Latest / The Ian Furness Show / Ian Furness 9/28 H2: Jerry Dipoto speaks to the media and we have reactions from us, the listeners and Softy.

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Ian Furness 9/28 H2: Jerry Dipoto speaks to the media and we have reactions from us, the listeners and Softy. · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Alright, we are back on a Monday. Jerry DiPoto News
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Conference starting if not soon now. We're kind of beholden
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to our friends at Fox 13 to hopefully get some
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: audio and hear from Jerry DiPoto and get some answers
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: as to how this season went, what happened, etc. There
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: was a shooting in Kent. Two people killed. Which is awful. Tragic.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: So they're going through that right now and talking about that.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: So hopefully we'll get to the Jerry DePono news conference
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: in just a couple of seconds. So we're, we're, we're monitoring.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: We're waiting.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We're challenged technically in that regard and beholden to our
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: good friends over at Fox 13 Seattle. So we'll get
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to that in a second. Good stuff from Hugh Millen,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: hardcore football. We're not molly whopping today, obviously, because we're
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: hoping to hear from Jerry DePono.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: We didn't do updates either because.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I could tell you the update. I'll give you an
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: update just for giggles. I don't have to play music.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just, we're all kind of monitoring this video.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Hoping we get to it. Headlines are brought to you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: by Frostbrew Coors, like cold as a rock, he's M's.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: The big thing is, let's just get to the Mariners.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: We just talked with Hugh Mill, and we got Mike
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Sando coming up at 2 o'clock today. The big thing
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: with the Mariners, obviously, is Dan Wilson kind of announced
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: his own termination, however it was framed, yesterday. And he
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: did that, and then today they announced that bench coach
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Manny Acta, infield coach Perry Hill, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: first base coach Eric Young Jr. will not return next season.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: By the way, Pete Woodworth, the pitching coach, in fact,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the pitching coaching staff, it's not just Pete, it's three
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: or four, including bullpen coaches and so forth, like four
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: or five guys. They were not mentioned in this. So
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: it's basically you're hitting coaches and Eric Young, I believe,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: did the outfield defense as well. So the defense we
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: all know was the worst in baseball this year.
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: It was not good.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: By a lot of metrics. Not by fielding percentage. We've
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: learned enough, right? We've learned fielding percentage is not what
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: we look at. We look at other stuff now. but
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: they got rid of those guys. Manny Gakta, there were
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: some that were thinking he would have been maybe in
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: line to be the next manager, depending on which one
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of our national guys we've talked to. Nino and Joe,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: they both kind of have mentioned that. Others have as well,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: but they're cleaning house there. They must feel good about
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: their pitching. They must feel good enough about their pitching
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to figure that out because they're going with the pitching
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: situation right now. Even though the starting pitching struggled this season,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: was Pete Woodworthy, at least for today, is still with
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the organization. Dan also did say yesterday that he has
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: been offered another role inside the organization. I think that
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: kind of got glossed over a little bit, which sort
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: of leads me to believe this truly was a mutual
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: decision by Dan Wilson and the Mariners, because if they're
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: going to keep him in the family, so to speak,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: maybe they're still paying him and they... We're going to
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: get our money's worth here, right?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe we're going to do that. But, you know, I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: don't share. Greg Bell brought this up in Crosstalk, and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: as we wait to see if we get the Jerry
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: audio or not.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're still in Kent.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Drive-by shooting in Kent.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for our listeners, I-5 at 272nd is where it is.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Actually, you might want to stay away from that area.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: It's on the overpass over I-5 there on 272nd.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you definitely want to stay away from that, so.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Where was I going with this? Greg Bell brought this
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: up to me earlier, and he said maybe the wrong
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: guy got let go, and he was referring to Jerry.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I said this last week, and I'll kind of stand
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: by it. I'm right in the middle with this. It's
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: just really bad sports radio, I know. It's really horrible,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: because you're supposed to have a strong opinion, a strong
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: take one way or the other.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: But you don't want to have a strong opinion that's
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: not authentic or real.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've never been that guy, and so... I
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: don't know with Jerry. I mean, one division title and
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: two playoff appearances in 11 years, by all indications, that's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: not good. And you'd probably need to make a move
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and take that next step. At the same time, I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: can look at some of the talent there and say,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: it's not Jerry and Justin Hollander's fault that Cal decided
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to have an awful first two-thirds of the season. It's
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: not Jerry and Justin's fault that you had this horrific
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: defense and just kind of brain-dead guys playing, you know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Julio being, I don't know what the hell his problem is.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: It's not their fault that your bullpen got shortened up, Matt,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: brash injury. You know, we saw glimpses of what Arroyo
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and Montez could be. We've seen guys like Julio and
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Cal come up through the system, Cole Emerson, Cole Young. Like,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I feel like there's a lot of good pieces in
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: place if that organization is put together over the course
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of 11 years. At the same time, it's still a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: results-based professional sports business. And because of that, because it's
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: results based, the results have not been there. They just
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: have not been there. And that's just not good enough.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: So I could be convinced either way, but if he's
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: speaking to the media now, I guess, then there's, then
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: there's no, then he's staying as far as I know.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: That's how I would take it.
• 5:21
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: I don't think he's going up to also announce his own.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: God, that'd be something else.
• 5:26
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: So anyway, what are your thoughts on Jerry?
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think, honestly, unfortunately for, I guess, sports radio,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: I'm in the same boat. I don't think that this
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: season is a Jerry DiPoto problem. Do I think that
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Jerry has done things perfectly?
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: No.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Do I expect that everybody's going to have as much
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: success as John Schneider has as a GM or a
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: president lately?
