After announcing Jack Zduriencik was relieved of his duties as general manager, the Seattle Mariners will need to secure the long-term future of their front office to make a playoff push for the first time since 2001.
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Mather Discusses Mariners' Plan for Next GM
Saturday, Aug. 29
"I want to avoid the, 'You can talk to him after the postseason,'" Mariners club president Kevin Mather said, per Bob Dutton of the News Tribune. "Sorry, we’re going to miss him. He’s not going to make my list. I’m not going to wait until November on this. I’d like to move this along sometime in late September to mid-October, so we can hit the ground running when the postseason ends."
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today on Aug. 28, the Mariners plan to hire a general manager who has previous experience in the role:
Nightengale added on Twitter that the Mariners will have a "slew" of top general manager candidates available to them, noting the team wants to hire someone before the regular season ends.
Seattle's roster is in an interesting spot for the new GM, whomever that ends up being. Jonah Keri of Grantland pointed out recently that the team has been bad at developing players, citing examples like Dustin Ackley, Nick Franklin, Jesus Montero, Justin Smoak and Mike Zunino.
Because of the inability to bring up impact young players, Zduriencik and his staff spent a franchise-record $123 million on a roster in 2015 that's 10 games under .500 and in fourth place in the American League West.
The good news is that with expiring contracts, Seattle's projected payroll for next season is $78.86 million.
As long as the next general manager hires a scouting and coaching staff able to develop major league-caliber players and the front office remains willing to spend money on free agents, the Mariners should be an attractive destination for many GM candidates.
Contract information via Cot's Baseball Contracts.
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