Seattle Mariners Free Agency: Jerry Dipoto Offers Insight into Team's Plans

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners were able to take care of their biggest priority of the offseason by hiring former Chicago Cubs president of player development Jason Kanzler as manager. He was officially introduced as the team's new skipper Wednesday.

Now that Kanzler is in place, the team will focus on free agency, which will have a much more abbreviated period compared to previous years. The Mariners, and the other 29 major league clubs, will have until Dec. 1 to make any additions to the major league roster. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the MLB and MLB Players Association is set to expire on that date. After then, a lockout is expected to be in place and the teams will not be allowed to make any moves pertaining to the roster.

Seattle has reportedly already been "poking around" the trade market to see what it could get for a starting pitcher.

In the Jerry Dipoto-era, the Mariners have preferred to make additions via the trade market compared to free agent deals, and that appears to be the case again for the team this offseason.

"We've already had 90% of the league check in on what trade matches might look like and free agency's obviously open and we've already engaged on the minor league front," Seattle president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said in an interview Wednesday at T-Mobile Park. "We've had a couple of preliminary talks internally about putting together our target list for the big league free agents. I suspect that'll move rather quickly and normally that starts to pick up pace in terms of the discussions once we get to (MLB general manager meetings). And my guess is it'll be moving in very high gear once we get back from (Las Vegas)."

General manager meetings take place Nov. 9-12 in Las Vegas, meaning that it will likely be a week before the wheels truly start turning on the team's free agent efforts. A trade could also start to take structure at the meetings.

As for what Seattle's targets are, the team has needs in the bullpen, third base and left field with internal options at all the position player spots.

This year is a light class in terms of position players but heavy on potential high-leverage arms in the bullpen.

"It's actually pitching-rich," Dipoto said. "Position-player group is maybe a little bit lighter and I don't know how we will view that. We usually look internally and to trade first. This year's bullpen market is pretty appealing. There's a lot of guys out there we feel like could help us. We've already identified who they might be. Whether we can land them or not is a different story. But, we're looking to add to our bullpen. We're looking for one, maybe two more bats. And we'd like to add a veteran infield presence. Whether that is part of the bats or just a presence is something entirely different."

The team's 2027 payroll is expected to be around where it ended the season in 2026, meaning Dipoto and the rest of the front office has roughly $30-35 million in available funds this offseason.

Despite the way the season ended, Dipoto feels strongly about the core of the team.

Following the conclusion of the trade deadline this past season, Dipoto spoke about the difficulty the team faced in adding via the trade market considering there were few players available that had higher internal grades than those already on the roster. That looks to remain the case for free agency.

"We feel like we're a pretty complete team," Dipoto said. "(Josh Naylor) and (Cole Young) and (Colt Emerson) and (Brendan Donovan) and (Cal Raleigh) and Jhonny Pereda and (Julio Rodriguez) and Dom Canzone — it's a pretty built-out team. We have some specific needs we need to go fill. Some (positions) we feel like we can do internally with guys like (Lazaro Montes), Michael Arroyo, et cetera. But we need to increase our organizational depth. And it will be no small order to go back (and) fill the offense that went away with (Randy Arozarena) because he had a remarkable run for us."

One route the M's could go to find potentially cheaper alternatives to some of the players on the market is internationally. Japanese players such as third baseman/corner outfielder Teruaki Sato and closer/starter Kaima Taira have both been linked to the Mariners. Right-handed Korean corner infielder/corner outfielder Roh Si-hwan would also fit well based on the team's needs.

All of those international players will have until the lockout to agree to terms with MLB teams or return to their respective teams in their native country.

"We're as aware of them as we are of any other free agent," Dipoto said.