The Seattle Mariners fired longtime manager Scott Servais a day after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers and hired former Mariners All-Star catcher Dan Wilson as his replacement.
On Thursday, The Athletic reported Cerbus’ firing was imminent, and Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto confirmed in a statement that Wilson would replace Cerbus.
Wilson, a Mariners Hall of Famer, has no managerial experience, having served as the team’s specials coordinator for spring training the past few years.
“We believe we need a new voice in our clubhouse,” Dipoto said in a statement, praising Wilson as a “valued member” of the team. “He is well-respected inside and outside the clubhouse and I am confident he will do an excellent job leading the team through the remaining six weeks of the season and beyond.”
According to a statement, Wilson will take charge of the team’s opener on Friday as the Mariners look to bounce back from a mid-season slump with a home series against the San Francisco Giants. Dipoto told reporters on Thursday that Wilson will serve as manager going forward, not as an “interim” manager.
In his statement, Dipoto also thanked Servais, who was with the team for nine years. “He was passionate about our team and our community, and on behalf of the entire Mariners organization, I thank him for his efforts,” Dipoto said.
While Dipoto praised the Mariners, Servais himself learned of his firing in the most brutal way possible, finding out the news on social media just hours before a scheduled meeting with the general manager, Seattle Times reporter Adam Jude reported.
Servais, who has led the Mariners since 2016, helped the team end its postseason streak in 2022, but was again mediocre in 2024, suffering a disastrous midseason slump and unable to turn things around. After once leading the division by 10 games, the Mariners have since fallen to five games behind the Astros in the AL West.
The Mariners also fired hitting coach Jarrett DeHart, who had been with the team since 2018 and was promoted to the position in 2021.
The team has lost eight of its last 10 games, dropping its winning percentage to .500 with a record of 64-64.
Despite incredibly strong performances on the mound from star pitchers Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, George Kirby and Luis Castillo, Seattle has struggled mightily offensively: The Mariners lead the league in strikeouts (1,308), but allow the fewest hits (903) and have the worst batting average in the league (.216).
The Mariners fired bench coach and offensive coordinator Brant Brown in May, but initial offensive improvements quickly fell apart as Seattle’s lineup struggled again.
Seattle fans will fondly remember Servais in 2022 after he led the long-struggling Mariners to their first postseason since 2001, ending a 21-year playoff drought that was the longest in North American professional sports at the time. Seattle earned a wild-card berth that year and advanced to the AL Division Series, where they were soundly defeated by the Astros.
Servais’ tenure has also been marked by seasons of under-delivery. In his first season with the team in 2016, Seattle narrowly missed the postseason despite making an unexpected playoff berth. The same thing happened in 2021, when the Mariners had a chance until the final day, and again in 2023, when Seattle came within one game of making the playoffs.
Seattle, suddenly without a lead, seems headed toward a similar fate this season. The Mariners likely need to win the AL West to secure a playoff berth, given that it’s one of the weakest divisions in baseball. But they were five games back in the AL West as of Thursday and 7.5 games out of the final AL wild-card spot.
Seattle has never won a World Series in its 47-year history, making them one of only five teams to never win one, but the other four — the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays — all won either the National League or the American League and advanced to the World Series. As a result, the Mariners are the only MLB team to never win a league championship.
If the Mariners lose again, Dipoto, who has already infuriated fans with comments suggesting the team is not aiming for the World Series, will likely be next in line for the job.
The team will now turn to Wilson, who was Seattle’s catcher from 1994-2005 and was a mentor and good luck charm for current Mariners catcher Cal Lowry during his tenure as special assignments coordinator, according to The Seattle Times.
Additionally, Seattle Times’ Adam Jude reports that Mariners legend Edgar Martinez will join former teammate Wilson on the coaching staff. Martinez, a seven-time All-Star who played for the Mariners from 1987-2004, served as Seattle’s hitting coach from 2015-2018 and has served as a special adviser since then.
Edgar Martinez will join former teammate Dan Wilson on the Mariners’ coaching staff for the remainder of this season.
Martinez served as the Mariners’ hitting coach from 2015 to 2018 and has served as a special advisor to the team since then.
— Adam Jude (@A_Jude) August 22, 2024
Seattle will look to those two former players to help them get through the final 34 games of the regular season.