Jerry Dipoto is the high-volume trader who put Seattle back in the playoffs

Dipoto wasn’t devastated or insulted by the trade. He was excited to join the Mets. And perhaps that positive reaction is one reason why no other baseball executive has made more trades than Dipoto since he first rose to a full-time GM job with the Los Angeles Angels at the end of the 2011 season.

Since then, he’s made an MLB-high 124 trades, according to an analysis of Baseball Reference data. The next closest in that time span are Andrew Friedman (108) and Brian Cashman (107), two of the most successful executives of the century. Dipoto joined the Mariners as GM following the 2015 season and was promoted to president in 2021.

He’s averaged 11.3 trades per year since he’s become chief decision-maker. The MLB average is 7.9 a year per executive.

His 23 trades in 2017 are the most on record in a single year dating back to 1950. His 21 trades in 2016 are tied with Randy Smith (1996, Detroit Tigers) and Bing Devine (1973, St. Louis Cardinals) for the second most in a year.

“I know when I first got (to Seattle), it scared people,” Dipoto said of the trade volume. “Like, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ To the point where one of the people I worked with said, ‘Isn’t that enough?’”

Dipoto countered: “I don’t know. We’re not where we need to be.”