s the mistake many people are making. You’re assuming this team was supposed to stink, but bringing in Smith, Santana, Narvaez and Kikuchi suggests they intended to play ball, even if the postseason seamed like a stretch.
They’re getting rebounds from virtually everyone with down years in 2018, but the way they’re rebounding (with plate discipline) is encouraging that a high-powered offense is sustainable, just not to the video game numbers we’re currently seeing.
If they get some relief help, watch out.
Not a rebuild a retool they are vastly different. A rebuild you expect to suck a retool you make people think you suck but come out as the best team in BB.
Just so you literal guys know that was a joke.
All the teams in the ALW are extremely flawed except the Astros. I could see any of the Halos, A’s or Angels finish 2nd and not be in the least bit surprised
thank you for listing the angels twice and omitting the sea duds.
lol why on earth would you think the Angels are going to finish above .500?
There’s only 2 playoff teams in the AL West: Stros & A’s.
a’s used up their luck that comes around every decade or so!
looking at the w/l record, yes the mariners are off to a hot start, BUT they are 104/64 in runs scored and runs allowed. The mariners are not going to sustain that. They have given up the 3rd most runs in the AL, next to the white sox and Orioles, to put things in perspective. Tampa Bays record seems more sustainable, 9-3 but 45/25 in runs scored/allowed.
Their lineup and rotation is worse than it was last year too. They will regress
I don’t think there rotation is worse at all. They maintained there #2-5 starters and added Kikuchi. I think that’s arguably better. Sure they lost Paxton but Marco will step up and fill the void
How’s their lineup worse? Yeah Cano’s gone but Narvaez is a better offensive catcher than Zunino, Mallex will get on base and swipe bags, and EE’s gonna hit bombs. Plus Seager could bounce back a bit once he returns. I like the M’s lineup a lot, it’s their bullpen that could keep them out of the wild card race.
TB is the team that is most likely to grab the second wild card. Then the Twins. Then the Angels.
I don’t see the A’s or M’s in the battle, but this is baseball. Who knows?
Don’t forget that they’ve also played 2 more games than anybody else
Shun the non believers! Shunnn!
I shall look away now…..
How many teams in the AL are competitive? BOS, NYY, TB, HOU, OAK, and now SEA. And then whoever wins the Central. IMO BOS, HOU are the only locks to make the postseason one way or another. There are just not that many teams fighting for a spot. I wouldn’t put money on Seattle but they are certainly putting themselves into the conversation.
I feel like Dipoto is saying the right things here, he’s not ready to blow farm up because of a hot streak to start the season but he is open minded if things continue. That’s what he should be saying.
Seattle’s start isn’t like Chris Shelton hitting 10 homeruns in April. The offensive players that are doing well aren’t coming out of nowhere. We know what EE has done in the past, Jay Bruce has put up good seasons, Domingo was very good just 2 years ago, Vogulbach has been a star in the minors. It’s an exciting team and I’ll be rooting for them
The Red Sox are in no way a lock for the postseason at this point.
I understand that sentiment, was just stating my opinion. That lineup is just too good and the pitching isn’t as bad as it looks. WC in the worst case
Yes they are lmao April 10 means literally nothing
Your ace Sale saying he feels lost is more telling than the calendar.
the last time mariners were the hottest team angels won the world series.
Nope, they had the best record in 2001….Arizona won the WS that year. Angels won when trout was just a young boy with a dream…in 2002.
multiple concussions. thanks!
I like Trout as a person, so I’m glad that I won’t ever have to feel conflicted about him winning a World Series on a team from the same division as the Mariners!
good man!
I hope guys like Jerry stick around cause they sure make it more entertaining
agree though it hurt the angels a lot. dip dip also loaded angels with some duds
Dipoto is probably trying to trade these guys as we speak. I’m just glad he didn’t trade Mike Trout away in one of his “brilliant trades” Overrated GM, Mariners fans will see eventually.
And yet the Angels haven’t made the playoffs since he left… huh weird how that works.
Mariners haven’t made the playoffs since dipoto has been there…
The Mariners have the American League’s fifth-best cumulative regular-season record since Jerry Dipoto’s arrival in Seattle.
and? is that a huge thing?
He left the Angels with the worst farm system. Billy Eppler has come in and cleaned up his mess.
That’s because your owner wouldn’t stop forcing him to extend players and sign others that he didn’t want. He didn’t want to sign CJ Wilson, Josh Hamilton or Albert Pujols. Those decisions took away draft picks under the old collective bargaining agreement. It is pretty hard to decimate a farm system you never had because your ownership keeps forcing you to punt away 1st round draft picks. Billy Eppler has got two decent minor leaguers right now Adell and Canning. Aside from that, the other guys are all flyers with no chance of being anything other than bullpen pieces as pitchers or utility players, backup catchers, and 4th outfielders. The 4th best prospect in the Angels system is Jahmai Jones who would basically be Shed Long in the Mariners system if Shed Long was average-ish, 4 inches taller, and right=handed. Thaiss and Adams the 1st round picks before and after Adell both suck. For an advanced bat Thaiss has no power at 1B and Jordyn Adams has zero pop to go with a left fielder’s arm.. He is basically a lanky version of Vince Coleman. Best of luck getting him shoehorned into the outfield with Trout, Upton, and Adell penciled in for at least the next half-decade.
