Takeaways From Mariners POBO Jerry Dipoto’s Post-Deadline Media Availability
SEATTLE, Wash. – Ready to dive into a trio of trades made by the ball club, Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto sat down for a 20-minute dugout media interview on Thursday, July 31, just 50 minutes after the MLB trade deadline had passed.
While the Seattle Mariners made some big splashes in the days leading up to the deadline – including nabbing the biggest bat available in Eugenio Suárez during Seattle’s Wednesday night contest against the Athletics – they were comparatively quiet over the morning hours of Thursday’s frenzy.
Jerry Regrets Suarez Salary Dump
Dipoto is often criticized for his politician-like non-answers or gaffes, but he was quite frank about one of the big regrets of his tenure.
On November 22, 2023, after something of a down year from Suárez, Dipoto made a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that sent the third baseman to Arizona in exchange for catcher Seby Zavala and reliever Carlos Vargas. The trade was unambiguously a net negative for the Mariners, who got two players without much combined upside and gave away not only a big bat in the order but a key clubhouse guy as well.
“One of my least favorite trades I’ve ever done,” Dipoto said about the move. “I love Geno; we all do. He was a pivotal player for us for two years and a better person, a leader.”
Evidently, payroll requirements from up high were one of the big elements in the move, making it essentially a salary dump of a player that was set to make a little over $26 million during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
“At the time, we were trying to manage a more restrictive payroll as we went into that offseason,” Dipoto noted.
Dipoto didn’t go into the weeds of his payroll restrictions or what he’s facing this year, but it’s clear the effects that it had on the last few seasons of Mariners baseball. Still, it’s good to see Dipoto own up to his mistakes.
And obviously, getting Suárez back is an admission in its own right. But good teams don’t concern themselves with prior mistakes; no problem was ever solved by looking backwards.
Satisfied With Haul, Dipoto Bets on 2025
Obviously, Suárez was the biggest splash Seattle made in this year’s deadline. But there were two other pickups that the Mariners made, both in the leadup to the deadline. Josh Naylor had been acquired relatively early, with the Diamondbacks sending him over on July 24. And on the same day as the Suárez trade, the M’s got lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson.
Dipoto talked about his satisfaction with the deadline moves he made this year, specifically with regards to the offense.
“We feel like we acquired the two best bats available,” Dipoto said. “Now, if you line up our batting lineup, it’s pretty stunning.”
There was a bit of an almost-there when it came to the relievers. Seattle was reportedly in the hunt for some of the top-of-the-line relievers such as Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota Twins, but the big hauls teams were getting for bullpen help – and a Philadelphia Phillies swipe of Duran out from under the Mariners’ feet – cooled Seattle’s interest somewhat. After that, they pivoted and made sure to go for the upgrade they could get.
“We were ideally focused on bullpen in general, but we did want another lefty, and we got Caleb Ferguson, who is as good as anybody available,” Dipoto stated.
But still, it was the bats headlining the deal. Dipoto doubled down on his “all in” comments from before the deadline, even mentioning the “W” word as something this team can aspire to.
“This one, we went a little bigger [than previous deadlines], and it was players who are free agents at the end of the year, which is a little unique for us,” Dipoto remarked. “But we felt like this team deserved the opportunity to just go out and win the World Series.”
Dipoto is betting on the team getting hot at some point in the next 50 games, saying that a hot streak “is coming.” It’s not a tiny bet; the team is composed of a lot of hot-and-cold players up and down the roster. Suárez himself is one of them. Of course, the general manager can’t go out and say he doesn’t have confidence in his decisions, but Dipoto does seem to think that this could be the year.
“We’ve spent most of the whole season either in first place or in playoff position. I think Cal [Raleigh] is having an MVP type of season. We just had five All-Stars. We have a really deep team,” Dipoto said. “I think if you talk to other clubs in the league, they’re pretty bullish on what we’re capable of when we’re hitting on all cylinders.”
Deadline Day Slightly Rare?
Still, it does appear that the M’s came up short on a few things. Relief pitchers went like hot cakes around the league on Wednesday morning and in the early afternoon as the deadline approached. Dipoto didn’t go into specifics, but he mentioned that he had been involved in a fair few discussions.
“Today we tried out a ton of things that didn’t really work out for us,” Dipoto remarked. “I was fascinated with what was happening with relievers around the league. We were in a lot of those conversations for weeks on a lot of the back end bullpen guys. It felt like we were in the end zone in one case and near the goal line in others.”
He’s clearly referring to Jhoan Duran with “in the end zone”:,” as the M’s were reportedly in “deep negotiations” with the Twins to acquire the top reliever, but the Phillies came in with the better offer from Minnesota’s perspective and thus Duran went to the City of Brotherly Love.
Dipoto was surprised by the amount people were willing to fork over big prospect loads for bullpen arms.
“I think this is about as aggressive as teams have been with their farm systems in quite some time,” Dipoto remarked.
But Ferguson is no slouch. He gives up the softest contact of any pitcher in Major League Baseball and is lights-out against lefties.
Mariners “Loosely Tethered” to Starting Pitching Talks
There was a fair amount of speculation – and some stated interest on the Mariners’ side – about the team getting a fifth starter, with Bryce Miller out and both Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans having quite the bumpy road. But it never ended up materializing for the M’s.
