Dipoto was hospitalized with blood clots in lungs
This browser does not support the video element.
LAS VEGAS -- Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto was released from a Las Vegas hospital on Thursday afternoon and has been cleared to fly back to Seattle on Friday after dealing with severe chest pains caused by a series of blood clots that had developed in his lungs.
The 50-year-old said Thursday night that he's still feeling some chest pains, though he's grateful the issue has now been diagnosed and he'll be able to treat it.
"It was pretty scary and quite painful stuff," Dipoto said via text. "I'm thankful to know there's an issue while we can manage it."
Dipoto said he started feeling the chest pains on Monday and it grew considerably worse over the course of the Winter Meetings, where he and the Mariners baseball operations and analytics staff were gathered for the four-day event at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.
Eventually his co-workers forced him to go to the hospital on Wednesday and he was kept overnight into Thursday while undergoing tests.
The Mariners wound up finalizing a trade on Thursday morning, sending first baseman Carlos Santana to the Indians in return for veteran designated hitter Edwin Encarnación and a compensatory (77th overall) Draft pick next June.
It was the seventh trade engineered by Dipoto over the past five weeks, though this one had to be finalized by assistant general manager Justin Hollander.
But Dipoto noted that the frenetic offseason makeover will need to slow a bit after this week's wakeup call. Part of that is the fact the Mariners have already done much of their major dealings this winter. But Dipoto understands the challenges of health as well, having dealt with thyroid cancer when he was 25 back in 1994.
Dipoto isn't the first general manager to make a deal from his hospital bed, however. In 2006, Cubs GM Jim Hendry was driven to the hospital in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday of that Winter Meetings gathering by manager Lou Piniella and he wound up closing out the free-agent signing of left-hander Ted Lilly after having an angioplasty.