11:03 am CT: The Mariners have officially announced Kanzler as their new manager.
“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.”
10:41 am CT: The Mariners have landed on Jason Kanzler as their next skipper, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. Kanzler will replace Dan Wilson.
This will be the first managerial position for Kanzler. He was a minor league hitting coach in the Astros system from 2019 through 2021. He was on the major league staff in 2022 and 2023. Kanzler has been the Cubs’ director of player development since 2024.
As Kramer notes, the 36-year-old Kanzler will be the second-youngest manager in the league. Blake Butera of the Nationals is the youngest at 34 years old.
“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.”
President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto is now 3-for-3 on hiring first-time managers in his 11-year tenure in Seattle. Kanzler is certainly a bit different than the two previous hires, though. Scott Servais had an 11-year playing career and spent several years in the front office before taking over the Mariners. Wilson was a franchise icon as a player and had been around the team for years as a broadcaster and studio analyst.
Seattle had 30-40 names on their initial list for the vacancy, per Adam Jude and Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. That group was whittled down to Kanzler and former Astros manager Joe Espada last week, relays Kramer. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic notes that Diamondbacks bench coach Jeff Banister, Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis, and White Sox bench coach Walker McKinven were also given interviews but didn’t make the final cut.
The Mariners won 90 games in 2025 to win the AL West title. They took the Blue Jays to seven games in the ALCS, but fell just short of the World Series. The club entered 2026 with plenty of momentum and most of the division-winning roster intact.
This past season was a disaster. Seattle finished 10 games below .500 and failed to compete in a weak AL West. The Astros won the division at 81-81. The Mariners made the decision to move on from Wilson after two-plus seasons. Kanzler will be tasked with getting the team back on track. It should once again be a winnable division.