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: No, I don't.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: I do think that this season was a complete disappointment
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: based on the on-field performance. There's no way that you
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: could expect that you're going to have all of those
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: guys having a bad season all at the same time.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: It's just not possible.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: And so I have a hard time saying that firing
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: Jerry is going to make a difference. And there was
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: a lot of people saying that they're scapegoating Dan. I
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: don't think that's true either because Dan couldn't get the
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: best out of the players, unfortunately, as much as we
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: wanted him to.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: And now Fox is going to ads again.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we'll keep it on that. Yeah, I think
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: with Dan, I just watched MLB TV up here. I
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was just watching a little thing a minute ago, and
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: they were announcing his whatever it is, termination, what have you.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: And they went through a list of just the ALCS
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: last year. It wasn't just the Bizzardo decision. There was
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: like five they had. I hadn't even thought about it.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And I'll be honest with you, last year, When that happened,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I was probably doing a hockey game half the time
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: through that series, so I couldn't even tell you some
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: of the stuff that happened. But I'm glancing up there,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, wow, it wasn't just Bizzardo pitching to Springer.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It was a lot of things. Dan's decision-making comes into
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: question a lot and completely understandable. You also, as an organization,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: put a guy in charge that had never been a
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: manager before at any level.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: That's what I can't understand.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And then you expect him to take your team someplace
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: that they have never been before.
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Just because the players like him and he's a legend.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: And honestly, Ashley, you like the players, the players like you. Well,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: they failed you.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: So if they want to play for you and they
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: don't think that you should be fired and they want
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: to just celebrate you and like you and play hard
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: for you, they didn't show it.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: No, they failed you. They absolutely failed you. All right,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: let's do this. Let me take a quick break and
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: we'll reset here. We'll hopefully hear something from Jerry DiPoto.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: If not, we'll continue on, maybe hear from you as well. 49451,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: what was my headline said? It was a weekend of losses. Yes,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it was. It was a weekend of losses all the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: way through. This one's a loss too, trying to carry
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: this loss. I mean, if we're being honest, like, listen,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I was pissed our Cougars lost. They hung around with
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Fafita for a while, but we can't run the football
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: either at all. And our quarterback makes worse decisions than
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: any quarterback I've ever seen at the Division I level.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: So that's one thing. Although I guess DeMond might fit
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: in that category for the three quarters yesterday. I mean,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I think the UW loss was the worst of the weekend. Oh,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: it was. I think that was the worst loss. I mean,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: you can judge him for yourself. That one, I thought was.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I always try to say this, not being like the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: jackass Cougar fan, but that was a bad loss.
• 8:32
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Your season, if you're thinking college football playoff, there's games
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: you can't lose because the rest of your schedule looks
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: like X. You can't lose at home to Minnesota. You
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: just cannot lose.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: They are going now.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Are they? Let's go. Let's go to Jerry DiPoto's news
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: conference courtesy of Fox 13 then. Here we go.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Let's take it to that live.
• 8:54
  Speaker 8: This is a really talented roster, and none of those
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: guys are outside the prime years of their careers. There's
• 9:02
  Speaker 8: no reason why we shouldn't be able to reset, look
• 9:05
  Speaker 8: ourselves in the mirror. And I know our players, we've
• 9:07
  Speaker 8: had a lot of conversation privately with our roster of
• 9:11
  Speaker 8: players this past week, and I know every one of
• 9:14
  Speaker 8: them is already hungry to come back and prove that
• 9:17
  Speaker 8: this was an aberration.
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: You have a short question for Julio there.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: What does Julio need to do to do this?
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: Take that next step? Julio needs to continue to evolve.
• 9:25
  Speaker 8: Julio has been a phenomenal player. He has accumulated more
• 9:33
  Speaker 8: For his age and what he's done, he has done
• 9:35
  Speaker 8: remarkable things. This year, he notes that he left something
• 9:39
  Speaker 8: on the table, and he's going to go home, and
• 9:40
  Speaker 8: he's going to focus on the things that we discussed,
• 9:43
  Speaker 8: and I think he will come back a better player
• 9:46
  Speaker 8: because of it, but he'll just continue to evolve.
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: Do you have a short list on a manager, and
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: what's the time frame? No, and the time frame is
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: as long as it takes.
• 9:55
  Speaker 7: Jerry, do you feel like player accountability was something that
• 9:57
  Speaker 7: slowly but surely slipped away, and how much of that
• 10:01
  Speaker 7: will be part of the criteria of what you want
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: hiring a new.
• 10:03
  Speaker 8: Manager uh it is a heavy piece of the criteria
• 10:07
  Speaker 8: but i wouldn't limit that just to the players you
• 10:10
  Speaker 8: know uh accountability is just a word unless you're unless
• 10:13
  Speaker 8: you are accountable to a standard that is preset, everybody
• 10:18
  Speaker 8: understands what that standard is, and then we hold ourselves
• 10:21
  Speaker 8: accountable to it.
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: The bigger issue is the standard itself, and that's on me.
• 10:26
  Speaker 8: The one person who has the ability to drill down
• 10:30
  Speaker 8: to the bottom and say, we are not.
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: Upholding these standards, we need to do better.
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: I did an ineffective job of making sure that we
• 10:38
  Speaker 8: held one another accountable because we started with standards and
• 10:41
  Speaker 8: it faded. And That's not just on our players. That's
• 10:45
  Speaker 8: on me. It's on our front office group. It's on
• 10:47
  Speaker 8: the staff and the players collectively.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: What does holding accountable look like?
• 10:53
  Speaker 8: Holding accountable looks like culture. It is what are you
• 10:57
  Speaker 8: willing to tolerate. Are you willing to tolerate less than
• 11:01
  Speaker 8: full effort? Are you willing to tolerate less than full focus?
