The Mariners are expected to fire the manager Scott Servaisaccording to a report from Ken Rosenthal and Marc Carig of The Athletic. You will be replaced Dan Wilson in an announcement expected later today.
Servais, 57, has been Seattle’s captain since 2016. The club has had its ups and downs during that time but the move appears to be related to the club’s recent slide in the top flight. The Mariners were cruising early in the season while clubs like the Astros and Rangers were slow. As recently as June 18, the M’s had a ten game lead over the Astros in the American League West.
But things have changed since then, with the Mariners hitting a bad skid as the Astros have recovered. The M’s are now .500 at 64-64, which puts them five games back of Houston and 7.5 games back in the Wild Card race.
Whether the club’s mistakes can be blamed on the manager is always an issue but it is not often that when things go wrong they are axed. Seattle has a strong pitching staff but their hitters have a collective .216/.301/.365 slash line this year, which translates to a wRC+ of 96. The team’s 27.7% strikeout rate is easily the worst in the majors, with Colorado second worst at 26.1% and all other clubs below 25%.
Whether that has to do with Servais or the overall structure of the club’s system, or some combination, is something for each fan to decide for themselves. Either way, it looks like the decision makers have opted to change things up with just over a month left in the program.
The club has stuck with Servais through some good and bad times, although some of them were clearly planned. The Mariners hovered around .500 in his first three years, including an 89-73 finish in 2018, but the front office decided to start over. They trade players Robinson Cano, Edwin Díaz, James Paxton, Jean Segura and others go to 2019. They finished under .500 that season and in the shortened 2020 season.
Things have been a lot better lately. They won 90 games in 2021, just missing the playoffs. Another 90-win season followed in 2022, good enough for a Wild Card berth that year, the team’s first berth since 2001. Last year, it fell slightly to 88 wins, missing the playoffs by just one game.
Despite a strong three-year run, a continued slump this year caused the M’s to turn to Wilson. It’s a surprising decision, as mid-season managerial firings often see the club move on from another key member of staff as a bench coach, but not this time.
Wilson played in the major leagues from 1992 to 2005 as a catcher, mostly with the Mariners. The M’s hired him as a minor league coordinator in 2013. According to a report from Rosenthal and Carig today, he had been with the team in Spring Training as an assistant special coordinator. He has never been a part of a major league coaching staff, and he has never been a manager at any level.
Whether the club sees Wilson as an interim captain or a long-term replacement will be revealed later. Perhaps it depends on how things play out in the coming weeks, as the Mariners look to avoid another disappointing finish here in 2024. Overall, Servais has a managerial record of 680-642 in the regular season, with two wins and three wins. loss in the postseason.
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