Scott Servais is the latest name to surface in the Orioles’ search for a new manager. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports that the O’s have interest in the former Mariners skipper, but it isn’t known if Servais has been formally interviewed by the team.
Reports also emerged yesterday that the Twins were considering Servais for their own managerial opening. Minnesota and Baltimore are two of a whopping eight teams that don’t have managers in place for 2026, so it is certainly possible that Servais might also be a candidate with one of those other six clubs (though that number could narrow if the Giants finalize things with front-runner Tony Vitello.)
Interim Orioles manager Tony Mansolino, former Mets manager Luis Rojas, and future Hall-of-Famer Albert Pujols are the names publicly known to be on Baltimore’s list of candidates. Cubs bench coach and former Orioles player Ryan Flaherty has also been mentioned in a more speculative fashion. With Servais now included, it makes for an interesting mix of three candidates with past experience running a big league dugout, an experienced coach in Flaherty who has had “future manager” buzz surrounding him for a while, plus an all-time superstar player in Pujols who has never managed or coached in the majors or minors.
Servais is far and away the most seasoned candidate of the group, as he managed the Mariners for parts of nine seasons from 2016-2024. Seattle posted winning records in five of Servais’ eight full seasons, and he has a winning record (680-642) as a big league skipper. Only the 2022 Mariners squad reached the playoffs under Servais’ leadership, however, and the M’s fired Servais in August 2024 when the team was sitting at an even 64-64 record. The Mariners have since gone 111-85 under new manager Dan Wilson, including an AL West title this season and a playoff run that lasted until Game 7 of the ALCS.
As a Yankees fan, I say do it!
I am not a Yankees fan, but if I was, I would say fire Aaron Boone. Since I’m not, please keep him. 😉
Boone is the best thing for the rest of the rest of the AL East.
As a Yankee fan, I agree.
That’s so sad.
He’s been out of Servais for a while now. As a Red Sox fan, go for it O’s
How about their former hitting coach, Matt Borgschulte? They performed well during his time there and the players love him.
As a Rays fan, I welcome the competition for last place.
While Pujols would be a great story and potentially a clever manager, he’s not the steady, been-here-before hand this group of players needs when they inevitably start to think themselves into an ineffective pouting spree.
Obviously I don’t know Albert Pujols but I find it very curious that with no management or coaching experience he would be considered for such an elite job as major league manager.
My only impression of him is that once he got all the money from the Angels he kind of flatlined, like a fat cat.
As an Orioles fan, I say what on freaking Earth would make you consider this. If this helps them fire Elias, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, all day every day no.
This would be a better hire than Flaherty
Yes fire a guy that built the best minor league system in baseball and a team to won 193 games over two years. Brilliant.
If you were a fan you’d appreciate the epic number of injuries last year including their 4 best starting pitchers missing most of the year.
Same story as Jays finishing last in 24 while they dealt w their own injuries.
Unfortunately there are a number of people who want to ignore all the good Elias has done and how he, quite literally rebuilt the entire organization. None of that seems to matter because he had a bad offseason last year.
Teams would be lining up for Elias if he was available and some Orioles fans just like to complain, even when they were winning.
Intentionally losing a few hundred games and thusly positioning yourself for the best draft picks for years doesn’t take skill. Even the fans preached about getting some elite starters for this season. Elias gave them grandpa and a mediocre overseas player. Oh, the oft injured power hitter was another swing and miss. He’s a control freak and I doubt any experienced manager will work for him.
Must be so hard to rebuild a farm when you have 2 #1 picks in 4 years along with a #2 and #5
He’d be near the bottom of my wishlist if he were available
Ask Pittsburgh or Colorado. Cincy? Oh, they just squeaked in with 83 wins because the Mets collapsed. Prisoner of the moment. This will be the year to judge Elias’ work. He’s done positive things. This team was awful when he took over.
the Orioles ownership literally refused to sign Latin American talent bc of the possible shadiness of handshake deals when the kids are toddlers (hyperbole). he would effectively only trade for international players that other teams has shown were serviceable. look at the landscape of the MLB today, you cannot just ignore signing Latin American talent and really succeed long term.
Elias built a presence and an academy in the DR… Bassello is the 1st real result of that. that’s not tanking to get the 1st pick… that is work. look, Elias does things that I wonder about too but you can’t just go with the easy narrative that he only has talent bc he had early picks.
Gunnar was a 2nd round pick. 41 other picks occurred before Baltimore drafted him. the other teams had a shot a picking him. if they had the LAST pick of the 1st round, they could have picked him there — tanking did not get the Orioles Gunnar, the best position player on the team.
I do think it is reasonable to criticize Elias for not having a lot to show for serviceable players beyond the 2nd round. Nate George hopefully will be one example of a good late pick. But a team like Baltimore needs to really have strong results from the draft up and down the rounds. Economically, they can’t just use the rest of the league as a feeder source like the Yankees and Dodgers. sure, if they sign Kyle Tucker in the off season to a huge contract and for some reason,.he has a career ending injury or illness… Baltimore would be in a world of hurt for many years unlike the big budget teams.
it annoys me when people just say the same thing and echo the same old complaints.
“they need to sign an Ace!” (who exactly)
“tanking is Elias’ only strategy”
“the team is cheap!”
They weren’t intentionally losing games, they chose to utilize their financial resources to build up their minor league system, international scouting and resources, the Dominican facility, adding player development and analytics and building the organization the way it should have been built and operated but with a neglectful owner and the refusal to utilize international market or resources, they were not running the club effectively or efficiently.
