The search for a manager for the Seattle Mariners is over. It’s going to be Jason Kanzler going with them, and that’s kind of a big turning point because he has no management experience at any level.
Salk: Seattle Mariners take big risks with hiring Jason Kanzler
Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, during his year-end press conference, said that while management experience was preferred for the next manager, it was not required. So in a way, it’s not a surprise because we’ve seen this before from Dipoto, even though it’s a very different candidate taking over as Mariners skipper than the previous two, Scott Servais and Dan Wilson.
I will be very interested to see Kanzler work with this club. He is only 36 years old. This will make him the second youngest manager in the game, and he is not far removed in age from a number of players. The core of the team averages around 27-28 years old, and Cal Raleigh will soon be 30, so Kanzler is going to speak the same language.
A new captain at the helm 🫡
Jason Kanzler is ready to lead the charge as the new manager. Welcome to Seattle!
🔗 https://t.co/HYXzYGEWpZ pic.twitter.com/Oq2bMRDaQa
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) November 3, 2026
As for the experience factor, no, he hasn’t, but yes, he’s seen the game up close and at the speed of a championship game since he was the hitting coach for the Houston Astros for a few years, and that experience counts. I’m also intrigued by his background in player development. He spent the last three years as the Cubs’ director of player development. This is an area that many teams are starting to focus on when examining managers, coaches and others in the dugout. So we’ll see how he builds on that.
People I spoke with said Kanzler was a quick thinker, was very intelligent, was on top of all the trends, and probably had the potential to create some trends himself. He should be able to work with everyone on everything in a game that, in this day and age, is progressing at such a rapid speed, which is very important.
Who is new Mariners manager Jason Kanzler? Jon Morosi’s perspective
I think the takeaway here — and I think it’s something we’ve learned throughout this research and really hit home when we heard last week that former Mariners minor league hitting coordinator CJ Gillman had been hired as a major league hitting coach — is that Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander are doubling down on the things they think work in this organization. This is not and never will be another major reorganization or reconstruction. There were some things that needed to be fixed, things that weren’t happening specifically at the major league level. But they like what’s going on in the farm system as far as the processes, so I think it’s more in line with what they have and what they like rather than someone who’s just going to come in and steer the big league ship, so to speak.
Are there any risks here? Absolutely. But there’s also, I think, the potential for a really good match, and it seems like they’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure that out. So it will be interesting to get to know Jason Kanzler, and we’ll get our first chance at the press conference on Wednesday. I also want to know a little more about the process of hiring him.
Until then, Kanzler has his work cut out for him, with baseball likely to shut down in less than a month with the expected lockout. He doesn’t have much time to hit the road and get to know his players.
This article is a transcription of the video from Mariners insider Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports found at the top of this article. It is edited for clarity.
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