DiPoto has 1 playoff appearance in his 10 year career – he’s objectively a terrible GM.
Yes and Cashman has had about a half billion more dollars worth of payroll to spend over that time and has only won a championship.
kinda silly to say the Mariners are certianly worse then the A’s. if you ask me, i dont see the A’s going that far if they encounter more issues with their rotation health this year.
every team goes through ‘those issues’. soon the mariners will dive in head first.
Outside of Montas it would not surprise me if Oakland got rid of the other 4 guys in the rotation if they don’t perform. The A’s have 12 superior arms to those 4 coming extremely soon: Mengden, Bassit, Blackburn, Cotton, Manaea, Luzardo, Puk, Holmes, Ruiz, Howard, Jefferies, Kapreilian, Feigl…matter of fact the A’s rotation could very easily be Manaea-Luzardo-Montas-Mengden-Cotton by August.
Who does Seattle have coming on that tier? Sheffield and Dunn? Maybe Gilbert? The M’s have no depth whatsoever, yikes.
Seattle has played the As, Angels, Red Sox, White Sox and now the Royals… can we at least see how they look against a far superior team in the Astros this weekend? Stros are going to kick their teeth in this weekend and by August we will all be laughing we took the Mariners seriously. Arbitrary: “second wild card up for grabs” comment.
I’m so over how easily every MLB writer falls for the Mariners, almost every single year. They always get picked as a preseason playoff team, except this year, and now this dumb schedule quirk has all the dumb writers scrambling to get right back on board. Sigh. Oakland is winning 90+ games this year, Houston will probably go 100-105 wins. Mariners season will be over by August- again.
I am a Mariners fan and even with this start, I’ll be shocked if they win 80 games…but aren’t the Red Sox, Angels, and As teams picked to finish ahead of them and they have handled them so far?
Cheers to a fun team to watch so far putting up almost historic scoring numbers to start the season. Unsustainable numbers for even the greatest of offenses (an this isn’t one of them) but still fun to watch until the wheels fall off.
Yea, As and Angels are going to probably compete for the 2nd WC spot for sure. Sox have been terrible to start the season. So yea, Mariners are on a hot streak, but if they pull out ~85 wins it would be a good season for them and they may sneak into the playoffs. But we are 13 games in and they are running roughshod over inferior teams or a really struggling Boston team. I just think people are getting ahead of themselves with the Mariners.
Yeah the Angels look really good barely being able to hit their way out of a soggy cardboard box without Trout. Trout is going to rush back and spend the whole year playing hurt like a fool too blind to see that the team he plays for is not good enough to compete. He should’ve taken a pay cut and gone home to Philadelphia in two years. Instead he’s going to be part of the Angels team that surpasses the Mariners longest playoffless drought in MLB .
Did they beat Boston because they were struggling or because the Mariners are competent? If the Mariners beat the Red Sox because they sucked, then why didn’t the A’s and Angels handle them better? More importantly, if you give those three losses to the Red Sox as wins instead, Boston is 6-6. Athletics would be 10-6, Angels 8-4, White Sox 5-6, and the Royals 5-6. So if the Mariners were swept in any of those series, we would be talking about those teams being what they were supposed to be coming into the season or better. They have run “roughshod,” as you put it, over 1/3 of the league. The only playoff contenders they haven’t faced are the seriously beat up Yankees, the overrated Astros who have scored less than 1./2 the runs of the Mariners offense, the Rays who nobody thought would be as good as they are right now, and the Indians who have numerous injuries/underperformers.
What do you mean, they just swept the Brewers without Trout. You are truly blind if you think the Angels are going to break the Mariners playoff drought record. You must still be bitter because Griffey abandoned the Mariners only to return when he had nothing left in the tank. His career would have been much better if he stuck with his original team like Trout is choosing to do.
You guys are so bitter. The Mariners are owning right now. Give them credit. U mad bro? Get rid of your ego. All your negative intentions are weak. Stop assuming so much and just go with the flow. The Mariners are must see baseball right now. You can’t fault them for that. GO MARINERS!!!
I agree this next home stand against Houston and Indians will be a ‘tell all’ for Seattle and if this is all a mirage or fantasy land. I’ve been saying this for the past week.
BUT, here is something that has to get your attention so far about Seattle offense. Lets put the KC series aside…
Seattle opened up in Tokyo against the:
1) A’s top 2 rotation starters and beat them both
2) Boston’s top 4 SPs, and even humiliated Chris Sale in 3 innings
3) 2 of Angels best SPs
4) And then went up against 2 of ChiSox best SPs.
