Mariners fans groan as Jerry Dipoto doubles down on controversial approach
Jerry Dipoto has spoken, and Mariners fans aren’t going to like what he has to say.
Opening Day of the Seattle Mariners’ 2025 season is just three weeks away. Fans have ample reasons to be excited, as this year figures to be the team’s fifth straight as a top American League contender.
Yet things have taken a turn for the…well, if not “worse,” then certainly for the “exasperating.” The Mariners franchise is suddenly at the center of a sort of war of words between a side that thinks things are broken and another that thinks everything is just fine.
On one side of the trench is former Mariner Justin Turner and, albeit to a less audible extent, a few current Mariners players. Their position is that the team is stuck in the mud after four straight seasons of 85-plus wins, thus rendering little hope of better results in 2025.
On the other side is Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, who went on defense in an interview with Sam Blum of The Athletic that published Thursday. It was only half effective.
Dipoto makes a compelling case that he’s not the bad guy
Much of what Dipoto told Blum is worth unpacking, including his defense of his infamous “54 percent” remark from 2023. Many fans took that as Dipoto expressing a modest goal to get the Mariners to 87 wins annually, but he was more so making a point about sustainability rather than ambition. And it was honest, if nothing else.
