Mariners coaching carousel continues as hitting coach fired with Scott Servais
The Mariners have continued making moves in their coaching staff, as they let go of not just Scott Servais but their hitting coach as well.
News broke this morning that the Mariners were going to be releasing Scott Servais. Well, releasing is the nicer way to put it as opposed to saying that Seattle fired their manager, but I think you all get the point. The discussion since then has been whether or not the Mariners made the right move in getting rid of Servais, or if it should've been the teams' hitting coach instead.
Well, it didn't take long for it to come out that it was actually a package deal, and the Mariners were going to get rid of their hitting coach as well, as the team fired Jarret DeHart this afternoon.
First Scott Servais was fired and he is now joined by Jarret DeHart
This was DeHart's 7th season with the Mariners. Starting back in 2018, he was named their hitting coach in the Arizona League. He spent the next five seasons working his way up, from the Arizona League to Hitting Strategist for the Mariners, up to Assistant hitting coach and finally the head hitting coach in 2022.
Things have been rough since he took over, and that's sort of being nice about it. Check out their stats since 2022, as well as their ranking in each stat.
- 2022 - .230/.315/.390. 28th/16th/16th. Struckout 1397 times, 11th in the League
- 2023 - .242/.321/.413. 22nd/15th/16th. Struckout 1603 times, 2nd in the League
- 2024 - .216/.301/.365. 30th/26th/29th. Lead the League in Strikeouts
It's not just that they lead the league in strikeouts, either. It's that if they aren't careful, they are going to break the all-time record for most strikeouts in a season. The Mariners' OPS on the season, if done as a player, would be 126th out of 151 qualified players. That's terrible for a player on their own, and it's your team ranking.
Whether you think it was Servais or DeHart that was the problem, the Mariners are completely changing the voice that is heard in the dugout and the leader of the hitting approach as well. With Dan Wilson at the helm and Edgar Martinez stepping back in to help more with hitting, I think Mariners' fans all over can agree that we are hoping for some positive results from those old fan-favorites, and that they are able to make the team competitive for the rest of the season.