• 11:05
  Speaker 8: Are you willing to tolerate, you know, what we saw
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: in mid-season was a team playing with limited urgency and
• 11:12
  Speaker 8: waiting for the water to turn on. And it just
• 11:15
  Speaker 8: didn't come on instead of turning it on ourselves. And
• 11:19
  Speaker 8: we saw it unfolding. Our players saw it unfolding. And
• 11:23
  Speaker 8: we talked about it a lot as the season went along.
• 11:27
  Speaker 8: And again, it's where I would count myself most at
• 11:30
  Speaker 8: fault is you can talk about it or you can
• 11:33
  Speaker 8: just go out and do it. And you can lament
• 11:36
  Speaker 8: the fact that there was an injury here. We had
• 11:38
  Speaker 8: fewer injuries to deal with than many teams that wound
• 11:40
  Speaker 8: up finishing in a really good spot and still playing today.
• 11:45
  Speaker 8: So we had a tendency this year to just shrug
• 11:49
  Speaker 8: it off to we're more talented than the teams around us.
• 11:52
  Speaker 8: Don't worry, it'll happen. Instead of going out and making
• 11:55
  Speaker 8: our own thing happen. And Um, That's what accountability looks like.
• 12:00
  Speaker 8: It's calling that out in the moment. It's stopping it
• 12:03
  Speaker 8: before it gets rolling any further. It's being truthful in
• 12:07
  Speaker 8: our discussion with one another and for years our program.
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: Has always been built on truth.
• 12:12
  Speaker 8: We tell the truth with love and sometimes you might
• 12:15
  Speaker 8: get your nose out of joint for a moment but
• 12:17
  Speaker 8: you wake up the next day and you realize that
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: you're loved and you're just trying to help one another.
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: Do you need more than out of those players in
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: that clubhouse?
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Because we heard the same thing from them.
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: We heard We were waiting to catch fire, and we
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: just never did.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: There was a passivity.
• 12:32
  Speaker 7: How does that go, that accountability, from the front office
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: down to the players, and do you need more from
• 12:37
  Speaker 7: the players in that clubhouse?
• 12:38
  Speaker 8: I do think that, well, the players expect more of themselves.
• 12:43
  Speaker 8: I can answer that question for them. I think they're
• 12:44
  Speaker 8: telling you that now. They know it of themselves. They
• 12:49
  Speaker 8: saw this happening. And a lot of times when you're struggling,
• 12:52
  Speaker 8: you know, I played in the league long enough to
• 12:54
  Speaker 8: know I had more days to struggle than the other kind. And,
• 12:58
  Speaker 8: you know, and I've had this conversation with our players. It's,
• 13:01
  Speaker 8: you know, when you're struggling, you tend to internalize. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 8: this year, right, wrong or indifferent, and this is somehow
• 13:09
  Speaker 8: just how it happens in baseball, the majority of our
• 13:12
  Speaker 8: players struggle to perform well.
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: To their expectations. And when you do that, you tend
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: to internalize.
• 13:21
  Speaker 8: When that's happening with a large group of players at
• 13:23
  Speaker 8: the same time and everyone is internalizing, you need an
• 13:27
  Speaker 8: outside impact. And that comes from front office. It comes
• 13:31
  Speaker 8: from staff. You know, you need to be there to
• 13:34
  Speaker 8: help your players out in that moment, recognizing that sometimes
• 13:37
  Speaker 8: player leaders, as they struggle, are less likely to interact
• 13:41
  Speaker 8: with one another in a meaningful way. We lived through
• 13:43
  Speaker 8: some of that. And we didn't do enough as a
• 13:46
  Speaker 8: leadership team to provide our players with those types of outlets.
• 13:50
  Speaker 8: And that is maybe our biggest failure this year. But again,
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: only a failure if you.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: Don't learn from it.
• 13:55
  Speaker 9: With the CBA, just how much added pressure is there
• 13:58
  Speaker 9: knowing that you guys have that abbreviated timeline to do
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: whatever you feel like is necessary to add to the team?
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: We can't really think about a CBA.
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: We have to approach this like 2027 starts in mid-February
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: for us.
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: We're looking to build out our roster.
• 14:13
  Speaker 8: We are going to have a very busy October and November,
• 14:16
  Speaker 8: looking for a manager and staff.
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: Markets will open and.
• 14:20
  Speaker 8: We like we always are we'll be very aggressive and
• 14:23
  Speaker 8: trying to go out and fill the holes that we
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: have and and try to find those final pieces and
• 14:29
  Speaker 8: and along the way you know do an audit ourselves.
• 14:32
  Speaker 6: Why do we keep running into the same problem.
• 14:34
  Speaker 8: With you know our independence say it out loud our
• 14:37
  Speaker 8: inability to find you know a right-hand bat who can
• 14:40
  Speaker 8: enter our market and and seamlessly transition. Randy did it
• 14:47
  Speaker 8: and did an amazing job of producing maybe the best
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: season he's ever had and produced throughout in his time
• 14:53
  Speaker 8: as a mariner. It's been hard for us otherwise. You know,
• 14:56
  Speaker 8: we bring guys in, and it's the environment. I don't
• 15:00
  Speaker 8: know what it is, but we are resolute in trying
• 15:04
  Speaker 8: to figure out how, how we can not run into
• 15:07
  Speaker 8: the same issue. Our homegrown players don't deal with it
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: quite as much, but the guys who come in from
• 15:12
  Speaker 8: elsewhere do.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Are there changes here?
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: What do you look at? I'm sorry.
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: Knowing that most of your core is here, what do
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: you look at your specific needs?
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: The good thing is we have enough flexibility among our
• 15:25
  Speaker 8: players that we can look at different things to get
• 15:29
  Speaker 8: the type of offense lineup impact.
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: That we're looking for. Our starting pitching is our starting pitching.
• 15:36
  Speaker 8: You know, the group that we have, you know, we
• 15:39
  Speaker 8: will have a homegrown starting rotation, uh, Whether we have
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: six of them or five of them remains to be seen.
