Mariners to hire Jason Kanzler as new manager, Dan Wilson's successor

Adam Jude and Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Nov 3, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — After a monthlong search, the Mariners have again settled on a first-time manager to succeed Dan Wilson in the dugout.

And Jason Kanzler, a former high school science teacher, qualifies as the most surprising choice yet for Jerry Dipoto’s front office.

The Mariners are hiring Kanzler, a relatively unknown 36-year-old who has never managed at any level of affiliated baseball, as the franchise’s 22nd full-time field manager, industry sources confirmed Tuesday morning.

The Mariners formally announced the hiring soon after.

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

Kanzler has served as the Chicago Cubs’ director of player development since January 2024, building a reputation as a good communicator with an aptitude for advanced metrics.

Before joining the Cubs, Kanzler spent five years in the Houston Astros organization, starting as a minor league instructor and working his way up to the major league coaching staff during the Astros’ 2022 championship season.

“I am thrilled to join the Mariners organization and I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running,” Kanzler said in a statement. “This team has an immense amount of talent in all facets of the game, and my coaching staff and I are excited to access and unlock this team’s full potential.”

In Dipoto’s 11 years in charge of Mariners baseball operations, Kanzler is the club’s third managerial hire. And like Scott Servais and Dan Wilson before him, Kanzler has had no previous managerial experience before taking over Seattle’s top seat in the dugout.

“(Experience is) not a prerequisite. It would be preferred,” Dipoto said at his end-of-season news conference. “We will go outside to hire our manager. We need fresh thought. We need something new. It could be a shift in programming. It could be a shift in messaging. It could be a shift in language. We’ll collaborate with whoever our future manager is, and and try to find the right person. If that person has major league managerial experience, that would be preferred.”

The Mariners’ front office conducted formal interviews last week with their two finalists, Kanzler and former Houston Astros manager Joe Espada.

Former Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was scheduled for an in-person interview in Seattle this week before he withdrew his name from consideration, citing family matters.

Baldelli was considered a favorite to land the job and his withdrawal surprised the Mariners, sources said.

The Mariners had an initial list of 30-40 names in their manager search, and at the outset of the process Dipoto said the club needed to find someone from outside the organization who could turn some dials on a club that slogged through the most disappointing season in Mariners history.

Kanzler certainly fits that description.

“There are a lot of good people out there, and most of what we’ve done in recent years, especially, has been insular,” Dipoto said in late September. “And this year’s failure requires that we look outside to find someone who might be able to poke holes in what we’re doing and help us see something that perhaps we’re blind to.”