Jerry Dipoto

Gerard Peter Dipoto III

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 200 lb.
• School Virginia Commonwealth University
• High School Toms River High School North
• Debut May 11, 1993
• Final Game October 1, 2000
• Born May 24, 1968 in Jersey City, NJ USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Jerry Dipoto, more famous as a General Manager, pitched eight years in the majors as a reliever. He was in the American League in 1993 and 1994 and in the National League in 1995-2000. He had 49 saves with a peak of 19 in 1998, when he was pitching for the Colorado Rockies.

His minor league career started in 1989, and he went 12-4 in 1990 as a starter. He was converted to relief in 1992.

Dipoto was born in New Jersey and went to high school there, and then attended Virginia Commonwealth University right after Jim Austin was there and right before Mark Strittmatter was there.

Former pitcher Dipoto was hired as the Arizona Diamondbacks Director of Player Personnel and Director of Professional Scouting on November 1, 2005. He later was promoted to Vice-President. On July 1, 2010, he was named interim General Manager, replacing Josh Byrnes. He was named GM of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in October of 2011, replacing Tony Reagins. He did not wait long to make a splash: on December 8th, he announced two huge free agent signings, 1B Albert Pujols for 10 years and $254 million, and P C.J. Wilson for 5 years and $77.5 million. Another big signing, that of OF Josh Hamilton the following year, did not turn out so well as Hamilton was injured, saw his production decline, and then suffered a relapse of substance abuse problems. In the the end, the Angels had to swallow a large percentage of his contract to send him back to the Texas Rangers in early 2015. On July 1st that year, Dipoto resigned abruptly over rumored differences with manager Mike Scioscia; it was stated that Dipoto wanted the organization to turn more towards statistical analysis, while Scioscia had a more old school approach. The long-time manager won out, and Dipoto was replaced on an interim basis by former GM Bill Stoneman.

In August of 2015, Dipoto joined the Boston Red Sox organization on a short-term consulting contract to work with GM Ben Cherington on evaluating players in the context of the team's need to rebuild as it was heading to a third last-place finish in four years (with the caveat that the one year they had not finished last during that span, in 2013, they had won the World Series). He had earlier worked for the Red Sox as a scout back in 2003-2004. On September 28th he was hired as the new general manager of the Seattle Mariners, taking over for interim GM Jeff Kingston who had filled in following the firing of Jack Zduriencik a month earlier. One of his first moves with the Mariners was to fire manager Lloyd McClendon on October 9th; on October 23rd, he appointed Scott Servais, who had served as his Assistant GM in Anaheim, as the team's manager for 2016, in spite of a complete lack of professional managing experience.

Servais proved to be a good choice, as a steady hand who was able to handle the up and downs of the coming seasons, with the Mariners posting winning records his first three seasons and even making a run for the postseason in 2018 before a late-season collapse had them finish in third place. Dipoto then led a rebuild operation after that disappointing year which saw the Mariners finish last in 2019, but some shrewd trades helped turn things around quickly, to the point that the team, with Servais still at the helm, fell only two games shy of the postseason in 2021 with a 90-win season. There was some luck involved, as the M's allowed more runs than they scored and the team batting average was just .226 - low even by the standards of a low-average era - but the team seemed to be headed the right way to break its frustrating streak of having missed the playoffs for two straight decdes. They finally made it at the end of September, 2022, winning a wild card slot. Two days later, he announced that he was promoting his assistant, Justin Hollander to GM, while retaining his other title of President of Baseball Operations.

Jerry's son Jonah Dipoto was drafted in the 35th round of the 2019 amateur draft by the Kansas City Royals. Having worked his way up to prospect status, Jonah faced his dad's team for the first time in spring training in 2022.

Preceded by Josh Byrnes

Arizona Diamondbacks General Manager 2010

Succeeded by Kevin Towers

Preceded by Tony Reagins

Los Angeles Angels General Manager 2011-2015

Succeeded by Bill Stoneman

Preceded by Jeff Kingston

Seattle Mariners General Manager 2015-2022

Succeeded by Justin Hollander

Further Reading

• Anthony Castrovince: "For Dealin' Dipoto, method is hardly madness: Mariners GM interested in 'big-picture result' of dizzying number of trades", mlb.com, February 10, 2017. [1]
• Alden Gonzalez: "Scioscia-Dipoto dispute prompted by communication breakdowns", mlb.com, February 19, 2016. [2]
• Greg Johns: "Dipoto believes Mariners will be contenders: New GM says club is ready, built to compete in AL West", mlb.com, January 28, 2016. [3]
• Greg Johns: "Dipoto dishes on trade habits on Wheelhouse: Mariners GM recalls unusual deals, discusses his use of emojis and more", mlb.com, January 12, 2018. [4]
• Anne Rogers and Daniel Kramer: "Jerry Dipoto cheers on son Jonah ... against his own team!", mlb.com, March 29, 2022. [5]