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: But our bullpen, there's a lot of goodness in our bullpen.
• 15:48
  Speaker 8: And I will say on individuals, Andres Munoz led the
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: league in blown saves. Weirdly, had as good a year
• 15:56
  Speaker 8: on a lot of the underlying stuff, including the stuff
• 15:59
  Speaker 8: that was coming out of his hand and how much
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: he grew emotionally as the season went along. I'm very
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: proud of him for getting through it. I'm very proud
• 16:07
  Speaker 8: of the fact that these guys, you know, Edward Bizzardo
• 16:11
  Speaker 8: finished on a sour note. We put a ton of
• 16:14
  Speaker 8: pressure on he and Chucky in the middle of the
• 16:17
  Speaker 8: season when Gabe was out, when Brash was out. And
• 16:20
  Speaker 8: they had to wear a terribly difficult workload, including the
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: up and downs, when they might be pitching one pluses.
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: And as a result, they were worn out by the
• 16:29
  Speaker 8: time we got to the dog days. And that's on us.
• 16:33
  Speaker 8: We need to provide more depth. And we looked to
• 16:36
  Speaker 8: do it at the deadline when we brought Sir Anthony in,
• 16:38
  Speaker 8: who I think did a really nice job for us.
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: But You know, our bullpen has a lot of really
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: good components. Matt Brash presumably is healthy and rejoins the
• 16:47
  Speaker 8: group next year, and we need to add impact back
• 16:50
  Speaker 8: there to join that leverage group.
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: Obviously, we have.
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: free agents coming up, you know, JP, Randy most notably,
• 16:58
  Speaker 8: but a couple of others.
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: We need to refill those.
• 17:00
  Speaker 8: Voids, and they're not small voids to refill, you know,
• 17:03
  Speaker 8: especially Randy in left field.
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: But we are excited about our young players.
• 17:08
  Speaker 8: Michael Arroyo, I think, had a wonderful 40-plate appearance, you know,
• 17:12
  Speaker 8: transition to the big leagues. Laz does exciting things. You know,
• 17:16
  Speaker 8: Brendan Donovan coming back, who left healthy. Hopefully he is
• 17:20
  Speaker 8: ready to go. And we see the version of Brendan
• 17:24
  Speaker 8: we saw, which is an awesome player. We just saw
• 17:27
  Speaker 8: him for 39 games. We'd like to see that, you know,
• 17:30
  Speaker 8: for the full schedule and a postseason.
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: And I think we will.
• 17:34
  Speaker 8: And if we do that, now we have the flexibility of,
• 17:37
  Speaker 8: you know, Donnie can play a lot of different positions.
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: Colt can play either of the two left side infields.
• 17:43
  Speaker 8: You know, Arroyo can spell Cole Young at second base
• 17:46
  Speaker 8: versus a tough lefty. He can play left field and
• 17:49
  Speaker 8: continue to evolve in that way. And then we'll look
• 17:52
  Speaker 8: to trade and free agency to see if there's the
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: potential of finding that impact back that might come help us.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Do you walk us through the process to find the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: new manager and how much.
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: Autonomy would you have?
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: Full autonomy. That I can assure you is, and I
• 18:07
  Speaker 8: always have, I always have full autonomy. I work for
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: great people. They give us the resources that we need
• 18:13
  Speaker 8: to do the thing we need to do. They trust
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: our programs and And I feel like we failed them
• 18:19
  Speaker 8: this year because this should have been the year that
• 18:22
  Speaker 8: we did amazing things, and we just didn't.
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: But full autonomy, our process starts now.
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: Justin and I are both making phone calls around the league,
• 18:31
  Speaker 8: starting to dig into who the best candidates are out there,
• 18:36
  Speaker 8: why there is no timeline on it. We will get
• 18:39
  Speaker 8: the best candidate available, and I will say this selfishly.
• 18:43
  Speaker 8: We just had a 76-win season, which is usually associated
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: with a team that's not particularly exciting to be with.
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: There's not a single candidate in baseball that wouldn't be
• 18:52
  Speaker 8: excited to take over this job. This ballpark, this city,
• 18:55
  Speaker 8: the talent on that roster, not one of those guys
• 18:58
  Speaker 8: I mentioned will be older than 30 years old to
• 19:00
  Speaker 8: start next year. A robust farm system and a deep
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: pitching staff.
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: All the elements are there.
• 19:06
  Speaker 8: You can't be the worst defensive team in baseball. You
• 19:09
  Speaker 8: can't make the mistakes that we made constantly throughout the year.
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: You need to be better prepared and in line with
• 19:16
  Speaker 8: a process that leads to winning. And we will find
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: someone through this process who comes in.
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: And is in alignment with what we see happening.
• 19:25
  Speaker 8: As as the the direction the team needs to head
• 19:28
  Speaker 8: and then guides us in a way that we get
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: better you know because obviously the the the performance on
• 19:36
  Speaker 8: the field this year has made us question a lot of.
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: The things that we are doing at the major league
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: level um.
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: And i will i will say multiple of our major
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: league players who came through our system have referenced what
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: they learned in player development that got abandoned in the
• 19:53
  Speaker 8: big leagues this year and not just the players who
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: came up for the first time but we have a
• 19:58
  Speaker 8: host of players who have come through our system and.
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: They saw a difference.
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: We need to get back to what we believe is
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: a Mariners baseball process.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Is that your back?
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: Yeah, in some capacity. Edgar's part of what we do.
• 20:12
  Speaker 8: He's been a Mariner for 44 years. I spoke to
• 20:15
  Speaker 8: him the other day. I don't know that he's going
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: to be in the dugout for 162 games. I am
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: certain that he's going to be part of what we
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: do from a baseball operations standpoint and organizationally.
