Getting obsessed with the Seattle Mariners rebuild
Joe Swenson
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General manager Jerry Dipoto is the architect of the Seattle mariners rebuild.
To rebuild the Seattle Mariners, GM Jerry Dipoto had to change his entire approach. In doing so, he kindled a belief in his process. Now M’s fans are obsessed with this rebuild.
Let’s take a quick trip back a few years. It’s spring Training 2019, a new baseball season has begun with high hopes and dreams of a bright future for the Seattle Mariners. You sit there, pondering the ripple effects of an offseason where stars Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, and more are traded away or lost to free agency. Then you sip your morning beverage and reflect on the choices made by General Manager Jerry Dipoto and ownership. After 18 years of mediocre performances at best, the M’s pivoted. Changing the ripple effect.
To some fans and experts alike, the Mariners are in a “show me” phase. The 2021 season is nearly upon us, making the M’s 20 years removed from the last postseason appearance. Fans are again asked to be patient with a team that struggled to make the postseason with regularity since their inception.
Ripple Effect
Drop a rock in a pond, and you create a 360-degree circle of ripples that travel in any number of directions without regard for the final destination. Throw a rock in a pond, and you intentionally create the direction of the ripples. Dropping is passive. Throwing is intentional. The rebuild is a change in Dipoto’s previous method of dropping lots of rocks into a pond, to now throwing rocks into a pond with a specific destination for the ripples.
It is April 2019, and the Mariners are 13-2, an abundance of accidental hope abounds. Giving rise to the idea that the Mariners are winners. We don’t have to suffer through the agonizing idea of losing through a rebuild. The league quickly catches up with the Mariners and disposes of them in the standings.
Change in Mindset
We are reminded of the ripple effects. It was not until the Mariners came back down from this hope driven euphoria in 2019 that the rebuild became clear. Those veterans Dipoto brought in, from Jay Bruce to Dee Gordon, were not brought to the Emerald City to fill gaps. They were brought here to allow the prospects to develop at their own pace. That was the change in the thought process required to foresee the impact of the rebuild.
This mindset change included an understanding that the Seattle Mariners organization has to keep its prospects in an arena of success-driven confidence. Motivating them in a forward direction without a specific timetable to maintain that confidence. Then grow these young men as a team, building chemistry and a winning attitude. Thereby creating an atmosphere that creates success.