Yogi Berra once said “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
For the 2024 Seattle Mariners, though, it seems about as over as it gets without officially being over.
It was good of them to keep fans somewhat interested almost until football is in, dare I say: Full swing.
The M’s are not mathematically eliminated. There’s still time for a magical run ala 1995. The hitters could start hitting, and the relievers might more effectively relieve.
But, they just seem toast, don’t they?
I’m not a big “fire the coach” kind of guy. Most organizations that turn and burn coaches over and over again never seem to get hot.
But, it was time to fire Scott Servais. Jerry Dipoto, the team’s Vice President of Baseball Operations, made that move on Thursday morning, according to multiple reports. Dan Wilson, a Mariner’s catcher from 1994-2006, will reportedly manage the team for the remainder of the season.
Will it help?
Probably not.
There’s really no other move to be made at this point, however, to breathe some life into a mostly dead offense and take advantage of arguably the best starting rotation in franchise history.
Seattle sits in the bottom five in most offensive categories, including being dead last in MLB with a .216 team batting average. The Mariners do lead the team in one category — strikeouts. M’s hitters strike out an average of over 10 times per game.
Meanwhile the pitching staff leads the league in ERA and strikeouts. If the offense could find a way to just be meh instead of a disaster, this team might contend for a World Series title.
Servais likely wasn’t fully to blame for a one of the great collapses in modern baseball history — the Mariners were 10 games up in the American League West Division on June 18. A two-month nose dive — including a just-completed 1-8 road trip — put them five games behind Houston in the division and 7.5 back in the wildcard race after Wednesday’s games.
It’s been nine years, though, and sometimes people stop buying what you’re selling after a while. Dan Wilson will provide a different voice, but time will tell if that is of any help to an offense that is historically poor this year.
Can’t the M’s start winning?
A five-game deficit with 34 games remaining seems surmountable in most cases. But for this team? It just doesn’t feel that way.
There’s plenty of blame to go around.
The ownership group seems to put profits above pride. Dipoto has proven to be good at building the minor league system and evaluating pitching, but his offensive moves at the major league-level have often failed. The players themselves are responsible as well.
Some fault the ballpark, but that’s the one thing that can’t be fired or traded anytime soon. The organization has to find a way to work with ballpark, the marine layer and anything else that has contributed to one of the worst offenses in baseball.
At this point in the season, there’s no finding better players. The ballpark and the owners aren’t going anywhere. Firing Dipoto accomplishes nothing for the 2024 season.
The only chances for this year’s team to finally get to the franchise’s first World Series in 48 seasons were:
– At least a couple of players remember how to hit baseballs.
– A new voice in the clubhouse shakes things up, and, well, that leads to a couple of players remembering how to hit.
Big move for Dipoto
Dipoto and Servais were seen as somewhat of a package deal. They both began their Mariners tenure in 2015 (for the 2016 season), and both signed extensions in the fall of 2021 for a length of time that has never been made public. If the M’s fail to make the postseason for the eighth time in nine seasons under Dipoto, it’s possible that the ownership group led by John Stanton cleans house this offseason.
If Wilson, a Mariners staple as a starting catcher during four of the franchise’s five playoff berths, leads Seattle to the postseason, that probably saves Dipoto’s job.
Is it too late to give up on 2024?
Was one last big hack with what feels like an 0-2 count — firing Servais — worth a try?
Since taking that 10-game lead, the Mariners are 20-33 overall and have dropped 14 of 18 series. Change is unlikely to make things worse.
Dipoto chose Wilson over M’s third-base coach Manny Acta, who previously managed Washington and Cleveland — though with a .418 career winning percentage. First base coach Kristopher Negron, who managed AAA Tacoma to a division title in 2021, may have also been a viable candidate.
Given how late it is in the season, and facing a potential buyout for Servais’ contract, I thought Stanton and Dipoto would keep their bats on their shoulders rather than make a manager change.
It seems they decided there’s a chance to salvage the season. We’ll see.
The Mariners kept it interesting into August, but football beckons. It seems unlikely the attention of area sports fans will be divided by the Mariners this fall.
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