Dipoto referred to the overall starter market as “shockingly mild” but there were some notable moves: the Rays picked up Adrian Houser from the White Sox, while the Rangers got D-Backs starter Merrill Kelly – both of whom have sub-four ERAs. Dipoto is likely banking on a good return from Bryce Miller before too long and a solid showing from Logan Evans down the stretch.
“We were pretty loosely tethered to the starting pitcher market. Mostly because there weren’t that many available, and we didn’t feel like there was an obvious upgrade for us,” Dipoto said. “The idea is, with Logan Evans, Emerson Hancock, and the ultimate return of Bryce Miller – whenever that is – we feel like we were in better shape than most. We really focused on the bullpen. Would we have liked to add one more guy? Sure. That’s why we were in the market. We just came up a bit short.”
But he does let it slip right at the end there: there were probably a few more pieces on the board than Dipoto is letting on that the team probably wanted. Dipoto now has to rely on Miller coming back and Evans holding down the fort, but that might not have been his initial goal. Still, he was clearly okay with that being an option.
Locklear Late Add in Long Suarez Talks
Perhaps the final thing that landed Geno Suárez was a Pacific Coast League weekly award.
The headlining return bat for the D-Backs is Tyler Locklear, who had been on a month-long tear with the Tacoma Rainiers before the deal was concluded. On July 28, Locklear was awarded PCL Player of the Week after a 1.745 OPS showing over the previous week.
And Locklear was a late addition to the Suárez negotiations, according to Dipoto.
“[Locklear] actually wasn’t introduced until about 48 hours ago, or thereabouts,” Dipoto said. When he said this, that would have been around 4 PM Pacific on July 29. I’m not saying the award got the Mariners Suárez back, but it’s a distinct possibility. Diplomacy, like baseball, is a game of inches.
It’s also a game of miles. Dipoto – and Mariners general manager Justin Hollander – had been interested in the two Arizona sluggers for quite some time. Suárez, obviously, would be an excellent reunion, while the M’s had been interested in Naylor since his time with the Cleveland Guardians.
“We had been talking to [the Diamondbacks] for weeks – and when I say weeks I really mean months – about the concept of acquiring both Josh [Naylor] and Geno [Suárez] together.” Dipoto stated. “They were number one and number two on our list, or number one and one-A.”
Naylor and Suárez are clearly the pieces that Dipoto saw as the crown jewels of the trade deadline. And unlike many years past, the Mariners got the crown jewels.
Ben Williamson Sent Down for Reps
Ben Williamson, the Mariners’ rookie third baseman, has been optioned to Tacoma to make space for Suárez on the 26-man roster.
Dipoto was very clear on Thursday that this was not a knock on his ability, but rather so he could get consistent at-bats while the top of the depth chart at third is occupied by Suárez.
In 85 games with Seattle over the 2025 season, Williamson was stellar defensively albeit unimpressive with the bat. His .253/.294/.310 slash was nothing to write home about and most of the sparse doubles he did knock weren’t especially well struck, but the reason he was consistently starting is because of his glove.
Williamson’s eight Defensive Runs Saved in 2025 are second in MLB among all third baseman behind only Ke’Bryan Hayes of the Pirates (and now Reds), who has 16. Baseball-Reference affords him 1.1 defensive WAR, a pace of about two defensive WAR over a full season.
The only defensive metric that doesn’t like Ben Williamson is Statcast’s Outs Above Average, which has him at 58th percentile. This is an improvement over some even lower evaluations earlier this season, but 58th percentile is still a massive underestimation of Williamson’s abilities. He has good range, strong reaction times, and incredible consistency.
Bullish on Canzone
Dipoto was noticeably positive about Dominic Canzone on Thursday, twice bringing him up completely unprompted during his interview.
“Sneaky in there, in ‘23, was Dom Canzone – maybe controversial – but it’s paying off now,” Dipoto said while going over some of the deadlines in his time with the Mariners.
“I think [Canzone] has been legitimately good since the day we brought him back from Tacoma,” Dipoto later said as he was discussing the key pieces of the Mariner offense.
The stats back him up here. Canzone had been slashing .290/.338/.492 between his June callup and Dipoto’s interview and followed it up with a 2-4 performance on Wednesday night. There’s also the StatCast data, where there’s a fair amount of red all over his map this year.
Despite a strong arm, however, his overall defense does leave quite a few things to be desired. He doesn’t have a whole lot of range out there in right field and honestly might slot in long-term as more of a designated hitter type. That’s if he keeps up current improvements.
I have a bit more skepticism than Dipoto when it comes to Canzone as a long-term piece of the puzzle, but I still see what Dipoto sees when he talks about him. There’s serious potential here.
Good Vibes Only
One of the big values of Suárez is his enthusiasm and his energy. He’s just about the dictionary definition of sparkplug. One thing this team needed throughout the recent road trip was life, Suárez provides that in spades. The catchphrase “Good Vibes Only” is the encapsulation of this ability.
The first day Suárez was on the Mariners, the team had a crushing victory over the Texas Rangers, opening a key series with a 6-0 win. The M’s need a lot more of that over the final two months of the regular season. But more importantly, they need that in October.
