New voice necessary for struggling Seattle Mariners says Jerry Dipoto
Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto spoke of the need for a new voice and approach for the team following his decision to fire manager Scott Servais on a day he called one of the most difficult of his professional career.
"It has been a very difficult two-month stretch, a particularly tough 10 days. But, you know, trying to do what we can do with a team that is telling us we need to do something a little different than what we have (done)."
Servais was fired by the Mariners on Thursday as the team has tumbled down the standings after finding themselves with a 10-game lead in the American League West in mid-June. The Mariners just finished a nine-game road trip with a 1-8 record, including a pair of sweeps at the hands of the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers and a lone victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the loss, the Mariners fell to .500 at 64-64 for the first time since April 24.
Unfortunately for Dipoto, Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart – who was also relieved of his duties on Thursday – found out about the moves from news reports and not from Dipoto.
"In what has been one of my least favorite days in my professional life today, the worst part of it is was the fact that Scott and J.D. found about this over the crawl of a news channel and that crushes me," Dipoto said. "I know it hurts them a great deal and I want to be conscious of that through the course of this process.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MARCH 30: General Manager Jerry Dipoto speaks with manager Scott Servais #9 of the Seattle Mariners during Opening Day at T-Mobile Park on March 30, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
"It was always going to be very difficult, but that made it even more difficult. I’ve known Scott for three decades. We were teammates as players, we worked together in Colorado and Anaheim and here in Seattle, and we’ve worked together in almost any capacity you can. I trust Scott, I believe in his baseball. I believe in him as a human being. I think he did an excellent job and brought stability to this team from the time he joined in 2015 until now. It’s not an easy day for the Mariners organization."
The Mariners had already fired hitting coach Brant Brown at the end of May. First baseman Ty France was designated for assignment in July. The team traded for outfielder Randy Arozarena and first baseman Justin Turner at the trade deadline trying to fix their offensive issues.
But the spiral continued. And Servais and DeHart became the most recent fall guys for the organization.
"None of us have lived up to or met our own expectations. And I think that goes for virtually all of our players. It goes for our entire staff. It goes for me and our front office. We've fallen short in many ways. That's why we're sitting here today," Dipoto said.
"We have not met our own expectations. Not the expectations from prognosticators or fan base. And I think that's when you take a really hard look in the mirror. And we are."
Servais released a statement through the Mariners on Thursday afternoon expressing his thanks and gratitude for the nine years spent with the team.
Despite having one of the best starting rotations in all of Major League Baseball, the Mariners find themselves 5.0 games back of the Houston Astros in the AL West, and 7.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot held by the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins due to one of the worst offenses in the game. Seattle has the worst team batting average (.216) in all of MLB and the most strikeouts (1,308) of any team this season.
Only the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox have a worse on-base-plus-slugging percentage than the Mariners. While the Mariners have remained in the playoff hunt due to the strength of their pitching staff, the Marlins (NL) and White Sox (AL) are the worst teams in each league this year. In fact, the White Sox are on-pace to lose more games than any team in MLB history. Only the Marlins, White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays have scored fewer than Seattle’s 670 runs this season.
"Cleary we need a change in the way we're looking at offense, the way we message offense. And our hitters have struggled this year," Dipoto said. "… I wish I could tell you why. I don't know all of the answers, but I do know that we're asking questions, and hopefully, we're asking the right questions, and we'll get to the right answer in time. If we had a magic potion, we would have sprinkled it some time back. We don't. And the best we can do is sit with our players and meet them where they are and try to use the next five or six weeks to build a more productive foundation with a more productive foundation with a different language with our hitting programs."
After an 8-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians on June 18, the Mariners led the AL West by 10 games over the Astros and Texas Rangers. It took one month for that 10-game lead to fully disappear. Seattle lost six of seven games played to a bad Los Angeles Angels team in July, and five of six games to a middling Detroit Tigers team as well.
Since taking that 10-game lead, only the White Sox have a worse record in all of the Majors. The Mariners are just 20-33 since that victory over Cleveland.
"This has not been a terrific run for us over the last two months, and it was a very difficult decision to make, but I thought one that our team was in need of, and we need a different voice and and a different direction and I think that can be provided by Dan Wilson," Dipoto said.
Wilson is not an interim manager. It's his job, full-time, moving forward.
"I believe he's prepared for it," Dipoto said. "I really do think his temperament and the balance in his personality is ideal for this stage of our development and for connecting our players and building a trusting relationship with somebody who's not truly new to them. He's just working in a new role."
Dipoto said that Wilson's proximity to the team in his previous roles as a part-time broadcaster, fill-in Triple-A manager, and has held various front office titles in recent years as well. It is his first managerial job of any kind outside of the brief relief stint for the Tacoma Rainiers when manager Tim Federowicz was sidelined with COVID.
"I also believe that walking in the door as an interim anything doesn’t really allow you to lay the appropriate groundwork or get the trust in the building that’s required to be a good leader in the Major League space," Dipoto said. "We can’t know a person better than we know Dan Wilson, and I believe in both his baseball and who he is as a person, and I think that will resonate very well with our players."
Wilson had a 14-year MLB career with the Mariners and Cincinnati Reds. At the time of his retirement, he held the AL record for career fielding percentage by a catcher. He was an AL All-Star in 1996, and a member of Seattle's postseason teams in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001.
"I appreciate the faith that Jerry, Justin and the Mariners organization have placed in me" Wilson said in a statement, "and I’m eager to get to work. I believe this team is capable of playing great baseball this season and look forward to the opportunity to work with this group of players and coaches."
Servais was in his ninth season as manager of the Mariners. He’s the second-longest tenured manager in franchise history, and has the second-best winning percentage (.515) in team history as he trails Lou Pinella in both categories. Pinella spent 10 seasons leading the Mariners with a .542 winning percentage. The Mariners snapped a 21-year postseason drought by earning a Wild Card bid in the 2022 playoffs. A series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays was the first postseason series win for the Mariners since the 2001 ALDS.
DeHart had been with the Mariners organization since 2018 and with the major league club since 2019, moving from hitting strategist to hitting coach.
Additionally, Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported that Edgar Martínez is set to re-join the coaching staff as an assistant on Wilson's bench. He previously worked as the team's hitting coach through the 2015-18 seasons.