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Seattle Mariners

Sources: Seattle Mariners expected to fire Scott Servais, name Dan Wilson manager

Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais, right, along with infield coach Perry Hill in the dugout prior to a July 29 game against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.  (Tribune News Service)
By Ken Rosenthal and Marc Carig The Athletic

The Seattle Mariners’ stunning collapse has prompted a change in leadership, with the club expected to replace manager Scott Servais with Dan Wilson, sources briefed on the Mariners’ plans told The Athletic. The official announcement is expected on Thursday.

The Mariners have turned a 10-game lead in the American League West into a five-game deficit in the standings, jeopardizing what seemed to be a march toward the postseason for a franchise that is still in search of its first pennant. Servais presided over a frustrating situation — the performance of the Mariners’ elite pitching staff has been consistently wasted by a sagging offense that ranks at the bottom of the league by multiple measures.

Servais, 59, was in his ninth season as the Mariners’ skipper. Since his hiring in 2016, he compiled a 680-642 record (.514 winning percentage), though the club’s lone postseason appearance during his tenure came in 2022. The Mariners won a playoff series, dispatching the Blue Jays in the wild-card series before getting swept by the Astros in the ALDS.

Though it was a bitter ending, the playoff appearance ended a 21-year postseason drought that at the time had been the longest in North American professional sports. But the Mariners missed the playoffs in 2023 and are now in danger of doing so once again in 2024, despite a promising start to the season.

Wilson, Servais’ replacement, represents a connection to the franchise’s glory days. Wilson played for the Mariners from 1994 to 2005, spending much of that time as Randy Johnson’s batterymate. Wilson, 55, has never been on a big-league coaching staff or managed at any level, but he has been a familiar face around the current team. He has served as a special assignment coordinator for the club in spring training, where according to the Seattle Times, he has developed a close relationship with starting catcher Cal Raleigh. He has also filled in as a broadcaster for the team’s ROOT Sports affiliate.

Wilson takes over a club that is 64-64, five games out of a playoff spot, and on a three-game losing streak. It is unclear whether Wilson will get the job permanently or on an interim basis. Either way, the move will place added scrutiny on Jerry Dipoto, who took over as general manager in Sept. 2015. The Mariners begin their next series on Friday versus the San Francisco Giants in Seattle.