SEATTLE – There was not as much looking forward at the Seattle Mariners’ end-of-the-season press gathering Thursday as there usually is, as there was still too much to process from the abrupt ending of the team’s season Monday night in Toronto. As president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, general manager Justin Hollander and manager Dan Wilson took questions in separate corners in the Ellis Pavilion at T-Mobile Park, the pain was evident on their faces and in their words.
“It leaves you feeling hollow,” Hollander said. “It’s hard right now.”
“It does sting,” Wilson said. “I’m not sure how long the sting will last.”
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When asked to wrap up the season and how he felt in the moment, Dipoto qualified his answer with expecting it would change as time went on. But three days after watching the Blue Jays celebrate winning the American League pennant?
“Disappointed,” he said before trying to take a more hopeful pass at the question. “And I know everybody else is too. It’s, you know … (long pause) … disappointing.”
That was all he could manage in the moment. What he couldn’t put into words was heard in the catch of his voice when he tried to continue.
The emotions were still raw for all, but Dipoto and Hollander acknowledged they would soon turn their attention back to going about the business of putting the next team together. That team will likely look very similar to the club that just came within eight outs of going to the World Series.
“First base, third base and bullpen,” answered Dipoto when asked for their offseason needs. “Those will be our primary areas of focus. Then, trying to determine the readiness of our young guys.”
As for resources available, Dipoto indicated he should be starting with more than a year ago.
“I would say similar to where we ended the year as a starting point,” Dipoto said.
According to Spotrac.com, the Mariners finished the 2025 season with a payroll of approximately $164 million, which ranked 15th in the major leagues. That was an increase from their 2024 season-ending payroll of $149 million, which ranked 16th.
Related: Dipoto discusses Mariners’ anticipated 2026 payroll
The Mariners have made it clear that re-signing first baseman Josh Naylor is a priority and that they would like to bring back second baseman Jorge Polanco, who is expected to decline his $6 million player option. The situation with Eugenio Suárez is not as clear, but they have expressed great appreciation for the veteran third baseman. Whether or not focusing on the bullpen means looking for relievers they can improve or going after established relievers remains to be seen, but for Hollander, all pitching will be a focus.
“I’m always going to lean toward you can never have enough pitching,” Hollander said. “We’ve been really, really blessed with tremendous talent and tremendous health until this year. And this year we had some of the health bug bite us and we got exposed for part of the season just where we really felt like we were a little naked in terms of the next guy up over and over and over again.
“And our guys did a great job. Some guys came in and filled in really admirably. We asked a lot of Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans. We asked a lot of some of the relievers on the team who stepped up. But we’re always going to need more pitching. The league tells you a story every year – and if you don’t listen to it, you’re crazy – that you can never have too much pitching.”
Could some of the Mariners’ needs be filled from their farm system? In the recent past, prospects have had a pretty clear path to the bigs, with rookie infielders Cole Young and Ben Williamson getting considerable time to get their legs under them this season. Will we see the same in 2026 with a number of highly ranked prospects moving quickly throughout the organization?
“This is a little different,” Dipoto acknowledged. “We have a built-out, mature team. We have a number of star players around the field that I think the world at large just found out were stars. And we’re going to have to be a little choosier with how we implement our young players. But they’re going to play a big part in what we do now and moving forward. That’s how you sustain.”
Hollander agreed.
“It’s our job to build a roster that can support the growth that they’re going to need to have in order for us to reach the ceiling that we need to have, which is going to and winning a World Series,” Hollander said. “You can’t do that without developing your own homegrown players and your own homegrown difference-making players. We need to find a way to make sure that we give them enough runway to show what they can be, while also making sure that we give our team the steadiness and the foundation to go out and win the division.”
Winning the division and more will be the goal. In the 30-minute media session, Dipoto and Hollander found themselves having to balance their disappointment of the season’s outcome with the rest of the season. It was hard to claim any wins, as they fell short of their ultimate goal.
“We can’t rest on our laurels,” said Hollander. “We weren’t good enough. We were good enough to win the division. We were good enough to win a series. Those are great things and I don’t want to diminish those at all. I’m really proud of some things we accomplished this year, but there’s still more things to go and we need to get better, we need to do more, we need to be better.”
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