{"id":912535,"date":"2026-09-28T07:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912535\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T07:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:12:09","slug":"dan-wilson-wont-return-as-mariners-manager-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912535\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Wilson Won’t Return As Mariners’ Manager In 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reports began to surface last week<\/a> that Dan Wilson wouldn\u2019t be retained as the Mariners manager, and the Seattle Times\u2019 Ryan Divish<\/a> reported that Wilson told the team before today\u2019s season finale that he wouldn\u2019t be returning in 2027.\u00a0 Wilson then officially announced his departure in his post-game press conference, and Divish was among the reporters to post video<\/a> of part of the ex-manager\u2019s address.<\/p>\n

Wilson didn\u2019t specify whether he was fired or was stepping down of his own volition, and he said that the Mariners had discussed another job with the organization.\u00a0 In a statement from the Mariners, team chairman John Stanton confirmed that the M\u2019s will \u201cwe work to identify a role in which we can continue to benefit from his experience and commitment to the Mariners and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto was also quoted in the team\u2019s press release, saying \u201ccollectively we failed to meet our own expectations this season.\u00a0 Dan and I both care deeply about this organization, these players, and the future of the Mariners.\u00a0 After much discussion it was concluded that a new direction is best for 2027 and beyond.\u00a0 I want to thank Dan for his efforts over the past two years and specifically recognize his role in our club advancing to Game 7 of the ALCS in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson has been Seattle\u2019s manager since August 2024, when he was elevated to the full-time job (without an interim tag) after Scott Servais was fired.\u00a0 It was the first time Wilson had ever managed or even coached on a big league staff, but the longtime former catcher was a familiar name in Mariners history, and he had spent the previous 11 seasons in a variety of roles as a roving catching coordinator and special assistant within the player development department.<\/p>\n

The 64-64 Mariners went 21-13 over the rest of the 2024 campaign after Wilson\u2019s hiring, and the skipper then led the club to 90 wins and the AL West crown in 2025.\u00a0 The M\u2019s also made the deepest playoff run in franchise history, coming painfully short of their first AL pennant after falling to the Blue Jays in seven games in the ALCS.\u00a0 Still, expectations were high for the Mariners heading into 2026, making their lack of success even harder to swallow for the organization and its fanbase.<\/p>\n

Just about every player on Seattle\u2019s roster took a step backwards from 2025, with Cal Raleigh<\/a> and Josh Naylor<\/a> having the most pronounced dropoffs within an overall lackluster lineup.\u00a0 The rotation that so often buoyed the Mariners\u2019 offensive shortcomings in the past uncharacteristically struggled, with the bullpen also failing to pick up the slack.\u00a0 The result was a 76-86 record, and even a modest 82-win campaign would\u2019ve been enough for another playoff trip given that the AL West champion Astros finished at the .500 (81-81) mark.<\/p>\n

As always, a manager isn\u2019t solely to blame for his team\u2019s play.\u00a0 Fingers can certainly be pointed at how Dipoto constructed the roster, or didn\u2019t do enough to add the final touches to what Dipoto certainly thought was already a team capable of contending for a title.\u00a0 Trade acquisition Brendan Donovan<\/a> was the biggest new addition, yet Donovan spent most of the year on the injured list.<\/p>\n

MLB.com\u2019s Daniel Kramer<\/a> writes that \u201cmultiple club personnel \u2014 including players, coaches and front-office officials \u2014 indicated to MLB.com on background at different stages of the season the Mariners notably lacked accountability, and that much of these issues stemmed from the top down.\u00a0 That was especially true as the year reached its most perilous points, those sources said.\u201d\u00a0 While Wilson is again not the only one at fault for this situation, the manager obviously plays a key role in setting the tone within a clubhouse or within the staff as a whole.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s contract status was never specified after his hiring, so it could be that his current deal was simply up after the 2026 season.\u00a0 It is perhaps telling that the Mariners never announced any kind of extension for Wilson in the aftermath of the club\u2019s 2025 success, though Seattle is a team that rarely publicly announces the terms of employee contracts.\u00a0 For instance, an announcement was made about a multi-year extension for Dipoto in September 2021, but it isn\u2019t known if Dipoto is still on that contract, or if he has since signed another new deal.<\/p>\n

It appears as though Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander will both return, and Kramer reports that pitching coach Pete Woodworth and director of pitching strategy Trent Blank will also each be retained.\u00a0 Some changes to the rest of the coaching staff are inevitable, as a new skipper will surely want some input in assembling the staff.<\/p>\n

Despite the Mariners\u2019 struggles, the job still has plenty of appeal for any incoming manager, given all the talent on the roster.\u00a0 The M\u2019s could opt for a more experienced manager this time around, as Servais and Wilson (the two managerial hires of Dipoto\u2019s tenure) were both first-time skippers in the majors.\u00a0 Hiring the new bench boss is the first order of business for Seattle\u2019s offseason, which creates an added complication for Dipoto and little time for the new skipper to gel with his team, given how the expected lockout will freeze all baseball business on December 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reports began to surface last week that Dan Wilson wouldn\u2019t be retained as the Mariners manager, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,39234,462,82],"class_list":["post-912535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dan-wilson","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}