Obviously DiPoto wants to win. At least with regard to wanting to win, the issue is not DiPoto but those who run the organization above him. And we need to define what we mean by wanting to win. If it's merely a desire, then of course DP and The Org want to win. If it's putting a plan in place that has a conceivable chance to win if everything falls into place, then yes, DP and The Org want to win. But The Org sets the parameters within DiPoto must work. If you define wanting to win the way successful franchises want to win, you take whatever steps are necessary to make the playoffs more than zero times in sixteen years. This Org wants to win "comfortably." This was true in 2001, when they needed one more bat, it was true before that, and it's been true ever since. Do the M's want to win? Yes. Do they want to win badly enough to do what it takes to put themselves in the best possible position to do so, the way orgs do that will not accept season after season out of the playoffs? No. So the question is, where on the spectrum of definition of wanting to win do the M's fall? The record clearly shows they fall way, WAY over to the side of winning being aspirational rather than intentional.
A team that intended to win in 2018, given the Mariners' roster, would have strengthened the starting rotation significantly.