Overall
Unusually for Dipoto, the strength of his 2023 season hasn’t been any of the deals he’s swung but his system products. Although none are as glamorous as Rodriguez, together they’ve provided +1.4 WAA worth of help to a team that has needed that help.
Here’s the first-half report card on the Mariners front office. Note that grades for players departing the organization are based on the reverse of those players’ WAAs with their new teams.
Mode WAA Grade
Acquired -1.0 D
Traded +0.4 C
Signed -0.9 C
FA Lost -0.1 C
Rookies +1.4 B
Overall -0.8 C
As previously noted, Dipoto has made 32 personnel moves since the end of the 2022 season. Those moves have split almost equally: 14 have been positive, 15 negative and three neutral. His overall rating, while modestly negative, is within the normal range.
A curious note regarding Dipoto: While he is generally recognized as an excellent trade negotiator, he’s never actually produced a trade class that delivered a positive WAA for his team the following year. His 2023 trade class (Wong, Hernandez and the rest) is following in that pattern with its -1.0 score at the season’s midway point.
In fact if you were somehow able to magically erase every trade Dipoto had ever made since becoming general manager of the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2016 season, his teams would have been about 24 games better off.