The Mariners are making a change as they try to salvage their playoff hopes. Seattle announced Thursday evening that they fired manager Scott Servais and named Dan Wilson their new captain. The M's also fired hitting coach Jarret DeHart. They have not announced a replacement for the hitting coach, although Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports (via X) that franchise icon Edgar Martinez will join the coaching staff in an unspecified role. The M's have not officially announced the hiring of Martinez.
“We believe we need a new voice in the clubhouse,” baseball president Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. “Dan knows our team and has been a key member of our organization working with players at all levels for the past 11 years. He is well-respected inside and outside our clubhouse and we are confident he will do a great job leading our team in the final six weeks of the season and moving forward.” Dipoto then thanked Servais for his passion and work during his nearly nine years in Seattle.
Servais, 57, has been Seattle's captain since being hired after the 2015 season. The club has had its share of ups and downs in 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 96 wRC+. 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 traded players like him 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 gotten 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 catching coordinator in 2013. He has never been a part of a major league coaching staff, and he has never been a manager at any level. According to the M report, Wilson has spent the past seven years as a special assistant for player development.
Notably, the team's press release lists Wilson as the 18th full-time manager in franchise history. There is no temporary marker. Dipoto confirmed that the M's see him as a full-time manager (via Daniel Kramer of MLB.com). The team did not announce the length of Wilson's contract.
The aforementioned scoring problems led the team to move away from DeHart. Seattle fired first-year coordinator Brant Brown just two months into the season. They will try to jumpstart the offense with another mid-season change. DeHart has been with Seattle's major league team since 2019. He has held the title of director of hitting strategy and hitting coach for two-plus seasons.
Martinez, one of the greatest hitters in MLB history, was the M's hitting coach from 2015-18. He stepped down after the '18 campaign to take on a more demanding role with the organization. Now that he's back on the coaching staff, he'll likely have an important say in issuing orders regardless of his title. Assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph is now the top infielder on that football offense.
Ken Rosenthal and Marc Carig of The Athletic first reported that Servais would be fired and that the Mariners would hire Wilson to replace him.
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