Mariners Must Handle Dan Wilson Better Than They Handled Scott Servais

The Mariners may be ready to fire Dan Wilson. Or maybe Wilson will be ready to step down. Either way, before they tell the rest of us and, if they let him go, they should make sure he hears it from them first. It’s ridiculous that this needs to be written. It also needs to be written.

Adam Jude of The Seattle Times has reported that Wilson is unlikely to return as manager in 2027, according to sources with knowledge of the club’s plans. Nothing has been announced. Wilson remains in the dugout while Seattle finishes dragging a bitterly disappointing season across the finish line.

The baseball argument for moving on isn’t hard. Wilson managed a 90-win AL West champion to Game 7 of the ALCS in 2025. One year later, the Mariners have clinched their first losing record in a full season since 2019.

Wilson didn’t construct this roster. But he still managed the team that spent most of the season playing sloppy, inconsistent, uninspiring and lifeless baseball. He has to own his share while Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander own their poor roster construction.

If the Mariners conclude Wilson is no longer the right manager, they should remove him. Basic professionalism still applies.

Mariners Already Know How Ugly This Can Get

We have seen this organization mishandle a managerial dismissal before. We don’t need to reach deep into franchise history to find it. Scott Servais spent nine seasons managing the Mariners. He helped end the franchise’s 21-year postseason drought, became the second-winningest manager in club history and worked alongside Dipoto for nearly a decade in Seattle.

Then he learned he had been fired through a news alert before his scheduled meeting with Dipoto. It was humiliation and no polished corporate lingo could be capable of cleaning it up.

The decision to fire Servais may have been defensible. The Mariners had blown a 10-game division lead and were sliding out of the playoff race. The delivery was still unacceptable.

Dipoto acknowledged how badly the situation had been handled. John Stanton later called the leak a source of “deep regret” for the organization. That’s fine. Regret sounds nice during an interview. But it only counts if something changes moving forward.

Reporters are not responsible for protecting the Mariners from an uncomfortable conversation. Their job is to report the news. Seattle’s job is to speak with the person whose career is about to change before everyone else starts discussing it.

Dan Wilson’s Treatment Could Complicate the Mariners’ Manager Search

How Seattle handles Wilson will reach beyond the discomfort of this inevitable meeting. The next managerial candidate will notice. Same with the players and other members of the organization. People remember how a franchise behaves when a relationship comes to an end.

The Mariners will eventually sit across from candidates and talk about communication, trust and collaboration. Those words become much harder to sell if the organization can’t handle its most difficult conversations face-to-face.

Honestly, this is also a simple test of competence. Wilson’s uncertain future has been discussed publicly for weeks. His possible departure wouldn’t surprise anybody. If the Mariners still allow the news to reach him through someone else, we can stop calling it bad timing. It would be another failure by the people above the dugout.

We can believe Wilson should lose his job and still insist that the Mariners treat him properly. The Mariners changed managers after the Scott Servais mess. Now they have an opportunity to show they changed something about themselves.

Add us as a preferred source on Google