Recap: How the front office rating works
This is one in a series of assessments of the performances of front offices for the 2024 season. Each front office is given a score based on the total Wins Above Average of the players they either traded for, signed via free agency or extension, or promoted from their farm system, since the conclusion of the 2023 postseason.
A front office’s score also includes the total Wins Above Average of players traded away or lost to free agency since the end of the 2023 postseason. The front offices are being presented in order of their total value from No. 30 (worst) all the way to No. 1 (best).
These ratings do not necessarily reflect the final standings. Front offices are measured based only on the talent they acquired or lost during the past 12 months. Players on multi-year contracts, or already under team control, don’t count toward this rating.
12. Seattle Mariners, Jerry Dipoto, president of baseball operations, Justin Hollander, general manager, +2.5.
Jerry Dipoto’s front offices always adopt a Ruthian approach to team management. They swing big, hitting some and missing some, often spectacularly. The 2024 Mariners season was no exception.
DiPpoto and Justin Hollander ran an active front office, their moves impacting 64 major leaguers. That was the largest total in the AL West and the third most frenetic level of activity in the American League.
But the interesting number is 10. That’s how many players moved into or out of Seattle and then produced at least one game of impact, either positive or negative, for their team. That’s a relatively high number.
It is illustrative of the unpredictable nature Dipoto's "go big or go home" approach to roster development that six of those high-impact players came onto the Mariners’ roster, but the net impact of those six — Mitch Haniger, Tyler Locklear, Mitch Garver, Emerson Hancock, Luke Raley, and Victor Robles — amounted to -1.6 Wins Above Average.
Five most impactful Dipoto-Hollander moves:
Transaction | Net Impact (Wins Above Average) |
|---|---|
Signed free agent Victor Robles | +2.3 |
Lost Teoscar Hernadez to free agency | -2.2 |
Acquired Luke Raley in a trade with Tampa Bay | +1.7 |
Acquired Mitch Haniger in a trade with San Francisco | -1.6 |
Promoted rookie Tyler Locklear | -1.6 |
The constant outflow of talent was especially noteworthy. No fewer than 33 major leaguers saw action for another team in 2024 after having been under contract to the Mariners at some point since the end of the 2023 postseason.
Is that a lot? Indeed it is; the major league average was just 19 such players. Literally two-thirds of big league teams employed at least one recently former Mariner on the playing field at some point during 2024.
The June signing of Robles — who had been released three days earlier by Washington — didn’t get much attention at the time, but turned out to be the season’s biggest deal in Seattle. Robles hit .328 with an .860 OPS in 77 games, and has the inside track on regular outfield duty in 2025.
But from an impact standpoint, Robles’ signing merely offset the loss to free agency of Teoscar Hernandez. Signing with the Dodgers, Hernandez played a key role in the Dodgers’ World Series run.
The cumulative effect of all this activity was to keep the Mariners interesting in their ultimately futile effort to reach the 2024 postseason. At 85-77, they finished three games behind Houston in the division race and one game short of the Detroit Tigers in the wild card.
Previous Rankings
14. San Diego Padres, A.J. Peller, president of baseball operations and general manager, +2.0
12. Seattle Mariners, Jerry Dipoto, resident of baseball operations, and Justin Hollander, general manager, +3.2
Next: 11. Minnesota Twins, Derek Falvey, president of baseball operations, Thad Levine, senior vice president and general manager, +2.9