Seattle Mariners expected to fire GM Scott Servais amid mid-season slump

A day after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners are making a major personnel shakeup, firing longtime general manager Scott Servais, according to the Athletic.

Servais, who has led the Mariners since 2016, broke the team’s postseason drought in 2022 but has failed to turn the tide after another lackluster season and a disastrous midseason slump. The Mariners, who at one point held a 10-game division lead, have since fallen to five games behind the playoffs.

According to The Athletic, Servais will be replaced by former Mariners All-Star catcher Dan Wilson. Wilson, a member of the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame, has no previous managerial experience.

Seattle started the season strong, but slumped midway through the season. Under Servais and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, the team now trails the Houston Astros by five games in the AL West and has lost eight of its last 10 games, with a 64-64 record.

Despite some incredibly strong performances on the mound from star pitchers Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, George Kirby and Luis Castillo, Seattle has struggled mightily on offense. The Mariners lead the league in strikeouts with 1,308, while allowing the fewest hits (903) and batting average (.216) in the league.

The Mariners fired coach and offensive coordinator Brant Brown in May, but the offense’s initial improvement quickly evaporated as Seattle’s lineup again struggled.

Seattle fans will still remember Servais fondly for his 2022 management, when he led the long-suffering Mariners to the postseason for the first time since 2001 — snapping a 21-year playoff drought, the longest active drought in all of professional sports at the time. Seattle clinched a wild-card spot that year and advanced to the AL division series before being swept by the Astros.

But his tenure was filled with seasons that fell short of expectations. In 2016, Servais’ first season with the team, Seattle narrowly missed out on the postseason after an unexpected playoff push. The same thing happened in 2021, when the Mariners were in the playoff hunt until the final day, and in 2023, when Seattle fell one game out of a playoff spot.

With the lead suddenly lost, Seattle seemed set to suffer the same fate this season. Since the AL West is one of the weakest divisions in the league, the Mariners need to win the division to secure a playoff spot.

Seattle has yet to win a World Series in its 47-year history, one of five teams in MLB that has failed to win a pennant. If the Mariners fall short again, chances are Dipoto — who has already infuriated fans with comments suggesting the team wasn’t gunning for a World Series — will be on the hot seat next time around.

The team will now reportedly turn to Wilson, who caught for Seattle from 1994 to 2005. The Mariners brought Wilson in as a special assignment coordinator for spring training and, according to The Seattle Times, he has become a mentor and good-luck charm for current Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.