The Mariners on Monday announced their coaching staff for the 2021 season. The unit will remain largely unchanged, although Seattle has appointed Trent Blank as the team’s permanent bullpen coach and director of pitching strategy. He’ll replace Brian DeLunas, whose departure had been previously reported. DeLunas coached remotely in 2020 due to a preexisting kidney issues that place him at high risk with regard to Covid-19. Due to that arrangement, Blank shared bullpen coach duties in 2020 on an acting/interim basis.
Blank is entering his third season with the Mariners organization, having previously been hired as the club’s coordinator of pitching strategy prior to the 2019 campaign. The former Rockies farmhand spent four years with TMI Sports Medicine between his retirement as a player in 2015 and being hired by Seattle.
Manager Scott Servais is set to return to the Mariners for what will be his sixth season, and he’ll have the rest of his 2020 staff back at his side. That includes bench coach Jared Sandberg (heading into his second season in that role), hitting coach Tim Laker (third season), pitching coach Pete Woodworth (second season), first base/infield coach Perry Hill (third season), third base coach Manny Acta (fourth season), assistant hitting coach Jarret DeHart (second season) and field coordinator Carson Vitale (second season).
Mariners fans, how is Servais as a manager? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Good culture guy, bad in game manager. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him get promoted to the front office after the season and bring in a new manager.
I’m not an M’s fan, but here’s how I would rank the AL West managers:
Baker
Melvin
Servais
Maddon (3 and 4 could flip honestly)
Woodward
I don’t hate Servais, and I think he does a fine job with that team. Don’t take this as me saying Maddon is bad either, he is just a little behind the game right now. Baker took the reins and held on tight the entire year, I think he was great with the Astros, and the best in the AL West. The only way I can describe Melvin is… he’s between Baker and Servais/Maddon. He’s good for the A’s. We don’t talk about the last one.
I’ll grant that Baker probably deserves the MOY award this year; he took a terrible situation and navigated it superbly.
But Bob Melvin’s been one of the best managers in MLB; I think he’s historically good (and underappreciated). His teams always seem to win more than they should; sometimes he wins with pitching teams, sometimes with hitting teams, and sometimes with teams that don’t seem to be able to do either.
Melvin, Madden, Servais, Woodward, and Baker last for me
Scott Servais is a horrible manager. His teams win despite his valiant efforts to blow games. See Bryan Shaw.
Rangers29- interesting take on the ranking of the leagues managers. Loyal (sometimes to a fault) Mariners fan here: Personally I’d put Melvin at the top of the pile and imo it’s not even close. The A’s always find ways to win. I look at how they won in 2020- they did it despite a below avg starting rotation with the best BP in MLB. They were 27-0 when leading after 7 inn and finished the yr as a unit with a 2.72 ERA. It’s a thankless job- MLB skipper, damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Any skipper who can manage that many different RP’s to be the best BP in MLB imo should win MOTY.
Melvin’s teams have character often coming from behind to win games. You can never count them out. That says a lot about the teams chemistry and it’s leadership. It seemed like there was a different guy stepping up with winning hits every night. He had to manage bad seasons from Semien, Laureano, Khris Davis and Frankie Montas as well as a crucial injury to their best all around player- Matt Chapman.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched Melvin give a post game interview and thought- why did Seattle let him go? Where would we be if he never left?
Re: the first sentence of your paragraph below your rankings I’d personally substitute Servais for Baker in that sentence. The Houston Astros players had a massive chip on their shoulders this year, they had an us against the world mentality. This is purely conjecture but the players didn’t need much motivation, it didn’t matter who was at the helm, imo Baker was just along for the ride.
Here’s my thought process my ranking of Servais below- simply put, he had a steaming pile of garbage for a BP, the youngest team in MLB and before the season began he lost his captain on the field, Tom Murphy his starting Catcher. His 1B had never played above AA and after a HORRENDOUS start inc. a 40%
K-out rate most of the fans and some of the media were calling for him to be demoted. His handling of E White alone deserves a Nobel peace prize haha. His starting C debuted last year at 1B as a 29 yr old rookie. He was primarily an infielder who agreed to learn the C position in 2019 to serve as an emergency C. He was asked to learn the position on the fly while handling a 6 man rotation and a revolving door BP that seemed to have a new RP every week. I’m sure Scott Servais’s background as a Catcher was invaluable to A Nola. One month later Nola was traded away and replaced with a young Catcher also with very little experience: Luis Torrens. Again Servais would’ve helped him get to know the tendencies of nearly 20 new pitchers. As much as I criticize Servais for his (mis)handling of the BP you cannot ignore the fact that despite those failings Seattle stood 1.0g out of playoff contention with 3 weeks to go in the 2020 season. As far as mishandling BP’s go even the 2020 World Series mngrs get heavily criticized for their BP mgmt skills- it just comes with the territory. If your’e still reading this, haha here are my rankings:
1) Melvin 2) Servais 3) Baker 4) Maddon.
He’s not great or terrible. Good communicator but lacks feel for bullpen usage (my opinion) and game situations at times.
Considering the turnover, youth and unknowns that he has had with the ballclub as they have played the shell game trying to evaluate talent to move forward-he has done and exceptional job keeping the identity of the team positive, challenged to grow and develop. Sure, he is going to look bad ingame for some decisions but honestly given his talent level to deal with that’s hardly on him. His job hasn’t been to field the best team as if he was a contender, but rather discover and build a culture that can eventually contend. Easy to be arm chaired by others, but in that regards he has been exceptional.
It’s not the lack of talent that bothers me with Servais, you can’t do much from that standpoint.
