Mariners Fire Scott Servais After 9 MLB Seasons, Hire Dan Wilson as New Manager

The Seattle Mariners are turning toward their past in an effort to stop their slide down the American League standings.

The team announced Thursday that manager Scott Servais has been fired. It also announced that Dan Wilson will replace him as the club's new manager.

Ken Rosenthal and Marc Carig of The Athletic first reported Thursday the team was expected to fire Servais and replace him with Wilson. While Wilson has never managed at any level, he was a catcher for the Mariners during his playing days and was a special assignment coordinator for the team in spring training.

This is the next step in a roller-coaster season for the Mariners.

They seemed to be cruising toward just their second playoff appearance since 2001 when they built a 10-game lead in the American League West. However, they are an ugly 1-8 in their last nine games and have fallen to .500 at 64-64.

Seattle is now five games behind the Houston Astros in the division and 7.5 games behind the Kansas City Royals for the final AL wild-card spot.

A postseason spot seems like a long shot, so the front office made a move with the hope of inspiring the club down the stretch.

Hiring someone with no managerial experience is quite the drastic step, but Wilson will be a familiar name to the team's fanbase. He was a catcher for Seattle from 1994 to 2005 and was a member of some of the franchise's iconic teams that also featured the star power of Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson.

The Mariners reached three American League Championship Series during Wilson's playing career, although they were unable to take the next step and advance to the World Series.

Seattle still does not have a pennant in franchise history but would surely love to restore some of the consistency from those Wilson teams.

In 12 seasons with the team, he slashed .262/.309/.384 with 88 home runs and 508 RBI. He was an All-Star during the 1996 campaign when he finished with career-best totals in home runs (18) and RBI (83).

But playing and managing are two entirely different things, and he will be tasked with improving on Servais' time. Servais was the manager from 2016 until this season and finished with a 680-642 record.

While Seattle advanced to the playoffs just once during his tenure, it finished with a winning record in five of his eight full seasons.