Servais emotional after 500th win as manager

ARLINGTON -- Scott Servais emerged from the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Field on Friday drenched in ice water, his hair haggard and his smile wide. His players had just given him a Gatorade bath after a 6-2 win over the Rangers, a celebratory recognition of the Mariners manager earning his 500th career win.

After discussing Seattle’s resilient victory, he was asked about the individual accomplishment, at which point he thanked third-base coach Manny Acta, who’s been with him for the entire ride, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, who hired him in October 2015, and the club’s ownership group.

Before Servais could get through it all, he choked up. The words of gratitude and reflection seemingly evoked the emotional weight of the accomplishment.

“Thank you,” a teary Servais said. “You get opportunities to do this. I love my job. I really do. And I can't -- sorry. We've got a lot of big games ahead of us, and I'm looking forward to a little bit more celebrations here once we get into October.”

Servais became just the 139th manager in history to reach that benchmark and 13th active manager with that many victories. But among that group, Servais is just the fifth to do so with the same team, joining the Braves’ Brian Snitker, Brewers’ Craig Counsell, Dodgers’ Dave Roberts and Rays’ Kevin Cash. Yet of those five, Servais is the only who hasn’t led his team to the postseason. He hopes to change that in the coming weeks, with the Mariners clinging to the top AL Wild Card spot.

“Again, the job's not done,” Servais said. “We've got a lot of fun baseball ahead of us, and I'm looking forward to that.”

The moment also allowed Servais to reflect on how much his perspective and surroundings have changed since he was hired and the transformation of the roster and front office under Dipoto, assistant GM Justin Hollander and many between.

“If you look at where our organization has come,” Servais said, “from a team we inherited to trading off a lot of those guys, the rebuild, starting over with young players and seeing where we're at today, it's a credit to everybody that has been involved with this organization, but no more than Jerry and what Justin do on an everyday basis and our ownership group. They gave me a chance.”

Servais played in the Majors for parts of 11 seasons then shortly after jumped into a career in player development, first with the Rangers (2004-10) then the Angels (2011-15), with whom he served as an assistant GM. In many ways, he’s a baseball lifer. And as such, he received countless messages on Saturday from many whose paths he’s crossed.

“Teammates, players that I had in the Minor Leagues when I was with the Angels, the Rangers, coaches,” Servais said. “A wide array of people hit me. It was really nice.”

But he also wanted to share the accomplishment with those who helped him reach it.

“Five hundred wins, it's hard to do, first of all -- and not get fired in this game,” Servais said, laughing. “It happens, but it's a credit to our players. I said that to them. They dumped the Gatorade or whatever on me tonight, and it means a lot. But the game is about the players. It'll always be about the players and the fact that they grind through it. So much goes into a Major League season. And as the manager, you really appreciate what they do to get their bodies ready and try to stay active and whatnot. So it's about the players. I really appreciate their efforts.”