Furthermore, multiple other teams have had many top picks and haven’t been as successful with them as Elias has been. Other teams have “tanked” and didn’t do half of the rebuild that Baltimore did and they have nothing to show for it, poor farm systems, have entered multiple rebuilds etc.
Should additional pitchers have been acquired last offseason, absolutely, but if anyone thinks that Baltimore is going to play at the financial level that it took to sign a Snell or Fried, it’s not going to happen. They offered Burnes a higher annual salary than Arizona, but on a shorter contract. They will not likely be offering a starter contracts in excess of 4-5 years and that’s smart.
This season was a combination of multiple things going wrong at the same time and injuries were a huge factor. Just having injured players back on the field next season will be a big improvement. They don’t need an ace, they can go get a good number 2 to pair with Bradish and Rogers. I hope they make a run at Imai when he’s posted and also go after the number 2 starter. Wells should be utilized in the pen and I also think Grayson should as well. He’s likely going to be on an innings limit and pitching out of the pen for a season should help him contribute and stay healthy and then revisit a starting rotation role in ‘27. Add Alonso for the legitimate RH power bat to balance out the lineup. The Orioles will be back to their 23-24 version next season and depending on what acquisitions, they could be even better.
Building a great minor league system means nothing if the players that come out of that minor league system dont join the major league team and help them win playoff games and playoff series, something that has never happened under Elias but did happen with the GM that came before him.
Also, Elias is not just the guy who had two seasons with a nice number of regular season wins. He is the guy that had a bad team this year and hugged the carpet ferociously to embrace rock bottom for so many years prior to the two nice win total years. It had to be face down in the mud for a very long time which was a miserable experience for the fans and I am one. It did not have to be that way because he was picking guys ranked 5th or 10th as draft prospects with the 2nd overall pick. So 71 wins would have been okay. No tanking necessary. Gunnar probably the best of his picks was a pick in the 30s.
And its not just injuries, the players he picked are not playing that well now. Plenty of times many were present and the team seemed mediocre at best.
He has been around for a while and not one playoff win and to be honest I’m not real optimistic with his approach its going be a big improvement over this year. I can make a case where the other 4 teams in the division are just better teams.
You cant say that just because Toronto was a last place team its okay to be in last place. All last place teams, extend your managers and GMs. Next year its World Series. Look at Toronto. Sometimes last place means your team is the worst in the division and think that is the case here. I think the Elias way need to be abandoned for them to improve. Its not working so far.
The O’s weren’t going to win 71 games lmao.
Do you remember those teams? Our best players were Mountcastle, Villar, and Mancini (who got cancer)
Duke left him with nothing and got almost nothing back in our sell off. (Dean Kremer is far and away the most productive piece he got) Angelos was not going to spend another $100MM per it would’ve taken to get that team up to 75 wins. It was awful.
I swear people forget where we were when this all started. Elias took the only route and built us an international pipeline that’s produced Basallo and prospects in the minors. Gunnar was signed overslot because we went under slot with that first pick also BTW.
To add on part of the “strategy” to win 75 games (never would’ve happened) would’ve involved keeping guys like Bundy which would’ve meant we didn’t get Bradish.
Elias didn’t tear us down to the studs either. It was already there. His “major” deals were Lopez and Bundy. Team was garbage:
From Brandon Hyde to Scott Servais seems like a lateral move. I’m surprised Rocco Baldelli isn’t getting any consideration, at least not publicly
Since Heyman is reporting it, it might in reality be Scott Service.
I get that Elias came in with not a ton but he also didn’t have to keep the total team salary so low for so long. He could actually have added free agents. We had Renato Nunez hit 30 HRs and think the price tag was 3 to 5M for another year and it was a no. I get it, not like he would have been an excellent signing but its just a consistent thing. Money? Oh, then no. We dont do money. And I dont think its so much cause there is no money and we are so small market. When the team is winning the stands get filled and there is the MASN contract and there was even some Nationals money.
The thing that is frustrating is they actually did spend money this year. Maybe 150M? Possibly a 40 to 50M increase. It was just some horrible or average or slightly above average moves. O’Neill Morton Gibson Sugano. Its a strategy that just feels very ineffective. Low salary short-term contracts. I mean excellent strategy if you make it work. But this year it was just bad. So that counts as part of his score. Kittredge and Laureano nicer but could have had them back next year. Would rather have guys at the low levels in the minors. That feels like a fail. Scrap all his moves, Fried or Snell instead and everyone is more optimistic about next year.
The draft, I mean it all seems nice when MLB and Baseball America say your prospects are great. But has Cowser worked out? Not really. Kjerstad has not worked out great so far. As a 1 overall Adley does not look great now. Honeycutt in the minors not looking so great. Holliday I feel can work out. Some other nice picks but its been a long time. Hard to say lets see how these A+ guys and AA guys pan out in 5 years.
The international side, sure he’s doing well. If he wants to accept a demotion to head of International Scouting, I’m all for it.
Servias is a decent Manager and if the Os signed him you would be happy. He was hired to manage a team that never had a chance to win. He isn’t the best manager ever but still a solid choice. As an Ms fan I was glad to see him go. Looking back it was all a set up. Give him a team that wants to win and has the pieces to win and he will win. I think once he is given a team he will be just fine.