On Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners officially announced Chicago Cubs' director of player development Jason Kanzler as the team's newest manager.

He will take over for Dan Wilson, who was let go at the end of the 2026 season.

Kanzler will meet with the media in a press conference on Wednesday at 2 p.m. PT at T-Mobile Park.

From the Mariners press release:

“Our goal in this process was finding a manager with the ability to challenge all of us to improve,” Dipoto said. “Jason has the mindset, expertise, communication skills, and intensity to help create a championship standard here in Seattle.”

“We are excited to welcome Jason and Ashley and their family to the Mariners,” Executive VP & General Manager Justin Hollander said. “Throughout the process, Jason consistently demonstrated elite leadership skills, high-end content and an ability to connect and partner with players, staff and front office.  We all believe Jason is the right person to lead our organization back to the Postseason.”

Look, at the end of the day, these words are all just press release jargon. I decided a long time ago to not fall for press release jargon and to not be "won over" by the press conference. At the end of the day, it's a game of show and not tell.

That said, these words are all we have right now, so I'm encouraged to hear specific mention of leadership and communication. Those two things were reportedly lacking from the Mariners in 2026 as they went 76-86 and missed the playoffs just one year after making the American League Championship Series.

Dipoto spoke at the conclusion of the season about the communication gap in the organization, and Hollander did as well on a radio appearance on Seattle Sports 710. Hopefully, Kanzler can excel at that part of the job and serve as a bridge between the front office and his coaching staff, and the coaching staff and the players.

Well, the Mariners will introduce Kanzler on Wednesday, and we'll break down what he had to say about how to get the best out of an underachieving group. And from that point forward, the new skipper will have just about one month to make the rounds and meet/greet his players before the probable MLB lockout takes told on Dec. 1 at 8:59 p.m. PT.

Once that happens, there can be no communication between managers and players.

We will have a new episode of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast immediately following Kanzler's press conference. You can expect that about 3 p.m. PT on Wednesday.