Seattle Mariners: 5 Potential Managerial Candidates if Servais Goes

5. Carlos Beltran or Mark Kotsay

Hiring former players without managerial experience are kind of the new norm. The Mariners did it with Servais, the Cardinals with Mike Matheny, and the Twins with Rocco Baldelli. So interviewing Carlos Beltran wouldn’t be that unusual. Heck, the Yankees brought in Beltran to interview for their open position before giving it to Aaron Boone and Beltran is now a special assistant to GM Brian Cashman.

Beltran’s name comes with a lot of respect attached to it and he is well respected by both the old school and new school factions of the game. He is bilingual, which as we discussed with Manny Acta, is a huge plus.

One other name who has experience in both the dugout and the front office is former outfielder Mark Kotsay. After a 17-year career playing for 6 organizations, Kotsay retired from playing but never got far away from the game, signing on as a special assistant with San Diego in 2014.

Kotsay was back in the dugout for the 2015 season, serving as Padres hitting coach for one season, before being hired to be Bob Melvin‘s bench coach in Oakland for 2 seasons. After 2017, the A’s moved Kotsay to the position of quality control coach.

Kotsay is a bright guy and baseball lifer and should have no problem commanding respect in a clubhouse of young players. The fact that he has worked in a progressive front office and has experience as a big-league staff member are also big pluses.

So there you have it. 5 (actually 8) candidates for the Mariners to consider if Scott Servais is moved to a front-office role for 2020. But remember, the odds of Servais being removed this off-season are roughly the same as the Mariners winning their final 6 games of 2019, so take this article as more of a thought exercise than anybody else.