Does Dan Wilson give Mariners something Servais couldn’t?

Mar 19, 2025, 7:41 PM | Updated: 7:53 pm

Editor, Seattle Sports

The Seattle Mariners are a week away from their first full season with Dan Wilson as their manager, and they’re looking to get over a hump that they couldn’t in the final years under previous skipper Scott Servais.

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While Servais was at the helm when the M’s broke a 21-year postseason drought and had unquestionably the second-best tenure of any manager in franchise history behind only Lou Piniella, the Mariners were never able to surpass 90 wins under him. And even when they made the playoffs – and to their credit swept a best-of-three series against the Toronto Blue Jays – it only came as the last wild card in the first season that MLB expanded the playoff field to six teams in each league.

Will Wilson be able to get them over that hump? Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob caught up with longtime MLB Network host Greg Amsinger on Tuesday, and Amsinger had an interesting point about Wilson, a one-time All-Star catcher who played 12 seasons for the Mariners and has been a part of the organization ever since he hung up his cleats.

“You know what Dan Wilson is? He’s a Mariner,” Amsinger said. “And for the Mariner players, they find a sense of security in that. He’s ‘one of us,’ right?”

Most Mariners players already had a rapport with Wilson, who was a longtime instructor in the team’s system before he was surprisingly named Servais’ replacement late in the 2024 season. For example, All-Star pitcher Logan Gilbert calls Wilson one of his two favorite people that he’s met in the game. So that’s one reason they may feel security with Wilson as the manager.

Another reason? How he isn’t perceived to be closely tied to the Mariners front office like Servais was. Servais notably worked with Dipoto for years prior to 2016, when Dipoto was hired as Mariners general manager and brought in Servais to be a first-time manager.

“No matter how long Scott Servais managed the Seattle Mariners, he was Jerry’s guy,” Amsinger said. “And it’s hard for players to believe that Scott always has their back, or any manager with a very intimate relationship like that, where they are boys and they’ve been together for a while and that’s his guy.”

It was an interesting thought that Wyman and Bob as well as fellow Seattle Sports show Brock and Salk spent time talking about after Amsinger said it, because it was an astute point that they hadn’t considered before.

“He is a Mariner”

As Amsinger continued his point, he related it to Terry Francona, a former World Series champion known for being a player’s manager who was hired by the Cincinnati Reds in the offseason.

“Why do you think the Cincinnati Reds pounced on getting a guy like Terry Francona? They knew (they have) a bunch of young players that are about to turn the corner, (so) get a guy who knows how to lead them. I like Scott Servais a lot. I think he’s actually a good manager, but I think when times get tough, players are looking around going, is this guy one of us or is he part of the front office? And I think they probably believe – and some guys I talked to did tell me this – that he was totally Jerry’s guy and wasn’t a player’s manager.

“Let me tell you something, that is not the case with Dan Wilson. He is a Mariner. He loved being a player … He loves the city, he loves everything about the culture of that organization, and he’s there for the guys.”

Wilson’s connection to the Mariners’ history is another thing Amsinger sees as a positive. He’s brought Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez back into the fold as Seattle’s director of hitting strategy, and M’s legends like Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki have all been around camp this spring (although Ichiro is always around, and Griffey is no stranger either as a part of the franchise’s ownership group).

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“Having Edgar around and having the history of Mariner baseball back is a great thing, because even though there’s no world championship, there’s been some (really) good players to wear that uniform,” Amsinger said. “So let that radiate into the clubhouse. Let the players, the former players that are now on the coaching staff, make those guys feel like they’re one of them and they always have their back. I think Dan Wilson’s going to do a great job.”

Hear the full Wyman and Bob conversation with MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Wyman and Bob from 2-7 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.