Bowden: Why M’s switch from Servais to Wilson needed to be made

Sep 1, 2024, 9:50 AM | Updated: 9:57 am

Seattle Mariners Dan Wilson first game new manager 2024...

Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson smiles during batting practice on Friday. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

(AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

BY BRENT STECKER

Seattle Sports

If it wasn’t for Jim Bowden, Dan Wilson probably wouldn’t be manager of the Seattle Mariners right now.

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Bowden was general manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the early 1990s, including on Dec. 2, 1993 when the Reds traded a promising young catcher along with relief pitcher Bobby Ayala to the Mariners for second baseman Bret Boone and starting pitcher Erik Hanson.

That promising young catcher was Wilson, who Cincinnati had taken No. 7 overall out of the University of Minnesota in the first round of the 1990 MLB Draft. The rest, as they say, is history. Other than a combined 36 games with the Reds in 1992 and 1993, Wilson spent his entire playing career with the Mariners, earning an All-Star nod in 1996 and becoming a beloved figure in Seattle as the greatest catcher in franchise history to that point.

The 55-year-old Wilson now finds himself leading the ship as a first-time manager, a post the Mariners hired him to last week when they let previous skipper Scott Servais go at the end of a brutal 1-8 road trip that left the M’s at an even .500 record for the season.

How does the man who traded Wilson feel about him taking over the Mariners at such a critical point?

“I love the hiring of Dan Wilson,” said Bowden, who now writes for The Athletic and hosts an MLB Network Radio show, when he joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Tuesday. “… I’ve always had great respect for him, his ability to call a game. His ability to lead is special and I think it’s a phenomenal hiring.”

What about Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto’s decision to part ways with Servais before the end of his ninth season as manager?

“Here’s the bottom line: After they had that 1-8 road trip, it was a .500 team with the best starting rotation in the league, and that’s just not acceptable,” Bowden said. “If you’re the president or the GM of the team, you’re not going to fire 26 players. In fact, you can’t trade them in August. You’ve changed hitting coaches now (multiple) times. There really was no choice except let’s change the leadership and see if we can’t get a different approach, build a different culture, bring the team together and turn things around.”

Bowden spent a combined 16 seasons as a GM in the big leagues between the Reds and Washington Nationals, and while he said in-season manager changes were the “last thing” he wanted to do, it is something he has experience with. He shared his perspective on why sometimes those changes need to happen.

“(Dipoto) had to be able to show ‘in my belief’ that this team is better than how it’s performed,” Bowden said. “… The one thing I always thought of during my 16 years (as a general manager), if you’re going to make a managerial change in the middle of the season, then you have to have the strong belief that your team is going to be better after that change is made. That a different voice, a different style may spark the team. Because if it doesn’t spark the team, then it’s on you. It’s on the person making the decision to make the change, right?

“So we’re going to find out if this was the right decision or not. I just think in theory, this team was going nowhere under Scott Servais. And when you have a pitching staff that literally can win the World Series if you make the playoffs, it’s an absolute shame if you don’t get there.”

Moving in the right direction?

Entering Friday, the Mariners were 4-2 under Wilson, with a pair of series wins. It’s hard to say how much influence Wilson has had on those victories, but Seattle did at least end its skid when the change was made.

“I just feel like it was a move that had to be made, and so far it looks so good, right?” Bowden said. “They won the first series with Dan, we’ll see how it goes down the road, but I think it was a decision Jerry had to make.”

There’s one other thing that Bowden is intrigued by that came with Seattle’s in-season switch, and that’s the move to make Hall of Fame designated hitter Edgar Martinez the Mariners’ hitting coach for the rest of the season.

“I think Dan is the right guy to lead this team, and I think the best, under the radar move that was made was Edgar Martinez agreeing to go down into the dugout for at least the rest of this year as hitting coach,” Bowden said. “We all know he knows as much about hitting as anybody in the sport, (and) his approach as a hitter (was) exactly the opposite of what this team does.”

Listen to the full Bump and Stacy conversation with former MLB executive Jim Bowden in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Bump and Stacy live from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.