• 20:25
  Speaker 10: Do you regret at all the way the piggyback and
• 20:29
  Speaker 10: the six-memberization was either A, handled, or.
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: B, communicated throughout the year?
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: I regret a lot of communication issues that we had
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: this year. Weirdly, the piggyback period was when we were
• 20:40
  Speaker 8: our very best this year. That's when our team was
• 20:43
  Speaker 8: most successful. The way it was communicated, the way it
• 20:46
  Speaker 8: was received, and the drama around it was part of
• 20:52
  Speaker 8: what I think was a bag that we were carrying
• 20:55
  Speaker 8: around with us all year and couldn't shed. And the
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: piggyback is one piece of that. I could come up
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: with 10 others that were contributing factors, but We need
• 21:05
  Speaker 8: to communicate more clearly. And we talked about this with
• 21:08
  Speaker 8: the players during that piggyback period. We handled the kickoff
• 21:13
  Speaker 8: of that as poorly as you possibly could from a
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: leadership standpoint. And as we got into the drama, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 8: it was perpetuating in this area, This was one start in.
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: It was the White Sox game. I personally sat down
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: with Bryce and with Louie, and we cleared it up.
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: And I don't think that was an issue. The piggyback,
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: the extended version of the piggyback, was something that we
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: put in front of our pitchers and asked them to
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: decide what they wanted to do.
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: And it's what they chose.
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: Unfortunately, as the schedule goes, some guys need an extra
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: day here or a non-bullpen day there. And I don't
• 21:51
  Speaker 8: think we did a great job of communicating it externally.
• 21:55
  Speaker 8: But I can tell you internally, the strife ended. There
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: was no more talk about concern about the piggyback. It
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: was a collective agreement, but we did not communicate that
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: well inside out.
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: Two questions for you.
• 22:09
  Speaker 9: One, when it comes to this manager search and these
• 22:11
  Speaker 9: recent coaching changes, how much say will your new manager
• 22:14
  Speaker 9: have in picking his staff? And two, can we expect
• 22:17
  Speaker 9: more coaching changes after what you all announced today?
• 22:22
  Speaker 8: I'll answer from the second question back. I wouldn't anticipate
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: any more coaching changes. The coaches that we have maintained,
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: everyone is now under agreement for a contract for 2027
• 22:34
  Speaker 8: and in some cases beyond.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: We love those people. They do a great job.
• 22:39
  Speaker 8: I love the people who I spoke to yesterday and
• 22:41
  Speaker 8: who've been here for a long time and made real contributions.
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: But we thought it was important that whoever we hire
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: as the manager come in and have the ability to
• 22:50
  Speaker 8: have his hand on the wheel in creating his own staff.
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: Handing a new manager, we want to get better culturally.
• 22:57
  Speaker 8: We want you to show us where we might be
• 23:00
  Speaker 8: doing this wrong with our people. Seems to be a
• 23:02
  Speaker 8: very difficult task. needle to thread. So that manager, whoever
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: it is, will have the ability to point us in
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: the direction of the people he wants if we can
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: access them.
• 23:13
  Speaker 10: Jerry, the defense really fell off this year. What do
• 23:16
  Speaker 10: you kind of view as the outlook for the guys
• 23:18
  Speaker 10: you have coming back? Where things struggle? Like you said,
• 23:21
  Speaker 10: a lot of those pieces aren't changing, so do you
• 23:23
  Speaker 10: have to commit a little bit more to finding some
• 23:26
  Speaker 10: defenders to fill out this, or how do you kind of.
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: View that push forward?
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: Well, I mean, some of it is just the regression
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: of players who have been good defensive players who regressed
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: in 2026. And I say this, and this is just real.
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: Being a bad defender is a choice. Being a good
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: defender sometimes requires a skill set that some players may
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: or may not have. Our players have the skills to
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: do it, and they've been somewhere between this. For a
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: five-year stretch, we were somewhere between a slightly above average to,
• 24:03
  Speaker 8: in some areas, a well above average major league defense,
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: and we didn't beat ourselves. This year, we led the
• 24:09
  Speaker 8: league in throwing errors.
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: It was... awful to watch. It was awful for the players.
• 24:13
  Speaker 8: We led the league and the least likely team to
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: convert a double play that we started.
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: That's not helpful to our pitchers.
• 24:21
  Speaker 8: A starting pitching staff who attacks the strike zone and
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: has the ball put in play is harmed by the
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: lack of range and positioning with our team. We can
• 24:34
  Speaker 8: solve some of that through more focus, more demanding and
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: challenging practice and But, you know, especially in the positioning
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: of those players, that's something that we as a scouting
• 24:45
  Speaker 8: advanced team can provide our players that we need to
• 24:49
  Speaker 8: implement more effectively than.
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: We did this year.
• 24:52
  Speaker 7: Jerry, are there off-season surgeries scheduled or coming up?
• 24:56
  Speaker 8: None yet, but I can't tell you what that might
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: look like as we finish the process of exit physicals
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: and such. not expecting anything, certainly not expecting anything major,
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: but it's possible.
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: We have time for Kate and a couple more.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: Jerry, several of your players, your player leaders, like Cal,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: like Brian, expressed.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Interest in having a voice in some of these personnel changes.
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: Either in the clubhouse or above.
• 25:22
  Speaker 7: How much will they have a role to play, and
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: do you think empowering them to do so.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: Could maybe help to address that leadership piece, that passivity
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: in the clubhouse?
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: Well, I will say this.
• 25:31
  Speaker 8: This week, we met individually with most of our players.
