It is rare for the Lookout Landing staff, numerous and diverse as it is, to agree on anything, so it’s no small thing that every staff member agrees: Jerry Dipoto should be given an extension by the Mariners.
At the end of the day, if I’m Stanton, I’m giving Dipoto the extension, but it shouldn’t be assumed that he’d accept that extension without reading the finer print.
It has scarcely helped that few in the sport seem to speak fondly or positively about the M’s GM interpersonally, and the gap between what the Mariners promote themselves as—cutting edge, mental health proponents, transparent—and what their players have said at times strikes a frustratingly dissonant chord.
Let this group spend and spend big; ownership, get out of the way and watch this organization with one of the worst reputations and legacies of success in all of sports recapture the goodwill of fans.
In a mere 3.5 years, without completely bottoming out, Jerry Dipoto has restocked the Mariners’ farm from worst to first , which has consistently turned first-round picks into top-100 prospects with significant helium.
For the most part, I view managers as pretty fungible, so unless you’ve got a deal lined up with Theo Epstein, I’d rather keep the continuity and let Dipoto’s plan find success or fall flat.
I understand Scott Servais, our Stern Midwestern Dad, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but stories about him doing things like traveling to the DR to connect with players in their hometowns or being up for getting Edwin Diaz’s haircut suggest to me there’s a lot about Servais we don’t see under the surface.
To Joe’s point, I’m sadly unconvinced that the team will actually provide Dipoto with the resources to get the team over the hump, but if they do, I believe he’s fully capable of taking this team to the playoffs.
As far as performance goes, if you feel a manager is somewhat responsible for any gap between talent and performance, the 2021 Mariners have outperformed their talent and then some.
Servais can stay for consistency’s sake, but I wouldn’t be mad if they invested in one of those giant grocery store robots and used the subsequent savings on another bullpen arm.