Logan Gilbert: How Dan Wilson is putting his stamp on the Mariners

All-Star pitcher Logan Gilbert has been at every Seattle Mariners spring training since 2019, and those camps all had one thing in common: they were led by manager Scott Servais.

Until this year.

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Dan Wilson is now the Mariners’ skipper, having taking over late last season, and if anybody would be able to tell if there’s a different feeling this spring, it would be Gilbert. He can confirm that is indeed the case.

“I really felt like right out of the gate, just pitchers and catchers camp, it was like he belonged,” Gilbert said of Wilson when he joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Wednesday. “He knew his spot, he knew the way he was going to lead us it felt like. And (he) mentioned a few different pillars and different things like that that he wants this team this season to focus on, to be built on. So it’s like he has this initiative, he has this identity for the team, and we’re following.”

That seems like a good sign.

While Wilson is bringing his own philosophies to the table, he’s no stranger to the way the Mariners have been doing things. He’s been involved with the team not just going back to his playing days as a one-time All-Star but also with a role in player instruction up to the time he moved into the manager’s position. Because of that, Gilbert is plenty familiar with Wilson, and in fact had a pretty strong compliment for him because of that.

“Dan’s (one of the) top two people I’ve ever met in baseball with A.D. (Alvin Davis),” he said. “Them two are unbelievable.”

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Gilbert added that even though the timing with Wilson replacing Servais last year was a “weird circumstance” and made for a “tough situation,” Wilson has handled it well.

“This year I was kind of curious about it,” Gilbert said of how Wilson would lead the team in spring training. “… It’s been really fun to watch so far.”

A battle every day

There’s one thing Wilson said recently that stood out to Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard, which is that he approaches the season as “162 battles.” That could be seen as a more urgent line of thinking than in previous seasons, and it’s something Gilbert relates to – especially since, as a starting pitcher, he only gets to play in roughly a fifth of those 162 games.

“It’s a big deal and I try to keep it that way,” Gilbert said. “Because you look back, it’s frustrating and we don’t love to talk about it all the time, but we’re within a game or two (of making the playoffs) for the last however many years that the random Tuesday game in May could be the game that gets us in the playoffs, you know what I mean?

“And you have to think about it that way, especially as a starting pitcher. That if I get 33 of them and I’m watching 130, when it’s my turn to have the ball, we have to win that game. That’s how I have to think about it. And Dan’s that old school catcher guy too, so I think we just click that way.”

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with Seattle Mariners pitcher Logan Gilbert in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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