Jason Kanzler’s young son dozed off during the 45-minute press conference introducing Kanzler as the Mariners’ new manager, but he was the only one. The rest of the room was abuzz, both for Kanzler and for Mariners executives Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander, who surprised the rest of the baseball world when it was announced that Kanzler, 36, would accept his first managerial job with the Mariners. This appears to contrast with the front office’s reported desire to find a candidate with experience in a big league management role, and sparked some early criticism around baseball when the hire was announced. But for Dipoto, the question of experience was no such question.
“The experience is good,” Dipoto said. “In this case, we didn’t think it was enough to deter us from all the traits Jason brings.”
These features were highlighted during today’s introductory press conference. Kanzler gave thoughtful, concise answers that expressed his point of view, sprinkled with a few quotable aphoristic catchphrases that it’s not hard to see flying around the clubhouse (or the marketing department; at one point Kanzler said, regarding the atmosphere at T-Mobile Park, he wanted to “ride the lightning” and Kevin Martinez, sitting behind me, made a noise that made me think we’ll see this on t-shirts by weekend). He even made a few jokes, referring to the Astros, his former employers, as “the team that must not be named.” For a team that had some high-profile communication issues last year, and whose quality is at the top of my personal wish list for a manager, this was an encouraging introduction.
“The way he communicates is very clear,” Dipoto said. “You won’t be confused about the directive when you leave the station, and I think our players will realize that.”
Hollander noted that the Mariners had actually interviewed Kanzler before, in 2021 for a possible additional hitting coach position, but ultimately couldn’t lure him away from the Astros. But Hollander said Kanzler’s interview was so impressive that his name continued to come up from time to time over the years, until finally landing in the Mariners’ manager search this year.
“I think he gave us no choice throughout the whole process,” Hollander said. “It was round after round, conversation after conversation. He dominated the process to a point where I think we would have been stupid to take all the hard work and throw it out the window without picking him.”
Kanzler said he actually realized he wanted to manage during the interview process, when he had a moment of epiphany that running a farm and managing a team aren’t that different — both are concerned with developing players on micro and macro levels and figuring out how to help people be the best version of themselves.
“It happened quickly and I realized just as quickly that managing a major league club was just the pinnacle of what I was already doing as a farm manager, where I had to manage an entire minor league system. It’s just a much higher scale, with brighter lights and a third game, but at the end of the day, it’s the same thing. I want to win. I want to develop people. I want to develop players. And I want to achieve something with a collective and a great group of people around me.
Kanzler said what he’s focused on right now is getting to know the players he’ll be managing and building relationships with them, a process he said he’s started and describes as being of “utmost importance” to him. For Kanzler, it all starts with those relationships before anything else can be accomplished.
“It’s important to have a connection with the players. It’s very important to have a connection throughout the event. The entire organization has to be connected toward the common goal of winning the World Series…I like to think the sign that things are going well is when people start using the word ‘we’ more than ‘me’ or ‘I’. When the group starts talking in ‘we,’ then I know everything is good.
The 2026 Mariners have lost their way, which has largely been attributed to a lack of strong club culture or identity: too much passivity, with players not moving in a unified direction. While Kanzler says he wants the Mariners’ team identity to surface organically (the most specific vision of identity he would give was to “step on their throat”), Kanzler’s vision for what the 2027 Mariners could be surprisingly begins with what the 2027 Mariners won’t be.
“Culture is, in my opinion, all the things you don’t allow. All the things that don’t happen. Those are the things you object to. It does, obviously, the big things right, it does all the little things right all the time, but most importantly, it doesn’t do the wrong things as much as is humanly possible. What we allow is what we stand for, and that’s what culture means to me.”
For a team that played some of the worst defense in MLB, made embarrassing baserunning gaffes and overall didn’t play disciplined, consistent baseball, this vision is appealing: firm guardrails to keep things from going off the rails like they did last season.
“Accountability” was a buzzword after the disappointing 2026 season, but Kanzler is quick to point out that responsibility requires, above all, communication and clear definition.
“My view (on accountability) is that it requires clarity,” he said. “People have to understand what they’re accountable for before you can hold them accountable. So it starts with clarity, simplicity. Even when the things we’re talking about may be complex, they need to be understood. When people understand what the goal is and they have a clear path to get there and they understand how to get there, then everything in between sort itself out, and that makes those conversations a lot easier.”
These difficult conversations are ones Kanzler has had with players for years, on many levels, and like his approach to building culture – not imposing it but allowing it to grow organically – he doesn’t impose things on players, but rather sees himself as someone who can help the player make better decisions.
“It doesn’t necessarily sit well with anyone when they’re told, like, you have to do this, you have to think this. So the way I challenge players and people is by asking questions. I listen a lot. I hear them. I come up with other ways of thinking or approaching a problem. With players in this game, they’re going to be faced with an endless multitude of problems, big and small. They’re going to have to make adjustments. They’re going to have to improve in certain areas.”
But even though his method is more casual – the old “praise publicly, criticize privately” – Kanzler says he’s not afraid to step in and tear things up when the moment calls for it.
“There are times when, you know, we have to tear up with the whole team, and that’s fine. You just have to pick your spots. I’ve been in a major league dugout, I’ve been around major league players, I’ve been around major league clubs. I understand when that’s appropriate and when it’s not. But overall, we want to publicly celebrate the things that we care about to strengthen them, and I prefer to address the things that need to be discussed in private, to begin with.”
For Kanzler, that desire comes from what he wanted during his brief minor league career. His coaching career, which culminated when he became manager of the Mariners, is a full-circle moment that allows him to pass on to players what he wanted from coaches as a player.
“I wanted to be coached extremely hard, I wanted things to be intentional, and those are the things that stood out to me. I bring intensity to the things that I do, and I really want that to convey to the players. Each of these players is a human being, and they deserve individual and deep attention, especially on this scale, at this stage. We owe it to the fans, we owe it to the organization, and we owe it to the players themselves to give them what they need individually to help the collective to winning… are people’s lives, and there are a lot of people who care about what’s going on, how these players are growing and how they’re performing.
“I’m the right guy because I believe every player and every person can be better, and I believe these players so deeply want to be better and grow and win as a unit, and I’m excited to be able to get that from them.”
Gn sports