Not ONE SP has made it past the 4th inning, and most have been pulled in the 2nd and 3rd inning after getting crushed, and having 80-96 PC’s in the 1st 3-4 innings. Seattle’s offense has performed these godly numbers against Top of Rotation SP’s & BP’s against 3 contending teams.
Now with all that aside: Their next homestead is against Houston & Indians. Houston is HOT right now, especially after sweeping the NYY, and Indians rotation is ranked #1 according to FanGraphs. Even though Seattle is currently breaking 70-110+ year MLB records every time they step on the field right now…we are ONLY talking the first 14 games (small sample size). They have a LOT more to prove. AND the ‘plan’ is ‘still’ to hope Encarcion/Bruce/Gordon/Swarzak have great 1st Half to liquid salary, and pickup the best top prospects from these players that Dipoto can pull off.
One thing is for sure: it’s pretty awesome and fun watching your team break 100+ records right out of the gate, especially in a rebuild year!
The other thing that is a sure thing: UNLESS Seattle is 10+ games up on Houston come mid-June…Seattle will be trading these players away to push their Farm from a #10 ranking to a top #3 ranking going into the 2nd half and 2020.
Either way Dipoto has brought back some fun watching baseball to Seattle again!
M’s getting good just as King Felix fades away. Reminds me of Mattingly back in the day.
Yes, I know it’s early…..
Just don’t get too comfortable…..remember the 2001 mariners (with rookie ichiro) had best record in the mlb….116-46……then they fell to the stankees in the playoffs that year.
Because they took a week off in baseball!!!! It had a HUGE affect on momentum!! We weren’t the same. The ENTIRE country was pulling for NY!!!
“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria.”
The Mariners will still finish in last place, just watch.
Last place really? I mean I can see 75 wins but that will be better than last easy. Time to pull it out and to get some sun on your face
Enjoy it whether you’re an M’s fan or not. Nobody had them as a playoff team so if they fade…they fade. Just enjoy the ride. It’s a fun product they put on the field.
The new market inefficiency is bounceback players who have been replaced by younger guys on cheaper deals.
No reason to think the Mariners can’t remain competitive if they get their bullpen sorted which is one of the big reasons they have given up so many runs. The other is their defense just isn’t that great but their offense has negated their terrible D. Once a decade the Mariners play out of their minds. Happened in the 90’s, 2000’s and now this just might be the 20-teens once in a decade Mariner team.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you guys write the same exact article this time last year? Oh, and didn’t you say that the A’s would finish in last place at this time too? I guess keep writing until the law of averages works out.
That pic of Dipoto is the only one I’ve ever seen…and the only one I ever want to see. Epic…
Agree.
It looks like, he’s pointing at you, and your friend.
the Mona Lisa of MLBTR pictures
lol yep…he’s pointing thru your soul
Every night Seattle is going out there now and breaking 70-100+ year MLB records. I look up and down this lineup from #2-#8 and anyone of these guys can hit a HR at any given time. Then you have Mallex Smith & Gordon in the #1 & #9 slots, 2 of the fastest guys in MLB not named Billy Hamilton.
Seattle is dominating in every offensive category, and most SB’s too.
Infield defense will improve in early June with Seager back, and Dipoto has proven over the past 3 yrs in Seattle he knows how to put together a strong/cheap/sustainable BP. He didn’t put any $$$ in the BP because this was ‘suppose’ to be a ‘rebuild’ year. Dipoto can easily fix the BP fast “if” this type of offensive continues.
The ONLY way Seattle invests in 2019 is “if” Seattle is up on Houston 10+games come June/July. I’m not counting on that at all!!! So I still expect Dipoto to trade Edwin & Bruce & Gordon & Swarzak & maybe even Leake.
If Encarcion keeps these numbers up, I can see Edwin going to TB or Houston. Houston would have 2 years of control on EE, but Dipoto would make Houston pay heavily with Forrest Whitley. If Dipoto decides to sell these players their Farm will go from a #10 ranking to top 3 in MLB.
So, it looks like a Win-Win for Seattle either way to me. They are either 10+ games ahead of Houston and making a run, OR (and more likely) they are selling all these veterans for top prospects.
There is zero chance EE would come close to netting Whitley. The best pitching prospect in baseball is not getting traded for a power hitting DH/1st base.
I suspect EE goes to TB for some of their top prospects. But the ONLY way Seattle is going to give EE to Houston for the next 2 years is for the likes of Whitley. So, I don’t expect that to happen, but that would fill the biggest weakness in Houston right now, and would probably net them another WS ring. Teams have traded away these type of top prospects for far less. EE keeps up this pace, and Dipoto is gonna score big on EE come the trading deadline.
You guys are acting like we’re desperate for prospects. We need those veterans to anchor the team the rest of the season
I would be shocked if the Mariners did not win 140 games this year. Santana and Hangier are this generations Mantle and Maris.