Ken Rosenthal says he is “rather confident” the Seattle Mariners will have a new manager after this season, a strong signal that Dan Wilson’s future could be headed toward a reset if the club doesn’t get into the playoffs.
Rosenthal made the comment on Thursday’s edition of Fair Territory, adding to a growing sense around the league that Wilson is in danger of being replaced when the year ends. That matches what multiple national voices have already suggested: if Seattle misses the postseason, the Mariners are expected to make a change.
The timing isn’t hard to understand. Seattle entered Thursday at 68-78 and 6.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West with 16 games left to play. It has been a rough season in every direction, with the Mariners carrying the league’s worst offense, a starting rotation that has slipped, a bullpen that has been leaned on too hard and an injury picture that was messy early on.
The question, of course, is whether that all lands on Wilson.
The answer from this view is no, at least not entirely. This hasn’t looked like one man’s collapse.
Wilson also has a case for another run, especially after guiding the Mariners to the American League Championship Series in 2025. That’s why there’s a real argument that he deserves a second full season.
At one point, the idea was that Wilson should get into year three as a sort of tiebreak between one strong season and one bad one. But with enough evidence now in hand, Seattle may already have what it needs to decide where it stands.
If the Mariners believe Wilson is the right manager, then the organization should fully commit to him this offseason. If it doesn’t, there’s no sense in dragging the situation into 2027 and giving him only a short runway before making a call, especially with uncertainty looming around the labor situation and what it could mean for the next season.
There’s also the human side of this. Wilson is not just another name on the staff.
He’s a Mariners Hall of Famer, a cornerstone of the franchise’s history and one of the most popular players the team has ever had. If Seattle does decide to move on, it has to be handled with care and respect for what he means to the organization.
Rosenthal’s track record matters here, too. When Scott Servais was fired in 2024, Rosenthal was among the reporters most dialed in to that story, so his latest read carries weight.
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Seattles infield has flashed in stretches, but the bigger issue has been whether it adds up to enough over a full season to push the club deeper into October. If the Orioles are weighing the possibility of moving from surplus to subtraction in their own infield, the Mariners may be headed in the opposite direction, searching this winter for a real upgrade that can sharpen the lineup and make the playoff path feel less fragile. [Read more 🡒]