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Why Seattle Hired a 36-Year-Old Manager With No Managing Experience | The Story of Jason Kanzler
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Seattle Mariners hire Jason Kanzler as their next manager
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The Mariners hired a manager who has never managed a single inning of professional baseball. Jason Kanzler is 36, he was a 20th-round pick who never played above High-A, and before he ever coached a pro hitter, he was teaching high school chemistry and physics in Katy, Texas.
So why him? Five weeks after Jerry Dipoto said big league managing experience would be "preferred," Seattle went the other way. In this video I walk through Kanzler's whole path: the walk-on who got cut at Northeastern, the MAC Player of the Year at Buffalo, the Florida State League title homer, the Jeremy Peña adjustment in Houston, and three years running the Cubs' farm system. Then we get into what this hire means for a Mariners offense that scored 102 fewer runs in 2026, why Dipoto says homegrown hitters felt their minor league approach got abandoned in the big leagues, and how bringing back CJ Gillman fits the plan.
Is Kanzler the right call? Drop your take in the comments.
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Sources: Mariners press release (Nov. 3, 2026), MLB.com, FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Times, The Athletic, MLB Pipeline, University at Buffalo Athletics, Twins Daily
Stats current as of Nov. 3, 2026.
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Chapters
0:00 The Mariners hired a manager who's never managed
1:38 Walk-on to MAC Player of the Year
3:16 The Twins years and the FSL title homer
5:03 From the classroom to the Astros
7:04 Running the Cubs' farm system
8:13 What went wrong in Seattle
9:56 Why Kanzler, and why now
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