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: The core players who have been here, among them Cal
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: and Brian, and many others along the way. It wasn't
• 25:45
  Speaker 8: just players who came through our system, it was players
• 25:47
  Speaker 8: who joined on the fly, who we think very highly
• 25:49
  Speaker 8: of in terms of their level of character. We have
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: good people. Our issue is not the quality of the
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: person in the clubhouse. I will say Cal's been invested
• 26:03
  Speaker 8: in this for years now. I've joked around that he's
• 26:07
  Speaker 8: like an assistant GM, but we bounce all of this
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: off Cal. He's very communicative with us. He knows what
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: we're doing before we do it with player personnel. How
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: much we will factor their opinions in on who the
• 26:22
  Speaker 8: manager is, that remains to be seen. I think there's
• 26:25
  Speaker 8: also a danger zone there, but They'll be in tune
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: as to what we're doing and they will give us
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: the feedback that is required to make sure that this
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: is a good fit.
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: But we're not going to ask them to be a
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: part of an interview process. I think that's unfair.
• 26:40
  Speaker 8: It's unfair to the candidate and as much as it
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: is unfair to the organization.
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: Gary, it sounds like you guys are going to have
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: an exhaustive search for the manager.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: That doesn't appear to be what happened the last time
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: when you went from Scott to Dan.
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: Why is it different now? Perhaps because of that. But
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: in general.
• 26:57
  Speaker 8: We have been exhausted in our search for almost every
• 27:00
  Speaker 8: position we've filled. Dan, and I said this, and it
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: wasn't meant to be in a wise, assy type of way,
• 27:08
  Speaker 8: if I'm being honest. Dan's interview is like 35 years
• 27:12
  Speaker 8: long with the Mariners. And when he joined, we were...
• 27:17
  Speaker 8: We were looking for someone who could bring levity to
• 27:21
  Speaker 8: the environment, who had trust with the players out of
• 27:23
  Speaker 8: the chute.
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: And it was reciprocal.
• 27:27
  Speaker 8: And I think at that time, Dan was the appropriate
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: person for that job. We just didn't grow forward as
• 27:36
  Speaker 8: a group. And I think that's what leads us here today.
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: Our interview process, from the time we hired Scott, Scott
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: was on a 25-year interview with me, but we still
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: went through a process that included, at that time, six
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: managerial candidates and multiple layers of interview. We, when we
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: hire an area scout or a minor league coach or
• 27:59
  Speaker 8: a front office member, put them through the rigors of
• 28:03
  Speaker 8: multi-layered interview processes where they sit with various departments who
• 28:08
  Speaker 8: will affect them and various people who will affect them
• 28:11
  Speaker 8: and their ability to be productive in their roles. And
• 28:15
  Speaker 8: then we sit down and we debrief and we talk
• 28:17
  Speaker 8: through it and we determine which candidates move on. And
• 28:22
  Speaker 8: that's been exhaustive in other areas of our organization for years.
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: And we will do that in this process.
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: Thank you, guys.
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Jerry.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: All right, there you go. Jerry DiPoto wrapping up his
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: news conference. We will try to check in with Softee.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: He's down there. You heard him ask that last question
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: about the interview process with the manager. Let's take a
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: quick break. Come back with more on 93.3 KJR FM.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: All right, we're back. Let me just, if you're just
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: joining us right now and we joined the Jerry DiPoto
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: news conference, I'm seeing a lot of texts. Why wasn't
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: this asked? Why wasn't that asked? Et cetera, et cetera.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: We joined at 10 minutes late, so we're kind of
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: beholden to our friends at Fox. There's a big breaking
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: story going on at Kent. So we're going to try
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to track Softee down here in a couple minutes in
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the next segment before the top of the hour and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: wrap up some of the questions I see on the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: text line right now. Just to recap what we did here,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: this was an interesting comment. We like, like always, we're
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: going to be very aggressive in the offseason. Well, that
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: isn't the case. Like, they're aggressive at the trade deadline.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, they are.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Rob Refsnyder, A.J. Pollock, Colton Wong, etc., etc., are not
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: aggressive offseason moves. Their aggressive moves have been insane. Luis Castillo, Geno,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Randy Rosarena, Josh Naylor. You get the point. I mean,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the problems have been there. Their offseason has been the issue.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: That's been the issue. I did like this, brought back... Memories.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Talking about doing an audit on ourselves. Oh, God. Not
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: another audit. Not another audit.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: No more audits.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: We're audit free.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: No more audits. Please, no more audits.
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: No.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Because I can just tell you this. Fans don't like
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to hear anything about an audit because you're not going
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: to tell everybody what you found in an audit. It's
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: going to be mostly internal. I thought this was interesting.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Full autonomy to find a new manager. It says, quote,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I've always had full autonomy.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was surprised by that.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: So he hired Dan? He goes, well, Dan had a
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: 40-year job interview, whatever.
• 30:31
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Edgar's back in some capacity. He says he regrets a
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: lot of the communication issues this year on a question
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: that Softie asked. Mm-hmm.
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: On the YouTube feed we were getting the thing, was
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: he blaming the players for the piggyback?
