The ending of the 2025 MLB regular season brings with it the annual slate of managerial firings: so far, Rocco Baldelli is out with the Twins, the Giants have parted ways with legendary coach Bob Melvin, and Bruce Bochy is out in Texas, just two years after helping to deliver a World Series title to the Rangers. Another manager who saw his club to a World Series this decade, Brian Snitker, is transitioning to an advisory role with Atlanta. The Angels will also see managerial turnover, with Ron Washington
dropping an epic quote on his way out of town. The Orioles’ Brandon Hyde, who won Manager of the Year honors in 2023, didn’t make it past May.
While it’s difficult to unpack the black box of managerial impact, one measure often used is a team’s Pythagorean record: the number of games they were predicted to win vs. the number of actual games won. The 2025 Mariners marginally outperformed their Pythagorean win projection of 88 wins, winning two additional games in Dan Wilson’s first full year. Last year, when Wilson took over for the last month-plus of the season, the Mariners fell four games short of their projected Pythagorean record.
Another way to assess manager impact: how the team performed in clutch games, like one-run games or comeback wins where managing the bullpen and pinch hitters is more within the manager’s purview. The 2025 Mariners tied for third in MLB with 43 comeback wins, as well as tying for the third-most ninth inning comeback wins, with five. They were also impressive in one-run wins, going an MLB-best 31-22 for a .585 winning percentage (the Padres and their super bullpen came in second, with 30-23). But they suffered the same amount of walkoff wins as walkoff losses, 10 each, and were slightly below that mark in extra-inning contests, going 10-11.
But none of those numbers capture the impact Dan Wilson has had on his clubhouse. You could see a glimpse of it in Wilson’s speech to the clubhouse, leaning on the well-known Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:13 about faith, hope, and love, to a roar of appreciation from his team.
It’s a familiar passage from a manager whose biggest fault might be his affection for a cliché, but it met the moment for his team—a team that loves each other, and one that’s learned to have hope in itself, even when many had given up on a team that didn’t always play to their ability, especially in road games. It’s a team that has faith in their ability to close the gap that has always eluded them in getting to the postseason.
“I think in years past, whenever we would go down, especially early in games, it felt like we would kind of give up,” said starter Bryce Miller. “Like if we went down three-nothing, it’d be like, all right, well, see you tomorrow, and this year, it never really felt like that. We might go down early but we’d have full confidence, from top to bottom, that we’re going to come back and get back in the game. It just doesn’t feel like this team gives up.”
That confidence—or you could call it faith—flows from the top down, impressing even Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto.
“Dan never wavers,” said Dipoto. “The stress gets to everybody at some point and you wear it a little bit, but his level of patience and belief in the people around him—it breathes through to every player that he encounters. They know that he trusts them, they know that he believes in them on more than just the baseball player level. That’s a unique thing for a major league manager. He doesn’t think about the game first. He thinks about the person first. And I think every one of our players in there appreciates that.”
In postgame interviews, Wilson prefers to discuss his team as a collective; he is careful to praise each of his position groups equally, even while recognizing standout performances. He strenuously avoids even roundabout criticism of individual players. He often singles out members of the coaching staff who don’t often receive attention, like bullpen catcher Tony Arnerich or mental skills coach Adam Bernero. If you miss the first minutes of a Dan Wilson postgame press conference (led by “tough one tonight” in a loss or “good one tonight” in a win), it’s usually hard to tell whether he was discussing a loss or a win. It is an approach his players appreciate.
“The big thing with Dan is he’s consistent every day,” said Cal Raleigh. “He did it for a long time, as a catcher, tough position, and he understands each kind of role because he’s had to deal with pitchers, position players, etc. And I think that was one of the big things with him coming into this role as manager, just trying to be consistent and put the trust in the guys…I think what separates him is the trust he has in the guys and the confidence he puts in us.”
“Every single day, he shows up and you know who he is,” said Julio Rodríguez. “He’s been doing that throughout the whole year. And he just allows us to play, be who we are, and he doesn’t restrict us in any way. I’m very happy with his work this year, and how he told us to play hard, be ourselves, and have fun.”
For as maddeningly inconsistent as the Mariners have been at times on the field, they’ve had a model off the field in their skipper, who tries to be the definition of walking the walk and talking the talk.
“I just feel like baseball is a game of consistency, and we all want consistency on the field,” said Wilson. “I feel like consistency starts off the field, and for people that can be that same person every day, the hope is they get consistent results on the field as well. And that’s what I try to bring.”
Faith, hope, and love; all require a constancy, a sustained effort of belief. But baseball is a game where success is transitory, measured game by game and season over season, by titles and trophies. Wilson, the former catcher who is used to seeing the whole field, is the unique leader who can see beyond the temporary and do the hard, everyday work of unwavering belief. He’ll bring in a reliever who got dinged the night before, or bat a player in an 0-fer skid, because he understands that faith without deeds is hollow, that hope is a verb, and that the greatest of these is love.