It’s the apparent lack of understanding situations that tells me Servais isn’t going to help the Mariners win, he’s at his ceiling.
The Mariners are building towards winning and as such should be learning how to win by making the proper adjustments in timely ways.
That just isn’t done, it hasn’t been done and there is no reason to think that it can be done under Servais given what we’ve seen the last 5 years.
What good is talent if you don’t know how to use it?
“Considering the turnover…” Ask yourself, why was the turnover necessary? Because in 2018 the M’s reached 23 games over .500 at game 93 in the season and then fell off a planet when it mattered while the A’s overtook the M’s despite a far less talented roster and reduced payroll? Oh yeah, that’s what happened. Scott had his chance with a contending team and blew it.
He’s a great manager for what his job is, to get these kids ready to compete. the question becomes, how he manages (specifically pitching) once he does have a contender. In the beginning when he was tasked with winning, he made some questionable maneuvers with starters and relievers. In the rebuilding years, I think he gets a pass as he also needs to see if a guy can overcome an obstacle or preform in the moment. If it doesnt work, then he looks bad. So, I would take more recent seasons with a grain of salt. Overall, I think this staff is just fine for where they are.
He’s horrible! But his buddy is his boss, time to clean it up!!
Seattle has pre-determined match-ups, pitch & inning limits, and just enough room for improvisation–which is important with such a young team, though some of the decisions won’t be popular. He’s a modern-day manager that communicates well.
He’s fine. He’s very similar to Melvin with his approach and that’s a positive.
The guy has absolutely no clue on how to utilize a bullpen. He’ll continue to put out the same guy after he gets continously shelled, thinking he’s going to get a different result. Bryan Shaw was the perfect example of that this year. Juan Nicasio a few years ago is another. just 2 of many examples. Other than the fact that he blows game after game with his bullpen mismanagement, I guess he’s decent lol
I think he does a good job with motivating the team and with helping in the development of the young players. He’s a good organization kind of guy, seems to have a good grasp of personnel. Probably not as effective with in-game management, in that I believe he tends to leave starting pitchers in too long sometimes and makes occasional poor bullpen decisions. I think he does a decent job with lineups, and his coaching staff seems solid. He shares the GM’s vision for the rebuild, and I agree with 24theKid, that Servais might be more suited to a front office position. However his job goes, here’s hoping things continue to move in a positive direction for the franchise.
Please not another year of Servais. Time to promote Manny Acta in to the roll. Servais can move to the front office and be an understudy for his bestie, Dipoto.
Acta had an opportunity in D.C, couldn’t get it done.
Acta is not a good manager.
I think that Servais has done a great job helping to guide the young players. Of course, his coaching staff is a big part of that as well.
He has. I think fans sometimes forget that part of the process involves assessing players in a variety of different, sometimes unpleasant, situations.
Right man for the job. He’s getting closer to having a contending team.
Die hard Mariners fan and my opinion is as follows:
I like Servais and i think he has done a passable job with what hes given. Being as this is the first time he will have a broad swath of talent i think its hard to compare his managering with the past, though the past is still relevant in regard to his style.
Sometimes he feels like the old grandpa thats still trying to be hip with his grandkids but is using slang and jokes that are out of date and cheesey. Hes a good manager for the clubhouse moral but sometimes his in game mangering is lacking, as others have pointed out. I agree that he may be replaced at the end of this year and Dipoto will try and get someone younger.
I agree that Service is there to get the “team ready”.
When the “teams ready” they move onto another manager more capable of getting this team over the hump.
Looked for his contract length but only seemed to find he signed a multi-year contract extension after the 2018 All Star break.
3 yr extension(?) puts us at the end of 2021 where they dont re-up him for the manger job but sign him to a new one up stairs?
Do they go after one of Hinch or Cora if they go unsigned this yr?
Would Hinch sign with The M”s just to get a chance to go against The Astro”s every year when they are possibly starting their decline?
Service will stay in the organization as long as Dipoto is running this show but when does his contract end, 2021?
Anyone have a link for that info?
His contract years were undisclosed. That information was not shared. It gives a way for both sides to evaluate future at end of season etc. why would they go after Hinch or Cora? I don’t see the Mariners bringing on baggage as they are starting to round corner of rebuild.
Servais is the worst bullpen manager of all time. If analytics are controlling his decisions… then they need to be thrown out and he needs to have the spine to say no. Bryan Shaw, Anthony Swarzak, Casey Lawrence, Juan Nicasio, Marc Rzepczynski… he routinely put these clowns in big situations when you knew they were going to blow it. His best year as a manager, 2018, he was saved by Edwin Diaz and if you weren’t paying attention, you’d think he did a good job. The M’s won so many games by the skin of their teeth that shouldn’t have been close but Servais made them so.
Apart from horrible bullpen management, he is the least confrontational manager in the game. He doesn’t fight for his ball club when they’re being slighted… Influencing umpires is a big part of a managers job and his passive behavior gifts opponents the advantage far too often. The M’s are often victims of slighted strike zones… where other managers are on the umps the second a call doesn’t go their way… Servais sits there like a lump on a log with his arms crossed looking like he’s been constipated for the last week.
I like Servais. I definitely don’t think he negatively affects the ball club at all. Players seem to like him but not love him. Just an average manager really nothing special.
The guy has absolutely no clue on how to utilize a bullpen. He’ll continue to put out the same guy after he gets continously shelled, thinking he’s going to get a different result. Bryan Shaw was the perfect example of that this year. Juan Nicasio a few years ago is another. just 2 of many examples. Other than the fact that he blows game after game with his bullpen mismanagement, I guess he’s decent lol