After a nearly nine-year tenure that included a drought-ending playoff appearance in 2022, Scott Servais is out as manager of the Seattle Mariners.
The team announced Servais's firing, which was first reported by The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal several hours earlier, on Thursday, August 22. Seattle promoted special assignment coordinator Dan Wilson, who played for the Mariners from 1994 to 2005 and was an All-Star in 1996, to the role of manager.
Prior to his firing, Servais was the second-longest tenured manager in the MLB, behind only Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays.
During Servais's tenure as manager from 2016 to 2024, the Mariners posted a 668-624 record. He trails only Lou Piniella for the most wins (840) and games managed (1,551) in franchise history. Servais played catcher in the MLB for four different franchises from 1991 to 2001. One of his teammates during his major league career was Jerry Dipoto, the current Seattle general manager.
When Dipoto became the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels in 2011, he hired Servais as an assistant general manager. After Dipoto left the Angels to become the Mariners' GM following the 2015 season, he tabbed Servais as the franchise's new manager.
The highlight of the Dipoto-Servais partnership in Seattle came in 2022, when the Mariners secured a wild card spot to earn their first playoff berth in 21 years. At the time, it was the longest postseason drought in the MLB, NFL, NBA or NHL.
In Seattle's 156th game of that 2022 season, Cal Raleigh hit a walk-off home run to give the Mariners a 2-1 win over the Oakland Athletics and officially clinch the playoff berth. Seattle swept the Toronto Blue Jays in two games in the AL Wild Card Series but were in turn swept in the ALDS by the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros — a series that ended with Houston's 1-0 win in 18 innings in the Mariners' first and only home game of that postseason.
Just over two months ago, Seattle appeared to be in prime position to win a division title for the first time since 2001. After the day of play on June 18, the Mariners owned a 44-31 record that left them 10 games ahead of the Astros and Texas Rangers in the AL West.
However, it's been a downward spiral since then. Seattle has gone 20-33 over that stretch, crashing to a 64-64 record that left the team five games back of the Astros in the division at the time of Servais's firing.
Scott Servais is a native of Coon Valley who was born in La Crosse on June 4, 1967. Servais was a standout baseball star for Westby in high school, helping guide the Norsemen to the state tournament in 1984. He went on to play college baseball at Creighton and was selected by the Houston Astros in the third round of the 1988 MLB draft. Servais played for the Astros, the Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants and the Colorado Rockies during his major league career.
Following his playing career, Servais was a member of the Rangers' front office as the senior director of player development from 2004 to 2010 before joining the Angels' front office under Dipoto.
Scott's uncle is Ed Servais, who played baseball at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and served as the head coach at Viterbo University in La Crosse in 1988 and Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in Winona from 1989 to 1995. Ed has been the head coach at Creighton since 2004, though he has announced his intention to retire following the 2025 season.
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