SEATTLE — As champagne sprayed in the Mariners’ clubhouse during the first of two postseason celebrations last week, Cal Raleigh immediately sought out Jerry Dipoto, thrust his index finger into the president of baseball operations’ chest and reiterated what he told the packed house over the loudspeakers at T-Mobile Park:
“He’s been here a long time, and he’s done a great job putting this thing together,” Raleigh said of Dipoto. “And just sticking with the process. He wants to win just as bad as any of us in this clubhouse. I give credit to him, going out at the [Trade] Deadline, adding the pieces. … That’s what we needed. So, credit to him. He’s put together a really solid roster, top to bottom, and it starts with him.”
For the many full-circle moments that the Mariners achieved over the past few weeks en route to the American League West title, that snippet of their star player and the roster’s primary architect underscored how far things have come in the two years since Raleigh pointedly — and very publicly — called out Dipoto and the rest of Seattle’s management about the club’s competitive direction.
Last week’s celebration was not a turning point in their relationship — Raleigh signed a six-year, $105 million extension just before Opening Day, in large part because he’d become more philosophically aligned with Seattle’s front office — but rather, a celebration for the first monumental milestone of what they believe will be a lengthy October run.
“We’ve learned a ton of lessons over the course of the last four or five seasons, and so many players in that clubhouse have experienced the disappointment that we felt in a number of different seasons,” Dipoto said. “And they didn’t let it happen.”
There’s still a faction of Seattle’s fanbase that won’t believe that Dipoto deserves vindication for securing just his second playoff berth and first division title in his 10th season, and that it won’t truly come unless he’s hoisting the World Series trophy.
The disconnect he expressed in an end-of-season press conference in 2023, the handling of Scott Servais’ dismissal last August (and that the manager learned he was let go via a news alert), and the trading away of some well-liked players a few years earlier still simmer among some, fair or not.
“Part of my job is that it’s not always pleasant,” Dipoto said. “When you don’t reach your goal, when you don’t get over the line, when you do come up short, whatever that is, you should be the first one that people look to. And that’s fair. And when you do achieve those goals, you probably shouldn’t be the first one that people look to. It’s the guys out on the field.”
Dipoto is one of the sport’s handful of executives who actually played in the big leagues, as a reliever from 1993-2000. He says that on-the-field role prepared him for the nature of his job today — for being able to flush away bad individual moments that can have a gut-punch impact on the team. Mistakes are inherent, but how they’re overcome is what he hopes to be judged by.
“If I’m being honest, whatever criticism comes my way, it’s deserved,” Dipoto said. “This team, it feels more complete, and if we fall short of our goals for how good we can be, it’s not because we didn’t have enough talent. It’s just because baseball. But this team has a chance to be the last team standing, and that’s pretty exciting, and hopefully we deliver on it.”
“We made the playoffs a few years ago, and obviously, we had a really good team that year,” third baseman Eugenio Suárez said. “But this one is — it’s more special. This is the kind of group that you want to be part of. You have everything. You have young talent, people with experience, veterans. And more importantly, we all are like family here.”
Suárez can speak to the organization’s ups and downs as much as anybody. The 34-year-old third baseman was a clubhouse and fan favorite from 2022-23 — but also a centerpiece for the criticism that Dipoto drew when trading him to the D-backs in a cost-cutting deal during the 2023-24 offseason.
Dipoto called it “one of my least least favorite trades we ever did,” and some of that regret added emotional calculus in bringing the slugger back at this year’s Trade Deadline, a deal that was largely orchestrated by Dipoto’s second-in-command, general manager Justin Hollander.
“I understood, this is part of the business,” Suárez said. “But at the same time, I left the door open. Like, ‘Man, you know that I love you guys. You know that any time you want me, I’ll be there.’ And now that I’ve come back, that’s the relationship that we have. … I think with Jerry, I think he’s feeling what we’re feeling. He wants to win.”
This year’s Deadline could go down as one of the most defining moments in Dipoto’s 10-year tenure, when the Mariners added Suárez and first baseman Josh Naylor in separate deals with the D-backs, along with reliever Caleb Ferguson from the Pirates. In doing so, they absorbed roughly $10 million in payroll to bring their season total to around $165 million, a nearly $20 million increase from 2024 via backing from ownership.
When Naylor was acquired on July 24, Seattle’s clubhouse felt a jolt of backing from the front office, then when Suárez was brought in (or back) a week later — capped with an emotional flight home — the Mariners were widely viewed as the sport’s biggest Deadline winners.
“It doesn’t feel like a one-time blow, a one-time shot,” said Logan Gilbert, a Dipoto/Hollander Draft pick in 2018. “I think at times we were kind of like, ‘Let’s just go for it.’ Of course, you want to. But now, it feels like it was done in a kind of patient, methodical way. And I think people are seeing — I’m seeing — what his picture was a couple years ago. … I believe in what we’re doing here, and I’m not just saying that.”