Seattle Mariners fire manager Scott Servais, hitting coach Jarret DeHart
Seattle Mariners firing manager Scott Servais, new skipper announced
The Seattle Mariners fired manager Scott Servais on Thursday and will name former All-Star catcher Dan Wilson as the interim manager, per a report from The Athletic. The move comes as the team has plummeted out of the playoff picture after holding a 10-game lead in the AL West in mid-June. The team is expected to make an announcement on Thursday, per the report.
The Seattle Mariners fired manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart on Thursday with former All-Star catcher Dan Wilson named as the new manager.
The firing of Servais was first reported by Ken Rosenthal and Marc Carig of The Athletic.
The move comes as the team has plummeted out of the playoff picture after holding a 10-game lead in the AL West in mid-June.
"We believe that we need a new voice in the clubhouse," Dipoto said. "Dan knows our team and has been a key member of our organization working with players at every level over the past 11 years. He is well respected within and outside of our clubhouse and we are confident he will do a great job in leading our group over the final six weeks of the season and moving forward.
"I do want to thank Scott for all his efforts here in Seattle over the past nine seasons. He has poured his passion into the team and our community and I know I speak for the entire Mariners organization in thanking him for his hard work."
The Mariners just finished a nine-game road trip with a 1-8 record, including a pair of sweeps at the hands of the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers and a lone victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the loss, the Mariners fell to .500 at 64-64 for the first time since April 24.
Despite having one of the best starting rotations in all of Major League Baseball, the Mariners find themselves 5.0 games back of the Houston Astros in the AL West, and 7.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot held by the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins due to one of the worst offenses in the game. Seattle has the worst team batting average (.216) in all of MLB and the most strikeouts (1,308) of any team this season.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - JUNE 19, 2024: Manager Scott Servais #9 of the Seattle Mariners looks on during the second inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on June 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Nick Cammett / Diamond Images / Getty Images)
Only the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox have a worse on-base-plus-slugging percentage than the Mariners. While the Mariners have remained in the playoff hunt due to the strength of their pitching staff, the Marlins (NL) and White Sox (AL) are the worst teams in each league this year. In fact, the White Sox are on-pace to lose more games than any team in MLB history. Only the Marlins, White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays have scored fewer than Seattle’s 670 runs this season.
After an 8-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians on June 18, the Mariners led the AL West by 10 games over the Astros and Texas Rangers. It took one month for that 10-game lead to fully disappear. Seattle lost six of seven games played to a bad Los Angeles Angels team in July, and five of six games to a middling Detroit Tigers team as well.
Since taking that 10-game lead, only the White Sox have a worse record in all of the Majors. The Mariners are just 20-33 since that victory over Cleveland.
Seattle has had starting pitchers make 78 quality starts (six innings pitched with three earned runs allowed or less) this season entering Wednesday night. They’ve lost 26 times in quality starts, including four of their last five. They’ve scored two runs or less in 48 of 128 games played this season (37.5 percent).
Wilson had a 14-year MLB career with the Mariners and Cincinnati Reds. At the time of his retirement, he held the AL record for career fielding percentage by a catcher. He was an AL All-Star in 1996, and a member of Seattle's postseason teams in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001.
"I appreciate the faith that Jerry, Justin and the Mariners organization have placed in me" Wilson said in a statement, "and I’m eager to get to work. I believe this team is capable of playing great baseball this season and look forward to the opportunity to work with this group of players and coaches."
The Mariners’ failings are certainly not all on Servais’ shoulders. Just as firing hitting coach Brant Brown at the end of May didn’t do anything to solve the team’s hitting woes, firing Servais now likely won’t solve anything either. They have 4.5 months of evidence they are an exceptionally poor offensive team.
Servais was in his ninth season as manager of the Mariners. He’s the second-longest tenured manager in franchise history, and has the second-best winning percentage (.515) in team history as he trails Lou Pinella in both categories. Pinella spent 10 seasons leading the Mariners with a .542 winning percentage. The Mariners snapped a 21-year postseason drought by earning a Wild Card bid in the 2022 playoffs. A series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays was the first postseason series win for the Mariners since the 2001 ALDS.
DeHart had been with the Mariners organization since 2018 and with the major league club since 2019, moving from hitting strategist to hitting coach.