MLB: Rating front offices of the AL West

Seattle Mariners

Jerry DiPoto, executive VP and GM of baseball ops: -4.8 games

In terms of consistent, year-to-year inefficiency, DiPoto is Daniels’ more mobile doppelganger. The largest difference between the two is that while Daniels has spent his entire GM career in one place, DiPoto has twice (Arizona in 2011, Los Angeles in 2016) beaten the sheriff out of town.

Nonetheless, let the record show that over 10 seasons running big league front offices in three cities, DiPoto has hurt his teams’ chances by a collective 25.9 games.

More from AL West

His 2020 performance in Seattle was typical. Always a frenetic wheeler-deal, DiPoto made 42 personnel moves impacting the Mariners in 2020. But only 10 of those moves created positive short-term value.

And only one of those moves, the promotion of Rookie of the Year candidate Kyle Lewis, exceeded +0.5 WAA in value. Lewis hit .262 with 11 home runs and a .801 OPS, good for a +0.8 WAA.

It wasn’t that anyone particular personnel move was damaging; it was the cumulative weight. Nearly two-thirds of the personnel decisions DiPoto made since the end of the 2019 season impacted the Mariners negatively.

Reliever Nestor Cortes came over from the Yankees, produced a 15.26 ERA in just five appearances and cost the Mariners 0.9 WAA. Reliever Bryan Shaw signed as a free agent, had an 18.0 ERA in six appearances, and subtracted another 0.8 WAA from the team’s standing. And so on and so on.

The result: The second-worst front office performance in MLB in 2020, ahead of only Detroit’s Al Avila.

Here is the annual short-term performance rating since DiPoto became an MLB general manager in 2016:

2016: -4.6
2017: -6.9
2018: +0.8
2019: -3.7
2020: -4.8