Scott Servais says h’is better than Dan Wilson today on interview

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Seattle Mariners fire longtime manager Scott Servais; former Seattle catcher Dan Wilson will serve as manager

Servais; former Seattle catcher Dan Wilson will serve as manager
August 23, 2024
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One day after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners have fired longtime manager Scott Servais and replaced him with former Mariners All-Star catcher Dan Wilson.

Earlier on Thursday, The Athletic reported that Servais was in danger of losing his job. Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto confirmed in a statement that Servais will be replaced by Wilson.

Wilson, a member of the Mariners’ Hall of Fame, has no previous managerial experience. He served as the club’s spring training special assignment coordinator in recent years.

“We believe we need a new voice in the clubhouse,” Dipoto said in the statement, praising Wilson as “a key member” of the organization. “He is highly respected inside and outside the clubhouse and we are confident he will do a tremendous job leading our group through the final six weeks of the season and into the future.”

According to the statement, Wilson will manage his first game on Friday as the Mariners hope to turn around a midseason collapse with a home series against the San Francisco Giants. Dipoto told reporters on Thursday that Wilson will not have an “interim” title, but that he will be the manager moving forward.

In the statement, Dipoto also thanked Servais for his nine years with the team. “He has poured his passion into the team and our community, and I know I speak on behalf of the entire Mariners organization when I thank him for his hard work,” Dipoto said.

While Dipoto was praising the Mariners, Servais himself learned of his firing in the most chilling of ways. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported that he learned the news via social media hours before a scheduled meeting with the general manager.

Despite the uncomfortable situation, Servais released a statement thanking the Mariners organization and fans:

Servais, who has coached the Mariners since 2016, helped end the team’s playoff drought in 2022 but has failed to turn things around after a lackluster season and a disastrous midseason slump in 2024. The Mariners, who at one point held a 10-game lead in their division, now trail the Astros by five games in the AL West.

The Mariners also fired hitting coach Jarret DeHart, who had been with the team since 2018 and was promoted to the role in 2021.

The team has lost eight of its last ten games and is now at .500 with a record of 64-64.

Despite some incredibly strong performances on the mound from star pitchers Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, George Kirby and Luis Castillo, Seattle has struggled mightily on offense. The Mariners lead the league in strikeouts with 1,308 and have the fewest hits (903) and lowest batting average (.216) in the league.

The Mariners fired coach and offensive coordinator Brant Brown in May, but the initial improvement on offense quickly evaporated as Seattle’s lineup again struggled.

Seattle fans will still remember Servais fondly for his 2022 management, when he led the long-suffering Mariners to the postseason for the first time since 2001 — ending a 21-year playoff drought, the longest active drought in North American professional sports at the time. Seattle clinched a wild-card spot that year and reached the AL division series before being swept by the Astros.

Servais’ tenure was also filled with seasons that fell short of expectations. In 2016, his first season with the team, Seattle narrowly missed out on the postseason after an unexpected playoff push. The same happened in 2021, when the Mariners were in the playoff hunt until the final day, and in 2023, when Seattle finished one game outside of a playoff berth.

With that lead suddenly gone, Seattle appears headed for a similar fate this season. Given that the AL West is one of the weakest divisions in baseball, the Mariners would likely need to win the division to secure a playoff spot. But they find themselves five games behind in the AL West and 7.5 games behind the final AL wild-card spot set for Thursday.

Seattle has yet to win a World Series in the team’s 47-year history, one of only five teams to fail to win the championship. But the other four teams — the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays — have all won NL or AL titles and advanced to the World Series. As a result, the Mariners are the only team in MLB to fail to win a league pennant.

If the Mariners fall short again, chances are Dipoto, who has already angered fans with comments suggesting the team wasn’t gunning for a World Series, will be the next opponent.

The team is now focusing on Wilson, who caught for Seattle from 1994 to 2005. According to The Seattle Times, Wilson has become a mentor and good-luck charm for current Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh during his tenure as special assignments coordinator.

Additionally, according to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, Mariners legend Edgar Martinez will join Wilson, his former teammate, on the coaching staff. Martinez, a seven-time All-Star who played for the Mariners from 1987 to 2004, was Seattle’s hitting coach from 2015 to 2018 and has been a special adviser since then.