{"id":946504,"date":"2026-10-26T04:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946504\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T04:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:20:10","slug":"rocco-baldelli-withdraws-name-from-mariners-managerial-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946504\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocco Baldelli Withdraws Name From Mariners’ Managerial Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rocco Baldelli was a candidate to be the Mariners\u2019 next manager, but the former Twins skipper has removed himself from the search due to \u201cfamily considerations,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal<\/a> reports.\u00a0 The news leaves former Astros manager Joe Espada and Cubs director of player development Jason Kanzler as the only two known candidates remaining for the job, though other unknown names are reportedly in the mix.<\/p>\n

The Mariners are apparently \u201cin an advanced stage\u201d in the hiring process, as Rosenthal, Chandler Rome, and Patrick Mooney put it earlier this week<\/a>.\u00a0 If Baldelli was Seattle\u2019s preferred choice, this could delay things if the team has to pivot to a second choice.\u00a0 Ex-manager Dan Wilson announced prior to the Mariners\u2019 final game that wouldn\u2019t be returning in 2027, so the team\u2019s search for a new skipper has been officially ongoing for almost a full month.\u00a0 (Since the Mariners\u2019 disappointing season made it increasingly likely that Wilson was on the way out, upper management was probably starting to start forming plans well in advance of Wilson\u2019s announcement.)<\/p>\n

President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto hinted that<\/a> hiring an experienced manager would be his preference this time around, rather than a first-time MLB skipper like previous hires Wilson or Scott Servais.\u00a0 Beyond Baldelli and Espada, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was reportedly on the Mariners\u2019 radar before Arizona signed Lovullo to a new contract, and Guardians manager Stephen Vogt (who is under contract in Cleveland) made a point of publicly stating that he is staying put<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If experience is still a priority for Dipoto, this would seemingly give Espada the edge over Kanzler.\u00a0 This is purely speculative on my part, but the M\u2019s could be considering hiring both, with Espada as the manager and Kanzler as the bench coach or some other type coaching role.\u00a0 Before his current position with the Cubs, Kanzler spent five seasons in Houston\u2019s organization, with the last two of those seasons working with Espada on the Astros\u2019 coaching staff.\u00a0 Then again, given how Seattle has managed to keep this managerial hunt relatively under wraps, any number of mystery candidates could be higher on the team\u2019s wish list.<\/p>\n

Baldelli led the Twins to three AL Central titles and a 527-505 record over seven seasons as the team\u2019s manager, with one playoff series win (a two-game sweep of the Blue Jays in the 2023 Wild Card Series).\u00a0 Following that success in 2023, a September collapse cost the Twins another playoff appearance in 2024, and the team then sunk to a 70-92 record in 2025.\u00a0 The front office engaged in a wide-ranging fire sale at that year\u2019s trade deadline, and Baldelli was let go at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the firing, Baldelli said<\/a> he was hoping to manage again and didn\u2019t close the door on immediately jumping back into the dugout with a new team in 2026.\u00a0 However, he noted that \u201cI owe my family a little time,\u201d which may have been why he opted for a front office assistant role with the Dodgers.\u00a0 The Nationals and Angels reportedly gave Baldelli for their managerial vacancies last offseason, but it isn\u2019t clear if Baldelli actually interviewed with either club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rocco Baldelli was a candidate to be the Mariners\u2019 next manager, but the former Twins skipper has removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,323948,82],"class_list":["post-946504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-rocco-baldelli","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946504","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=946504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}