ARLINGTON -- Jerry Dipoto didn’t hide from the mess.
After the Mariners’ front office moved on from assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes two days earlier, the president of baseball operations laid out the reality in plain terms on Saturday: “Our offense,” he said, “has been abysmal for two months.”
That admission landed just hours before Seattle dropped a 7-1 decision to Texas in a four-game series that already felt tilted early. Bryan Woo was tagged for five runs by the end of the second inning, and the Mariners’ only real answer came in the fifth, when J.P. Crawford doubled home a run in his first game back after missing four contests.
The loss pushed Seattle to 51-54 and three games under .500 for the first time since May 25, the day an eight-game winning streak began to look like a reset point. Instead, the season has kept slipping into new dead ends.
Dipoto made clear that Magallanes was not being singled out as the lone culprit, or even the main one. He also said he wasn’t certain the move was the right one, and noted that manager Dan Wilson had argued against it. Still, he said the club needed some kind of jolt.
“Change grabs attention,” Dipoto said. “There are consequences to our results.”
He added that the issue has been broader than one coach or one voice.
“There's just been a disjointed feeling within what we were doing offensively all year long,” Dipoto said. “It's just never really felt like we were all moving in the same direction, and it shows on the field.
It shows in our results. And I hate that this [falls] on Bobby.
“Bobby is a wonderful human. He's a great guy.
He's a source of positivity. But at the end of the day, the only way to instigate some type of change is by making some type of change.”
The Mariners entered the year with heavy expectations, and the industry has spent most of the season treating them like the team to beat in the American League West. By Saturday night, though, FanGraphs no longer had Seattle as the division favorite, the first time all season another club from the West had better odds.
Even so, the projections still point to a team with real talent. Seattle has 36.1% odds to win the division, 55.5% odds to make the playoffs and 6.0% odds to win the World Series, second highest in the American League.
The standings, though, are getting tighter by the day. After Saturday’s loss, the Mariners trailed Texas by 2 1/2 games for first place and had slipped behind Houston as well, after the Astros edged the White Sox 4-1. Seattle also sits on the outside of a crowded AL Wild Card race, with eight teams either in a playoff spot or within 3 1/2 games of one.
The road doesn’t ease up from here. Seattle heads to Dodger Stadium for a three-game series starting Tuesday night.
It’s hard not to see the resemblance to last year’s trip to Chavez Ravine, which finished off a 1-8 road swing and led to Scott Servais being dismissed the next day. Dipoto said no sweeping move of that size is coming now, but the Mariners are edging toward the kind of stretch they have only managed once this season: the eight-game winning streak.
“We have a number of players who have really struggled,” Dipoto said, “and we've just been trying to find a voice, some kind of traction to get their seasons going or back online.”
That voice now belongs to Ed Paparella, the 31-year-old minor league hitting coordinator whose background leans heavily into technology and analytics and who can serve as a bridge between the high-performance and coaching staffs. Magallanes, along with director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, comes from a more traditional hitting background.
That mix helped fuel a 2025 Mariners offense that was among the most productive in the sport. But for reasons that still haven’t translated into answers, it hasn’t carried over to 2026.
In Other News...
Mariners Just Slammed The Door On A Mason Miller Dream
The Mariners pursuit of bullpen help has run into a familiar problem: the kind of arm that could change October comes with a price Seattle does not seem eager to pay. Mason Miller has been one of the most effective closers in the game this season, and with club control stretching through 2029, he is exactly the sort of long-term upgrade teams dream about when the deadline gets close.
But the fit gets murkier the moment the conversation turns to what Seattle would have to send back. The Mariners are reportedly reluctant to part with their top pitching prospects, which leaves them without the obvious centerpiece San Diego would want, and a deal for a reliever of Millers stature already looks like a heavy lift. Seattle could explore moving a major league arm such as Luis Castillo or Emerson Hancock, yet even that may not be enough to bridge the gap if the Padres decide they need a bigger haul. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Just Sent A Clear Message About J.P. Crawford
J.P. Crawford was back in the Mariners lineup after missing four games, but the batting order told its own story. Instead of sliding right back into the leadoff role he usually occupies, Crawford was penciled in at No. 8, a small but meaningful shift for a player who has long been one of Seattles most important table-setters.
Dan Wilson pointed to Crawfords wrist soreness as part of the reasoning, while also giving Cole Young credit for holding down the top spot with strong recent work. It leaves Seattle with a bit of lineup flexibility at a time when Crawford is easing back in, and it also keeps the door open for more changes if the Mariners decide Youngs run at leadoff is worth extending. [Read more 🡒]