Mariners eliminated and Dan Wilson discusses his future

The 2026 season might not have finished yet, but conversation has inevitably turned to Dan Wilson’s position as Seattle Mariners manager.

In recent days it almost felt like the Mariners were the equivalent of a dead man walking, in respect of being eliminated from the playoffs. Perhaps mercifully, it became official on Thursday even before they played their final series opener versus the Angels, courtesy of the Rangers’ 3-1 win against the Mets. Now, thoughts turn to what the M’s need to do moving forward, to recover from arguably the most disappointing season in franchise history.

This will almost certainly be done without Dan Wilson, who is widely expected not to return as M’s manager next season. We anticipate him stepping away under his own terms as opposed to being fired, which is how it should be done with one of the most popular people in the organization. It’s a shame it has come to this, but the results on the field this year make it a necessity.

The Mariners came into this season with high hopes and this was reflected by the media both locally and nationally, with plenty predicting them to represent the AL in the World Series. This would have been their first such berth in 50 years of M’s baseball, but instead it couldn’t have played out more differently. They will finish with the first losing season in a full year since 2019 and could potentially record their second-most losses since 2014.

The Mariners’ failures go far beyond just Dan Wilson

In fairness to Wilson this disappointing season goes far beyond just him, with a multitude and circumstances outside of his control. No one could have anticipated the “Big 3” of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor all having career-worst years. Or a plethora of injuries to key personnel, including to a bullpen which had a dearth of quality options and had to contend with Andrés Muñoz falling off a cliff after two consecutive All-Star selections.

Ultimately though, as much as there can also be blame attached to ownership and the front office, Wilson will be the one to pay the ultimate price. Certainly he didn’t help his case at times with his in-game decisions, but we hope he isn’t held up as a scapegoat of sorts for what was a collective failure by everyone with the organization. If nothing else, he still took the Mariners closer than ever to that elusive first World Series berth in 2025, and will leave with the second-best winning percentage by a manager in franchise history.

As with the majority of other people, Wilson did not expect to be in this position; not with the talent on the roster and the confidence surrounding them. Prior to the series opener against the Angels, he was asked if he had any early thoughts on how things got to this point? He said:

“Yeah, I mean there are a lot of obvious things you can look at. Sometimes it begins to sound like excuses, and that’s not what this is about. I think it’s about looking at things that need to be addressed and need to get improved. We will continue to look at those things and continue to figure them out and continue to solve them. That’s what we need to do, and that’s what teams in this spot need to do.”

Dan Wilson loathe to get into specifics about what went wrong, but does touch on one key issue

We can appreciate even now, that Wilson’s approach has always been about being positive, supporting his players and not throwing anyone under the bus. Therefore you can certainly understand his response regarding what went wrong. Instead, he can leave that to others both within and outside of the organization, to be more vocal about the issues which ruined this season.

One thing Wilson did expand on though, was the Mariners’ lack of consistency this season. More specifically following the season-high eight-game winning streak in late-May/early-June, which at the time took them to 33-29. He said:

“Yeah, I think certainly consistency was an issue for us. We did put together that stretch and I think we all felt like we were going to kind of take off. And it didn’t happen at that point. Again, you can look at a lot of different things, but consistency in this game is everything. That’s the kind of thing when you go back and look back on a season like this and reflect. And you have to find the ways that you can get to the consistency you want next year.”

Dan Wilson asked about his future as Mariners manager

On the subject of next year, the conversation inevitably turned towards Wilson’s future with the Mariners. Speculation indicates an announcement will be made early next week, but in the meantime he is just focused on finishing the current season. He said:

“I mean, obviously tons of speculation and all that kind of stuff. And again, just trying to get through these next four days and push hard to finish up as strongly as we can and find some positives here at the end. Then we take things as they come.”

Again, it’s a shame that things played out as they did for Wilson and the Mariners, because it genuinely did seem as if this team was finally primed to reach The Fall Classic. Instead, they will be at home watching playoff baseball on television and wondering about what could have been. Still, assuming this is the end for Wilson, we wish him all the best and thank him for all the wonderful memories he provided during a special 2025 season.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

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