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: He wasn't doing that. I don't think. I didn't get
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: that impression. He said the communication was on them. It
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: was bad.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: They fixed it. I think he was blaming the coaching staff.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then he did say, too, we played some
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: of our best baseball during that time. He didn't ever
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: say that was the players' fault, though.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: He did.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: That was the funny thing.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is the funny thing.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: But yeah, he never said this is something on them.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: Or I don't even think hinted that that was on
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: the players.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: He talked about their defense. He says being a bad
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: defender is a choice. That was an interesting comment. Being
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a bad defender is a choice.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Maybe laziness is the only thing that I could take
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: from it.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think focus, lazy. He said watching our defense was, quote,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: awful at times. Listen, I'm looking at the text, and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: we'll get to your text a little bit later on.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know what Jerry DiPoto could have said or
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: done in this news conference to win a fan base
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: back over. He had to do it. They did it
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: in a very strange place. Just so you guys know,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: they made it very challenging and difficult for the media
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: covering it. That's a choice by the organization. That's kind
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: of a middle finger, frankly, to everyone to do it
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: in such a small, confined space and just making it.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: They have an interview room.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Make it more formal. I know John Stanton. I do
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: believe he's doing a little bit of media with King
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: 5 as their TV partner, and I assume maybe he'll
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: do some. But we're putting requests in to see if
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Stanton will talk. I think the fact he wasn't there
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: is weak. Leaving Jerry out there hung out to dry.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but I do think, too, there's so many people
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: that are so irritated with.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Jerry, it wouldn't have mattered what he said.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: They're going to find a problem with everything he's saying,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: regardless of if some of it made sense and some
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: of it didn't.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: I actually 100% agree. I'm going to read this one
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: text before we get to a break. I was 10
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: when the Mariners played their first game ever. I've watched
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: great players come and go. Talk is talk. I'm over it.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I start watching when there's a playoff team on the field. Now,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that say and feel that.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: The attendance tells me a different story.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: Well, I think a lot of people still tune in,
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: still listen, still watch. whether or not they're at the games, obviously,
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: if they weren't at the games.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: And people are still passionate about it. I'm looking at
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the text. I mean, listen, it's the day after Seahawk
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: loss and I'm seeing 90% Mariners text. Yeah. So I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: take a quick break, come back, wrap up our two next.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: How much autonomy do you have?
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: Full autonomy. That I can assure you is, and always have,
• 33:24
  Speaker 8: I always have full autonomy. There's a, I work for
• 33:26
  Speaker 8: great people. They give us the resources that we need
• 33:29
  Speaker 8: to do the thing we need to do. They trust
• 33:31
  Speaker 8: our programs and, And I feel like we failed them
• 33:35
  Speaker 8: this year, because this should have been the year that
• 33:37
  Speaker 8: we did amazing things, and we just didn't.
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: But full autonomy.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Interesting comment there. Full autonomy. So a lot to get to.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Dave Softy Mahler, our own guy. We get a little,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: you know, you do more at four with Hugh. We're
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: going to do more with Softy at two is what
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: we're doing right now. And that's what we're going to do.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: We'll have Softy on in an hour. But just real quick,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: you were there. Just we had a, I mean, you'll
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: see the text line when you log in later. A
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: zillion texts. But a lot of people, we were in
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: breaking news with Fox 13 beforehand. So let me just
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: fire a couple things at you that people are asking
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and wondering about from the start that we might have missed. One,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Jerry is back. Jerry and Justin, correct? They are back.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: They're not going anywhere.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Dan Wilson, fired or not? Whose decision was it?
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: I asked Jerry DiPoto flat out if Dan was fired
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: or if he resigned, and he refused to answer the question.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: He would not answer.
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: He said, out of respect for Dan, that's a personal thing.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: We're not going to talk about that.
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: That was actually as short and as curt as he
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: was in the entire press conference with all the questions
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: he had gotten from the media. Most of the questions,
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: I would say 99.99% of them, if not every single
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: one besides that. He was expansive. He would get into detail.
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: He would follow up. He would talk for, you know, 60,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: 90 seconds, two minutes. The one question he was very,
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: very short on was me asking him if Dan quit
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: or if he was fired and he refused to answer.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: So there you go. What were your other takeaways?
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: I thought he said all the right things. I mean,
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: he was visibly shaken a little bit. You know, Dick
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: mentioned that in the press conference as we were done.
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: And I think Dick's right that this was maybe as
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: tough a press conference as he's ever done. It was
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: a weird setup. It was upstairs in the press box, right?
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: I mean, it was not in the media room. There
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: was no speaker providing audio, nowhere for media to plug
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: into and get an audio feed of the press conference.
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: I ended up sitting on top of a table behind
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: Tim Booth and Mike Varel so I could see the
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: actual press conference itself and see Jerry himself. Kind of
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: weird for him to look up and see some idiot
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: sitting up in the sky, staring at him, coming from
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: up high.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: So that was weird. Why they did that, I have
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: no idea.
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: The Mariners are typically pretty damn good when it comes
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: to PR and things like that. So I'm sure they
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: had their reasons. Why those reasons were, I don't have
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: any idea. But he was shaken, there's no doubt. He was,
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: I think, as direct as he's been since he's been here.
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: This was obviously no fun for him to answer these questions.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: I asked him flat out, I said, for people out there,
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: that wonder why you should be allowed to continue running
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: this thing what do you say to them and he
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: said i get it he said if i didn't have
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: a job today it'd be justified right i i totally
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: understand that you know uh and so he knows he's
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: on the hot seat he knows anytime you have a
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: third manager in four years the cleeg light is squarely
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: on him starting next season And it should be. And
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: we asked him about this search coming up for a manager.
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: There's going to be this expansive search for a manager,
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: which is something that they did not do the last
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: time when they gave the job to Dan Wilson in what,
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: August of 2024, 2023, whatever year it was. And I
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: asked him, I said, if there's going to be a
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: search now, why was there not a search last time?
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: And he said, maybe one of the reasons why we're
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: going to go on this search is because of the
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: way we did it last time.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: It didn't work. You know, we didn't do what we
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: were supposed to do. And he admitted that.
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: He did say that Dan Wilson's resume is 35 years long,
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: and I get that. You know, when you're around the
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: franchise and people know who you are, you're not asking
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: the same questions because you know the guy better than
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: you would, let's say, somebody else from the outside. But
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: it sounds like they're willing to admit the mistakes of
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: the past and learn from them.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Go back to what you just said, that question you asked,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: because we didn't hear that. I think that's the money question,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the money quote, because a lot of people, again, I'm
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: just looking on the text line. Sometimes we get texts
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and you go, is that really a true indication of
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: what the majority of people are saying? I think it is.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I think most people that I hear from, I see
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you hear from, and you talk to, People are like,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: why the hell is this guy still in charge? So
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: you asked him point blank that question.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: And he just said it would be justified if he
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: got let go.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: That's a crazy response, man.
