Commentary: Servais firing the latest head-shaking example of Dipoto's communication issues

I have to hand it to the Mariners and their deal with T-Mobile. The cellular technology is so strong over there that apparently you can learn of your own firing before hearing it from your boss. That is impressive!

In case you missed it, longtime manager Scott Servais learned that he had been fired on Thursday through a news alert on social media a couple hours before a scheduled meeting with president of baseball operations, Jerry Dipoto. Yes – the longtime colleagues and former teammates who had been together in Seattle for nine seasons parted ways this week without Servais hearing it from Dipoto first. 

To quote the famous line from "Cool Hand Luke," what we’ve got here is a failure to communicate. And whether or not Dipoto was responsible for that leak simply doesn’t matter, because frankly, when it comes to him, it’s not the first time. 

In 2021, the Mariners clubhouse exploded in anger when Dipoto traded reliever Kendall Graveman to the Astros, prompting a litany of anonymous quotes blasting Dipoto for failing to communicate with them or explain why he’d trade a clubhouse leader to a divisional rival. "The team deserves an explanation," one player told the Seattle Times, while another accused Dipoto of sitting up in his suite, "playing fantasy baseball and ripping apart our team without telling us anything." By all accounts, Dipoto never addressed the move with the team.

When you trade a popular player mid-season, and feel no need to explain the reason for disrupting clubhouse chemistry, what message does that send to the players?  

And in terms of the Servais firing, consider this reaction from Julio Rodriguez, as said to Daniel Kramer of MLB.com: "Those decisions are outside the players…We’re employees here, just like everybody is, so we’ve just got to show up and play baseball."

We’re just employees? That’s how your star player and the face of the organization feels? The guy who is known for his pure joy and love of the game…with such a clinical answer? What does that say about the franchise itself? 

Take a closer look at Servais’ farewell statement: He thanked the players, coaching staff, support staff, ballpark employees, the fans and even the media (no word if that included me) and even ownership. The one name that was blatantly missing was Dipoto. 

When you are the president of baseball operations, communication is part of your job. And it extends to an ability to communicate effectively as well – including knowing your time, place and audience. 

"We’re actually doing the fans a favor," Dipoto said last October, speaking about building a sustainable roster.

But maybe don’t say stuff like that the day after missing the playoffs. Maybe don’t preach about taking a step forward when you miss the postseason a year after making it. Maybe pick a better arena to explain your rationale for setting a goal of winning 54% of your games over the long haul, or just keep it to yourself altogether. 

And maybe don’t ask for more patience from fans literally a few months after your other team president says they’re not asking fans for patience anymore. 

In February 2023, then-president of business operations Catie Griggs said, "Thank you, you've been patient. We're not asking you to be patient any longer." Then in October, Dipoto said they were asking for fans patience to win the World Series while they continued building a sustainably good roster.

Or maybe don’t say this at the start of the 2019 season to string your fanbase along: "While we would not anticipate that we are a threat to win the World Series in 2019, I do feel like we’re better situated to do this come 2020, 2021. And we especially used 2021 as a target date," Dipoto said back then. 

Has anyone checked a calendar lately?

As I mentioned – this is a failure to communicate or communicate effectively.  And at this point, there’s only one effective way for Dipoto to communicate at all: with the lineup he’s assembled, and whether it can somehow find a way to reach the postseason. 

After that, there’s really nothing else left to say.