Mariners Seahawks betrayal

Kanzler is the third Mariners manager appointed with zero experience

Before his appointment last week to the highest tier of on-field staff in the MLB, Jason Kanzler had never served as a major league manager before.

Now, sharps will note that first-time managers are not uncommon. The actual proportion shocked even me: 21 of the current managers were first-time managers when appointed (within the 30 teams). So I can’t – and won’t – hold that against Kanzler. In fact, I’m not looking to hold anything against our new coach. He deserves genuine congratulations for landing the role, and I wish him only success at the helm; he just actually has to start winning to win me over.

I will, however, hold it against our president of baseball operations – you guessed it – Jerry Dipoto.

“In Dipoto’s 11 years in charge of Mariners baseball operations, Kanzler is the club’s third managerial hire. And like Scott Servais and Dan Wilson before him, Kanzler has had no previous managerial experience before taking over Seattle’s top seat in the dugout,” the Seattle Times notes tellingly.

I think Kanzler’s hiring is proof of Jerry’s desire for another yes-man / (sorry Kanzler) on-field puppet to report directly to him and follow his instructions to a T. Again, I hope I am proven wrong; I hope Kanzler can shake off Dipoto’s yoke and drive us to Elysium. But, to quote Logan Roy, I have my doubts.

Now that my innate tendency towards cynicism and Murphy’s Law outcomes is out there in the open, we can move on to the upsides.

Jason Kanzler is already doing all the right things as Mariners manager

Verbal meme: the two guys on the same bus, one in the dark staring at the cliff wall on one side (what you just read), the other facing the other way in the sunlight taking in a beautiful vista (what I’m about to say below).

Jason Kanzler may very well be a handsome wunderkind that the rest of the league respected and that the Mariners were lucky – and, even better, early – on recognizing, and that we were (gasp) smart to grab before someone else could.

He’s saying all the right things to win fans over:

He’s getting to know the right leaders in the locker room:

And his background (and corresponding upside) are significant enough to win over some of the biggest baseball brains online. Peep this ~13-minute breakdown, for instance:

For those with limited time, suffice it to say Kanzler has impressed enough following his retirement as a player to land him with two very successful franchises.

“Kanzler has served as the Chicago Cubs’ director of player development since January 2024, building a reputation as a good communicator with an aptitude for advanced metrics,” the Seattle Times explains. “Before joining the Cubs, Kanzler spent five years in the Houston Astros organization, starting as a minor league instructor and working his way up to the major league coaching staff during the Astros’ 2022 championship season.”

(Yes, calling the Astros very successful there nearly killed me.) But, back to my point, doesn’t that CV simultaneously scream inexperienced AND potential mad scientist/genius/secret weapon?? I know it’s not just me.

Add in that I’ve had multiple female friends (who are aware of my Mariners fandom) independently text me with their thoughts on exactly how good-looking of a human male Kanzler is, and we have quite the potent recipe here.

I legitimately believe at this point in time that Jason Kanzler will either be the final straw in the Dipoto era – if he fails, Dipoto must go down, too – or the savior of the Mariners franchise. No in between.

We’ll see. As always, I’m hoping for the best, worried about the worst.