The Mariners are making a change in an attempt to preserve their postseason hopes. Seattle announced Thursday evening that they had sacked manager Scott Servais and named Dan Wilson as their new manager. The Mariners also fired hitting coach Jarret DeHart. They did not name an immediate successor for hitting coach, but Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports (on X) that club icon Edgar Martinez would join the coaching staff in an undisclosed role. The Mariners have not formally announced Martinez’s employment.
“We believe that we need a new voice in the clubhouse,” president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. “Dan is well-versed in our organization, having worked with athletes at all levels for the previous 11 years. He is well respected both inside and outside of our clubhouse, and we are convinced he will do an excellent job guiding our group through the last six weeks of the season and moving beyond. Dipoto went on to congratulate Servais for his enthusiasm and hard work throughout his nearly nine-year tenure in Seattle.
Servais, 57, has been Seattle’s manager since he was recruited following the 2015 season. The team has had its ups and downs over that time, but the move appears to be linked to the club’s current drop in the standings. The Mariners were cruising at the start of the season, while teams like the Astros and Rangers were reluctant to get going. As of June 18, the Mariners held a ten-game lead over the Astros in the American League West.
However, since then, the Mariners have gone on a losing streak while the Astros have corrected their path. The Ms are now accurate.500 is 64-64, placing them five games behind Houston and 7.5 games back in the wild card chase.
It is always debatable whether a manager can be blamed for a club’s failures, yet it is not uncommon for them to be scapegoated when things go wrong. Seattle’s pitching staff is good, but the hitters have a combined hitting line of.216/.301/.365 this year, resulting in a wRC+ of 96. The team’s strikeout rate of 27.7% is comfortably the lowest in the majors, with Colorado second at 26.1% and all other teams below 25%.
It is up to each fan to choose whether this is due to Servais, the club’s overall roster design, or a combination of the two. In any case, it appears that the decision-makers have decided to shake things up with just over a month left on the schedule.
The club has supported Servais through numerous ups and downs, some of which were plainly premeditated. The Mariners finished around.500 in his first three seasons, with an 89-73 record in 2018, but the front management elected to rebuild. In 2019, the team moved away several players, including Robinson Canó, Edwin DÃaz, James Paxton, and Jean Segura. They finished below.500 both that season and the truncated 2020 season.
Things have been lot better recently. They won 90 games in 2021 and nearly missed the playoffs. Another 90-win season followed in 2022, good for a Wild Card place and the club’s first postseason appearance since 2001. Last year, they dipped to 88 wins, missing the playoffs by one game.
Despite a rather solid three-year run, this year’s continued decline has caused the Mariners to turn to Wilson. It’s an unusual option, as midseason managerial firings typically result in the club shifting to another key member of the staff, such as the bench coach, but that is not the case this time.
Wilson was a major league catcher from 1992 to 2005, spending the majority of his time with the Mariners. In 2013, the Mariners hired him as their minor league catching coordinator. He has never been a member of a major league coaching staff or a manager at any level. Wilson has spent the last seven years as a special assistant for player development, according to a news release from the Mariners.
Notably, according to the team’s press release, Wilson is the 18th full-time manager in franchise history. There is no intermediate tag. Dipoto confirmed that the M’s consider him the permanent manager. The team did not reveal the length of Wilson’s deal.
The aforementioned run scoring concerns also prompted the organization to release DeHart. Seattle fired first-year offensive coordinator Brant Brown only two months into the season. They’ll try to ignite the offense with another midseason switch. DeHart had been on Seattle’s major league staff since 2019. He has been the director of hitting strategy and hitting coach for almost two seasons.
Martinez, one of the best hitters in MLB history, was the M’s hitting instructor from 2015 to 2018. He resigned down during the 2018 campaign to take on a less demanding role with the organization. Now that he’s back on the coaching staff, he’ll likely have a large influence in hitting instruction, regardless of his particular role. Tommy Joseph, assistant hitting coach, is now the highest-ranking in-house staff member on that side of the ball.
