Former Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais has found a landing spot ahead of the 2025 season.
The San Diego Padres hired Servais as a special assistant for baseball operations and player development, league sources told The Athletic. Servais, whom the Mariners fired in August, possesses relevant experience for his new role. The former major-league catcher was the Texas Rangers’ senior director of player development from 2004 to 2010, during which time he worked alongside current Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.
Like Preller, Padres farm director Ryley Westman and assistant farm director Mike Daly overlapped with Servais as members of the Rangers organization.
Preller interviewed Servais for the Padres’ managerial vacancy in late 2015 before San Diego hired Andy Green and Seattle hired Servais in the same role. Across nine seasons, Servais led the Mariners to a 680-642 record and, in 2022, their first playoff appearance in 21 years.
The Mariners failed to return to the postseason each of the next two years, which included a collapse in the standings last summer. After the Mariners watched a 10-game lead in the American League West turn into a five-game deficit, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto fired Servais, a longtime friend, on Aug. 22. Servais was replaced by Dan Wilson, a former Mariners catcher who had been working as a coordinator in the organization’s farm system.
Servais, 57, is not the first former big-league manager to join the Padres’ minor-league system in recent years. In 2022, months after being fired by the St. Louis Cardinals, Mike Shildt was hired by San Diego as a player development consultant. Shildt, who succeeded Bob Melvin as Padres manager last offseason, received a contract extension through 2027 in November.
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