The scuffling Seattle Mariners have fired long-time manager Scott Servais, the team announced Thursday. Servais will be replaced in the dugout by former catcher Dan Wilson. Hitting coach and director of hitting strategy Jarret DeHart was let go as well.
"We believe that we need a new voice in the clubhouse," Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. "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 has hard work."
Servais, 57, is in his ninth season as Seattle's manager, tying him with the Dodgers' Dave Roberts for the second-longest tenured manager in MLB. Over that nine-year span, he's guided the Mariners to a 680-642 record (.514 winning percentage) with a postseason berth in 2022. That 2022 team under Servais ended a 21-year playoff drought, which at the time was the longest among major North American professional team sports. The Mariners have also achieved five winning seasons on Servais' watch, and those 680 total victories put Servais second on the franchise list for managerial wins behind Lou Piniella. This season, however, the Mariners have seen a once-substantial lead in the American League West turn into a five-game deficit to the Houston Astros -- a development that likely led to Servais' reported forthcoming dismissal.
As recently as June 18, the Mariners were a season-best 13 games over .500, and on that same date they boasted a 10-game lead in the division. Since then, though, Seattle's struggles have coincided with a surge in Houston, and going into Thursday's slate of games the Mariners have a .500 record at 64-64 and trail the Astros by five full games. They're also 7 1/2 games out of the final wild-card spot in the AL and behind three other teams in that chase. At present, SportsLine gives the Mariners just an 11% chance of reaching the postseason.
As for Wilson, 55, he spent 12 of his 14 big-league seasons with the Mariners and earned an All-Star selection as a member of the 1996 team. In more recent years, Wilson has filled a spring-training role for the team and also served as an occasional broadcaster for Mariners games. He had not managed at any level before before being named the 21st manager in Mariners franchise history.
