Jerry Dipoto’s Monday media session left the Seattle Mariners with plenty to unpack after a rough 76-86 season, and one line in particular keeps hanging in the air.
The Mariners president of baseball operations spent about 30 minutes talking after the club moved on from manager Dan Wilson and several high-profile coaches, but the detail that stands out is the one about player development ideas not carrying over to the majors. Dipoto said, in effect, that some players felt things they were taught in development were “abondaned” once they reached the big-league level.
That lands right in the middle of a question that has been nagging for months: what happened to “controlling the zone”?
At its core, the idea is straightforward. Swing at strikes.
Lay off balls. Earn walks when they’re there.
And when a pitch is actually there to drive, attack it.
Since the Mariners came out of the rebuild in 2021, their walk rankings have bounced around like this: 2021, 15th; 2022, 3rd; 2023, 13th; 2024, 4th; 2025, 9th; 2026, 10th. Walk rate alone doesn’t tell the whole story, but it does show a team that has had some strong years in that department.
Two of those top-10 walk seasons ended with playoff trips. Two others did not.
Chase rate paints an even clearer picture.
The major league chase rate this season was 33.1 percent, and several Mariners regulars were sitting above that mark. Cal Raleigh checked in at 35.8, Josh Naylor at 37.8, Julio Rodriguez at 38.6, Colt Emerson at 38.9, Dominic Canzone at 34.5, and Luke Raley at 34.6.
J.P. Crawford was well under at 19.7, while Cole Young and Randy Arozarena were both at 30.6.
Brendan Donovan was at 25.3.
The point isn’t just whether a hitter walks. It’s whether he’s forcing the pitcher into the zone or giving away at-bats by chasing pitches that aren’t there. Too much chase leads to strikeouts, weak contact, and a lineup that helps the pitcher instead of pressuring him.
If Seattle wants to be better in 2027, this has to be part of the answer. The next hitting coaches will need to make strike-zone discipline a priority again, because the Mariners need more at-bats that start with a plan and end with a pitch they can actually do damage against.
The bigger mystery is how the philosophy drifted in the first place. Is it because the club brought in so many players from outside the organization that they never fully absorbed the approach? Or have some current Mariners simply moved far enough away from the minors that the message has faded over time?
However it happened, the question now is whether the Mariners can get back to it.
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The bigger question is whether Seattle is prepared to make the kind of commitment that comes with a proven manager, both in approach and in salary. Jeff Passan has noted the Mariners could also lean toward first-time managers who better match the culture they want to build, so this search may end up revealing as much about the organizations priorities as it does about the names on the list. [Read more 🡒]