Scott Servais Fired: Why Do So Many Seattle Mariners Fans Want Team To Fire Servais As Manager?
Scott Servais fired? That’s what a lot of Seattle Mariners fans are demanding on social media. Servais is managing the Mariners for his second season and it appears that a lot of fans are pretty disgruntled by that fact. So do those fans have a point? Maybe they are just serving as armchair quarterbacks who think they know more about baseball than a Major League manager?
Through the first 40 games of the 2017 MLB season, the Seattle Mariners have an 18-22 record under manager Scott Servais. Over 202 games since he took over the team, Servais has a managing record of 104-98 so far. That’s a winning percentage of 0.515 heading into the game on Wednesday night (May 17) against the Oakland Athletics. The Mariners will be working to pull out a series victory against the A’s after blowing the lead on Tuesday night (May 16).
After Steve Cishek blew the save against the Athletics, social media were flooded with comments stating that Scott Servais should be fired by the Seattle Mariners. A Facebook user going by the name David Hirschowitz was particularly frustrated. He posted the following message to a Mariners group. He was very upset that Servais turned to Cishek in the ninth inning, stating that the team should have used the unavailable James Pazos instead.
“Servais needs to be fired, today. Stealing down 3 runs was bad enough, but tonight he showed himself to be completely oblivious to situational baseball… Now, if any of you want to make an actual point disagreeing with what I’m saying, fine. But if anyone makes one of the stupid “I’m sure servais knows more about baseball than you do” or “why don’t you try managing a team” comments it will be deleted and the poster banned. [sic]”
Mariners roster moves????| https://t.co/figBn2fhzw
? Chase De Jong
? Casey Lawrence pic.twitter.com/2rFrHUuZvB— Seattle Times Sports (@SeaTimesSports) May 18, 2017
So what do some fans of the team want the front office of the Mariners to do? Another fan started up a poll asking what the Mariners should do if the team does fire Scott Servais. Going by the name Timothy Walch on Facebook, he stated that the team needs to promote Scott Brosius and keep Tim Bogar as the bench coach. He didn’t like suggestions of promoting Edgar Martinez to manager stating that nobody has proof that the team respects him enough. It’s an odd statement, especially with how much love the players have shown for Martinez in the past.
“Brosius has the most managerial experience than anybody on the team combined by far and was pretty successful. I’d give him a shot. I’d think Edgar is perfectly fine being the hitting coach for the time being. Probably doesn’t want to make the jump to being a manager quite yet. [sic]”
There are certainly a lot of Seattle Mariners fans acting like they know what is best for the team but providing very little in terms of a solution. Most of the time, when solutions are provided, they are easily refuted or don’t make any sense for the team. Blaming the loss on a manager when pitchers simply aren’t performing seems to come with the territory, even if it isn’t the fault of said manager. There are quite a few fans who are also stating that the requests to have Servais fired are silly or not based in reality.
Mariners manager Scott Servais discusses the decisions in the ninth inning of the 9-6 loss >> https://t.co/ZOSP8FxAnu pic.twitter.com/IBIMZoQd3q
— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) May 17, 2017
The Mariners have been dealing with more injuries than any team in Major League Baseball this season. Among the players who are on the Mariners’ disabled list are James Paxton, Hisashi Iwakuma, Felix Hernandez, and Drew Smyly. Those four starting pitchers were supposed to play a major role in the success of the team this season, but have all been lost to injuries. It has placed Servais in a very difficult position, which is made even worse when relief pitchers can’t throw strikes. Closer Edwin Diaz walked four batters just two nights ago before getting replaced.
Dealing with injuries to Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano, and Jean Segura has also made the job of managing the Mariners much tougher. Perhaps the injuries and lack of overall team success have led to many fans getting overly frustrated with the performance of Servais. Maybe it is just a way to vent frustrations online. It doesn’t appear that general manager Jerry Dipoto is close to making an announcement about Scott Servais getting fired, either, but that likely won’t stop the complaints.
[Featured Image by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images]
