On August 28th, the Mariners fired Jack Zduriencik, their longtime GM who had tried two different rebuilds, with three different managers. His tenure was rocky, and according to a scathing report by written Geoff Baker two years ago, it was built upon a lie.
"'Jack portrayed himself as a scouting/stats hybrid because that's what he needed to get the job. But Jack has never understood one iota about statistical analysis. To this day, he evaluates hitters by homers, RBI and batting average and pitchers by wins and ERA. Statistical analysis was foreign to him. But he knew he needed it to get in the door." - Tony Blengino
The article goes on to reveal specifics of Zduriencik's resume, but based off Blengino's comments, none of them were based in fact. The Mariners wanted someone like Billy Beane, who understood the scouting side of baseball, as well as the importance of advanced analytics; but instead they hired someone who was infatuated with the Triple Crown categories, and nothing else.
With those factors in mind, it makes perfect sense that Seattle is reportedly going to interview Jerry Dipoto, as he seems to be a blend of both.
Jerry Dipoto is expected to be the first candidate outside the Seattle organization to interview this week for the #Mariners GM position.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 8, 2015
From 2003-2010, he was a scout for the Red Sox, the head of the scouting department for the Rockies, the director of scouting and player personnel for the Diamondbacks, and briefly their interim GM.
On October 28th of 2011, he was hired by the Angels to be their long-term GM, a position that he held until July first of this year. He reportedly clashed with Mike Scioscia over how much of an emphasis there was on advanced analytics, something that the Mariners are seemingly in favor of.
While their future GM is going to have to be creative in how they build a winning team, it's clearly an attractive landing spot. They already have Felix Hernandez, Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, and Robinson Cano (who will hopefully rebound in 2016), and they can offer their future GM a chance to start over.
In Anaheim, Dipoto seemingly had less power than Scioscia when push came to shove, but in Seattle, he would have the chance to install his own manager. While Lloyd McClendon is still under contract, that doesn't appear to be a factor for his future.
Will not be a condition for the new GM to keep McClendon as manager.
— Curtis Crabtree (@Curtis_Crabtree) August 28, 2015
As of now, there's no timetable for when the Mariners will ultimately make their decision, but it makes sense that it would be before the end of the month. They'll want to give their new GM plenty of time to learn about their new organization so that he or she can be up to speed before free agency begins.