The Seattle Mariners have found their fall guy, but it won’t be enough to save their season.

The Seattle Mariners have fired manager Scott Servais, a move that was expected at some point this season should the team’s tailspin into AL postseason irrelevance continue. Seattle was a shoe-in for the AL West crown early in the season, especially with the Houston Astros struggles. Then, they just stopped hitting.

Frankly, I’m not sure how else to put it. One look at the Mariners lineup exposes some big names, but also long-term flaws. All that could go wrong, has with the likes of Mitch Haniger, Julio Rodriguez and even trade deadline acquisitions like Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner. This is not a playoff team, but in a last-ditch effort to save their season Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry DiPoto hopes a change at manager can inspire a September run.

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Replacing Scott Servais is not an easy task for the Mariners

DiPoto is largely responsible for putting together this roster, and there’s little Servais could have done to turn the 2024 Mariners into a winner. The pitching is elite, but the lineup is very flawed. Some patchwork at the MLB trade deadline was merely a short-term fix for a long-term problem. DiPoto hung Servais out to dry, making it all the more clear that his future was in jeopardy just a few short days ago.

“It (firing Servais) definitely has to be a consideration for us, to talk through everything. That’s just reality,” Dipoto said. “We’ve underperformed and there is some discussion for each of us to have about the part we have played in coming up as short as we have to this point.”

Replacing Servais permanently after the season will not be easy, as he had managed the Mariners since 2016, winning their first playoff series in over two decades. Dan Wilson, a former Mariner himself who played with Randy Johnson back in the the 1990’s and early 2000’s, will get the first crack at it.

Replacing Scott Servais doesn’t fix the Mariners problem

Servais made some questionable decisions the past few seasons, sure, but firing him now does little to solve the Mariners problems. In fact, the man who made the call to fire Servais in the first place is their biggest flaw. DiPoto isn’t afraid to make flashy moves, but his last few attempts to put together a Mariners roster worthy of Julio Rodriguez’s talents have missed by a wide margin. Rodriguez is a franchise building block so many teams would be desperate to have. DiPoto has one of the best starting rotations in baseball at his disposal. Yet, here we are.

Wilson is a fan favorite who deserves his shot. Hopefully, he’s able to make the most of it and turn Seattle around, even if they miss the postseason. As of this writing the Mariners are five games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West, and 7.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins for the third Wild Card spot.