The Mariners may be headed for another managerial change, and if that happens, Dan Wilson ought to hear it from the team first.
That point sounds obvious. It shouldn’t need saying. But after what happened the last time Seattle changed managers, it absolutely does.
According to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, sources with knowledge of the club’s plans say Wilson is unlikely to return as manager in 2027. No announcement has been made, and Wilson is still in the dugout as Seattle finishes out a season that has gone badly from start to finish.
There’s no mystery about the baseball case for a change. Wilson guided a 90-win AL West champion to Game 7 of the ALCS in 2025.
One year later, the Mariners have locked in their first losing record in a full season since 2019. He didn’t build this roster, but he still spent the year overseeing a club that too often looked sloppy, inconsistent, uninspiring and lifeless.
That part belongs to him, even if Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander must answer for the roster they put together.
If Seattle decides Wilson is not the right manager, then Seattle should fire him. That’s the job. But the way it happens matters, too.
The Mariners have already botched this once. Scott Servais managed the club for nine seasons, helped end the franchise’s 21-year postseason drought, became the second-winningest manager in team history and worked with Dipoto in Seattle for nearly a decade. Then he found out he had been fired through a news alert before his scheduled meeting with Dipoto.
That was humiliation, plain and simple.
The move itself could be defended. The Mariners had blown a 10-game division lead and were fading out of the playoff race.
But the delivery was still wrong. Dipoto admitted the situation had been mishandled, and John Stanton later described the leak as a source of “deep regret” for the organization.
Fine. But regret only matters if it leads to different behavior.
Reporters are not there to shield the Mariners from an awkward conversation. They report the news. Seattle’s responsibility is to tell the man whose job is on the line before the rest of the world starts talking about it.
And this isn’t just about Wilson. The way the organization handles him will be noticed by the next managerial candidate, by players, and by everyone else inside the building. People remember how a team acts when a relationship is ending.
The Mariners will eventually ask future candidates about communication, trust and collaboration. Those words lose a lot of weight if the club can’t manage its hardest conversations face-to-face.
At this point, Wilson’s future has been discussed publicly for weeks, so nobody should be shocked if a change comes. If Seattle still lets him learn it from someone else, that’s not bad timing. That’s another failure from the people above the dugout.
The Mariners can believe Wilson should be out and still do right by him. They already lived through the Servais mess. Now they have a chance to prove they learned something from it.
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