Angels are latest team to show Mariners how a coaching house-cleaning is done

Now that they're eight games under .500, pretty much the only consolation for the Seattle Mariners is that they're not in last place in the AL West. That spot belongs to the Los Angeles Angels and, honestly, you have to hand it to them for not being happy about it. If they have anything the Mariners don't, it's the guts to part ways with bad coaches.

The Angels fired everyone on Tuesday. Well, not everyone in a literal sense, but a good chunk of their coaching staff by showing pitching coach Mike Maddux, bullpen coach Dom Chiti and assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott the door.

It could have simply been a results-based decision on account of a 24th-ranked ERA. Yet the official story also alludes to the ex-coaches having left resources on the table, most notably in that they were not using technology in the way that the organization and players wanted them to.

There's a lesson here for the Mariners that they almost certainly won't act on, but should see nonetheless: Nobody is making you live with bad coaches.

The Mariners have ample reason to have turned on Dan Wilson and his coaching staff

It feels weird to say this about a manager whose resume includes a .528 winning percentage and a trip to the ALCS in just two years' time, but Dan Wilson is not good at his job.

This statement shouldn't be controversial where Xs and Os are concerned, and specifically in the sense that Wilson still knows nothing about bullpen management even after the Eduard Bazardo debacle in last year's ALCS. This year has also revealed the dark side of his relaxed demeanor. It seems to be the only mode he has, and it seems to have infected the club's day-to-day energy level.

Arguably the one thing Wilson still does well is act as a heat shield for his players, but we can even put some asterisks on that. There are too many players on this roster who should be held accountable for poor performances, but haven't been. And while we appreciate Cal Raleigh bluntly saying "I'm awful" on Tuesday, it would have been nice if he had done something about it earlier instead of merely admitting to it in August.

Of course, Wilson is merely complicit in the fundamental flaw that is only getting worse. It's more so on hitting director Edgar Martinez and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer that the Mariners are dead-last in the majors with 463 runs. The complexity of hitting makes this a tough nut to crack. It is curious, though, that you hear a lot about how good Martinez is at preaching good hitting mechanics, and yet so little about how good he and Seitzer are at game-planning for the day-to-day.

The Mariners can take a look around and see that sometimes shaking up a coaching staff can work

Even with all of the above said, the caveat is that nobody should be holding their breath for any major changes to the Mariners' coaching staff.

To hear it from Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, Wilson is too beloved in the organization to be cast aside like he was, say, Scott Servais. And if that's what is protecting Wilson, it's proooooooobably what's protecting Martinez as well. Firing third-string underlings like Bobby Magallanes is one thing. Firing a franchise icon who is also one of the best right-handed hitters ever is another thing.

All the same, it's times like these when one's eyes go wandering to history, both recent and not-so-recent.

Remember when the Mariners fired Servais in 2024 and then made a 21-13 push under Wilson in the final 34 games of the season? Changing directions sure worked then, and it still feels like a relevant proof of concept even though it's now Wilson's butt that should be on the hot seat.

More recently, the Philadelphia Phillies went for broke by firing manager Rob Thomson in late April. This was after the Boston Red Sox went even harder on their staff, firing manager Alex Cora and basically all of his top lieutenants. Both were major shocks to the system, and particularly the one in Boston. But since May 1, the Phillies and the Red Sox rank among MLB's top five with 52 wins apiece.

There's hardly any guarantee that the Angels will also be able to pull more wins out of a hat just because they got rid of some coaches they didn't like. But if it does happen, it'll be all the more reason for Jerry Dipoto, John Stanton and the rest of the Mariners' brass to wonder if they pushed loyalty too far.

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