The Seattle Mariners fired their manager yesterday, just a season after the San Francisco Giants fired theirs. Both teams have employed Mitch Haniger within the last 365 days. The teams have also traded with each other 11 times since 2019*. Both teams have nearly identical records over the past 3 seasons (332-282 for the Mariners, 332-283 for the Giants).
So, what’s the deal why are these teams so similar?
As with most human organizations, it starts at the top. No, not their Presidents of Baseball Operations — we’ll get to Farhan Zaidi and Jerry Dipoto in a moment — the ownership group.