Seattle Mariners Hire Jason Kanzler: What's His Biggest Issue?

On Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners officially named Jason Kanzler as the team's newest manager, as he will take over for the now-departed Dan Wilson. 

Kanzler will have a tough task in front of him, as he needs to revive a team that went 76-86 in 2026, missing the playoffs despite entering the season with World Series aspirations.

There are a lot of things to like about Kanzler, including his youth, upside, communication skills, reputation as a relationship developer, and his background in player development.

However, there are questions about his acumen for handling in-game situations, if he can get veteran players to respect him considering he's a first-time manager who is almost their peer, and then there's this, which Buster Olney of ESPN told us on the Oct. 22 edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast:

"Look, my general thought about the Mariners and where they are right now and why they need experience is whoever that manager is. If you have someone who doesn't have experience, they have to swim upstream against the perception with the fans and with some players that they are essentially going to do the bidding of the front office. That's the reality...

And that's the thing, is that if you have an experienced manager, a David Ross, a (Rocco) Baldelli, a Joe Espada, I think there's a, the manager starts out with the perception that he's his own person because he has his own experiences. And I think that's a good thing."

Olney was a proponent of the Mariners hiring someone with managerial experience from the outset of this process, and his point is fair. There is already a perception that Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander want to control the managerial position, so this hire will certainly make those claims a little louder and a little stronger.

The Mariners players - and their fans - will get a first look at Kanzler on Wednesday afternoon when he meets with the media for the first time (2 p.m. PT). Our own Teren Kowatsch will be covering the event live for us and we'll have plenty more reaction here at MarinersRoundtable. Furthermore, we will go live on the "Refuse to Lose Territory" podcast right after the press conference concludes. 

You can follow the channel below.

The Mariners finished third in the American League West this season, behind the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. Kanzler previously worked in the Astros organization, helping the organization win the World Series in 2022 as part of Dusty Baker's staff.

He worked on both the major league and minor league side of things with Houston, and he spent the last three years in player development with the Chicago Cubs.