Amid growing rumors of a possible managerial change, Scott Servais discovered he was no longer the manager of the Seattle Mariners in an unexpected and awkward manner—through a news alert on television rather than from his superiors.

This miscommunication marked a significant misstep by the Mariners on Thursday, compounding a series of errors over the past two months during which the team plummeted from division title contenders to barely holding onto playoff hopes in the American League.

“In what has been one of the toughest days of my professional life, the worst part was that Scott and hitting coach Jarret DeHart found out about this through a news channel crawl,” said Jerry Dipoto, the Mariners’ executive vice president of baseball operations. “It crushes me, and I know it hurts them deeply.”

Servais was let go during his ninth season as the Mariners’ manager, following the team’s dramatic collapse from a 10-game lead in the AL West. With only five weeks left in the regular season, the Mariners now face an uphill battle to salvage their season.

The Mariners have appointed former Seattle catcher Dan Wilson as the new manager, who will take on the role for the remainder of the season, not just in an interim capacity.

Reflecting on the challenging period, Dipoto said, “It’s been a difficult two-month stretch, especially these last 10 days, but we’re trying to respond to a team that clearly needs something different.”

The decision to dismiss the 57-year-old Servais came after a disastrous 1-8 road trip, which dropped the Mariners to a 64-64 record. In mid-June, they were 13 games over .500 and leading their division.

By Thursday, the Mariners were five games behind Houston in the AL West and 7.5 games back in the wild-card standings. Their play since June 18, when they held a 10-game division lead, showed no signs of the turnaround needed to compete in the remaining weeks of the season.

“Considering where we were in mid-June and where we are now, it’s hard to believe how quickly everything fell apart and how our team has performed,” Dipoto said.

Servais, who joined the Mariners alongside Dipoto before the 2016 season, finished with a record of 680-642. He led the team through a significant rebuild that made the Mariners competitive, but ultimately, not enough to sustain success.

He was the second-longest-serving manager in franchise history, after Lou Piniella. In a statement released Thursday, Servais expressed gratitude to the players, ownership, and fans, saying, “To the city of Seattle, you embraced my family and me, and we are forever grateful for your support. As this chapter closes, I leave with pride in what we’ve accomplished together and excitement for what the future holds.”

This season, the Mariners have struggled with a lack of offense, despite having one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. Seattle ranks first in ERA, WHIP, and batting average against, but their offense ranks last in batting average, near the bottom in slugging, and leads the league in strikeouts. They have scored two runs or fewer in 48 of their 128 games this season, posting a dismal 6-42 record in those games.

The team’s poor performance since mid-June ultimately led to the managerial change. On June 19, the Mariners were 44-31 with a 10-game division lead, but they have since gone 20-33, including a 7-15 record against teams with losing records like Detroit, Pittsburgh, Miami, and the Los Angeles Angels.

Despite adding Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner before the trade deadline, Seattle didn’t get the offensive boost they hoped for, and injuries to key players like Julio Rodríguez and J.P. Crawford further hindered their chances of turning things around.

Dan Wilson, 55, will assume managerial duties starting Friday night when the Mariners open a series against the San Francisco Giants. Wilson has served in various roles for the team, including as a fill-in manager for their Triple-A affiliate and as an analyst for team broadcasts. For the past seven years, he has been a special assistant for player development within the team’s baseball operations.

Wilson becomes the 21st manager in franchise history and the 18th full-time manager. Dipoto expressed confidence in Wilson, saying, “We know Dan Wilson as well as anyone, and I believe in both his baseball acumen and who he is as a person. I think our players will respond well to him.”

Servais will be remembered in Seattle as the manager who ended the longest playoff drought in baseball history when the Mariners made the playoffs in 2022. He led the team to a wild-card berth, winning the wild-card series against Toronto before losing to Houston in the ALDS.

This was Servais’s first managerial position; before joining the Mariners, he worked in the front office for the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Angels.