The Seattle Mariners’ manager search keeps circling back to one theme: experience matters. That’s been the common thread as Jerry Dipoto looks for the next person to lead the club, and now there’s another familiar name in the mix.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Mariners are interested in Rocco Baldelli, who spent seven seasons managing the Minnesota Twins from 2019 through 2025. Seattle has also been linked to former Houston Astros manager Joe Espada, and Baldelli fits the same basic mold: a veteran skipper with big-league managerial history.
The reaction to the rumor should come with a little caution. Baldelli’s record in Minnesota finished above .500 - his teams won 51.1% of their games - but most of the shine came early.
The Twins won 101 games in 2019, and the shortened 2020 season also boosted the overall numbers. From 2021 through 2025, Minnesota posted a .481 winning percentage, and that slide eventually cost Baldelli his job.
His Twins teams were built around a familiar formula: plenty of home runs, plenty of strikeouts, and not much hesitation about leaning into that style. For a while, it worked.
Later on, it started to feel inconsistent and a bit stale. Home runs and strikeouts still have value, but there’s a better case to be made for a more complete approach - the kind the Milwaukee Brewers have shown.
The late-stage Twins also had a bad habit of falling apart when it mattered most. The 2022 and 2024 teams both faded badly after strong first halves.
In 2025, Minnesota was rolling through May before everything unraveled, leading to a deadline selloff that all but sealed Baldelli’s fate. Seattle should care about that, because the Mariners need someone who can bring steadiness after Dan Wilson’s deer-in-the-headlights act of 2026.
There’s also a concern with how Baldelli handled young hitters. Minnesota had the kind of pipeline built to develop that sort of talent, but the results weren’t especially convincing.
That matters for the Mariners, who have a next wave of young bats on the way. A name like Brandon Hyde, for example, offers a stronger track record in that area.
Still, Baldelli deserves a real look.
He won more than he lost in Minnesota, and his three division titles are two more than the Mariners have collected in the last 25 seasons. And while the late collapse in Minnesota landed on him, it also reflected broader issues, including ownership cutting spending after the 2023 season.
Seattle typically carries a higher payroll than the Twins do, which would give Baldelli more support in that respect. He’d also walk into a roster that already shares some of the traits he knew in Minnesota: power and swing-and-miss. In the right hands, maybe that’s enough to get started.
The best-case version of Baldelli would be something more ambitious than simply repeating the Twins. If he can help Seattle play a more complete brand of baseball, that would be the real win. He also brings front-office experience from the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Rays known for their innovation and the Dodgers known, at least in part, for playing smart baseball before age and wear took a toll this year.
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