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: I mean, look, I thought it was the right answer.
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: He's basically saying, I get it. I've been here for
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: 11 years. We've won one division championship. We've made the
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: playoffs two times. I'm on my third manager in four years.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: I'm not stupid. You know, I get it.
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: You know, I get why people would question why I
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: should be continuing to run this thing. So, you know,
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: we talked about, you know, that their culture needs a reset, right?
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: And that's a word that we've used a lot over
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: this last season. I've thought for months now that the
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: Mariner culture was awful. And it sounds like he admitted that,
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: you know, that this was a bad, bad culture. For
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: whatever reason, they got away from a lot of what
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: made their culture great last season. and they need to
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: have a reset. He talked about the horrible defense. You know,
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: he said being a bad defender is a choice.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I thought that was an interesting comment.
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm curious about Josh Naylor's response to that, by
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: the way, and Randy Rosarito's response to that. So he's
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: basically putting it on their lack of effort in a
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: lot of ways, let's face it, with a comment like that.
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: Nobody got around to asking about Randy Rosarito's.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Future, by the way.
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: I got the stink eye from Divish for asking too
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: many questions anyway, so... You know, maybe somebody else could
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: take over that role next time. But no, I mean, Ian,
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: it was it was kind of a surreal thing, man.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: It really was.
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: I just can't, you know, maybe do it justice when
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: I describe where this thing was. It was in the
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: back of the press box. Very small area. They had
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: a bunch of tables like shoved up against the TV cameras.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: So people were kind of out of whack as far
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: as the the angles for where they got to stand
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: and sit.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: And ask questions and cover this thing.
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: It was not a traditional press conference inside the media room,
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: which is a gigantic space downstairs underneath the bells at
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: T-Mobile Park that they've used many, many times before, and
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: for whatever reason today, decided not to use it. So, again,
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: I thought he answered every question the right way, and
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: we'll see what happens next April.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that listeners don't always care about that stuff,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: but I think it speaks volumes about how they handle
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: things and how this was handled. You know what they did?
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Just watching the video, Dave. They made it difficult for
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: everyone covering it. They made it difficult for those asking questions.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: And then they made it difficult, and this is maybe
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: the most important point. If he's your president of baseball operations,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: he's the guy in charge. You're putting him out here
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: because your owner doesn't want to do jack, right? So
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: you put him out there to be the bad guy,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: and rightfully so. That's his job.
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: To be fair, just real quick, he did talk to
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: Paul Silvey today, and he's also talking to Jude.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Stanton is. I know that.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: It's all safe.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I have no idea.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: It's all safe haven because TV partner and so forth.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: But my point with DePoto, watching DePoto, he looked like
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Richard Nixon under interrogation for Watergate, man. And he's usually
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: as calm as they come. They made it just really difficult.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: His job's difficult enough. I think I loved your questions.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I thought great job and people don't like it tough,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: but I thought it was good. The one thing, I'll
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: wrap it up with this that I thought was really strange.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Full autonomy on the coaching staff for the new manager,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: yet they're retaining some of the coaches. That's not full autonomy,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: is it?
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: Full autonomy as far as who comes and who goes
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: is with him, is I think what he meant.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: I'm the one who will decide, not the owner.
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: Full autonomy on hiring a manager, full autonomy on which
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: coaches come and which coaches go. Now, does that mean
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: that he will allow a new manager to fire Pete
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: Woodworth if he wants to?
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm wondering, yeah.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: I mean, in the end, I guess if he's talking
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: about it being– on his shoulders, then take him at
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: his word.
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: It's his, it's his call.
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: He will decide whether or not Pete Woodworth comes back
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: if they hire Steven Vogt or Tori Lovallo or whoever, right?
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: If that guy wants to bring in, as you would
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: think he'd be want to do, right? To bring in
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: his own pitching coach, you know, somebody who he's known
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: for a long time. If that guy wants to fire
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: Pete Woodworth, the Mariners ERA went from second in 2024
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: to what?
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: 18th, 19th, whatever it is.
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: 2026 and maybe they want to make a change. I
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: guess Jerry's telling you that in the end, it's going
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: to be his call. So I would take him on
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: his face, face value for that. And then the other thing,
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: God darn it. I had some of the top of
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: my mind. I was going to tell you, I hate this. No,
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: it was just, it was just about, you know, The
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: entire situation with him and the piggyback and the lack
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: of communication.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: I thought was really interesting.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I did too.
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: I asked him if he regretted the way it was handled,
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: and he said that the communication with the piggyback was terrible.
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: He said from the start they handled it as poorly
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: as they could. From a leadership perspective, he said there
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: was a lot of drama around the piggyback, and I'm
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: assuming that that means internal drama.
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: Not external drama.
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: I don't know why anybody would give a damn about
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: the fans and the media and, you know, drama in
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: the press and drama on our radio station. So I'm
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: assuming he meant internally. But he did admit that that
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: was handled terribly from the start. So, yeah, we'll see
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: if that happens again next year.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: All right, I know you're working on some other stuff.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: We'll check in with you in about 45 minutes, by
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the way.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I got nothing else going on. I'm here for you.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I'll read you one text. You'll like this. From the 206.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Good thing you sent skinny softy and not fat softy
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: to that Mariners media room set up. Probably right.
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: I would have fallen off the chair, off the table.
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: I was right behind Booth and Varel breathing down their
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: neck the entire time.
• 42:51
  Speaker 6: That's good.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: They need someone doing that.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you in a little bit, man. Nice job.
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: Okay, buddy. See you.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: Bye.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: There you go. That's Dave Softy Maher. We'll get back
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: to the NFL. Mike Sando joins us next.