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MLB Notebook: Shohei Ohtani joins 40/40 club, Mariners fire manager Scott Servais, and more
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Photo credit: © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Brett Holden
Aug 26, 2024, 21:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 26, 2024, 22:02 EDT
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Shohei Ohtani joins the exclusive 40/40 club

Shohei Ohtani has joined quite the illustrious club as he becomes the sixth player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single season.
The only other players in history to achieve the feat are José Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Alfonso Soriano, and Ronald Acuña Jr., who completed the accomplishment last year.
But it isn’t just the milestone that is the most impressive, it’s the way Shohei did it.
Tie game in the bottom of the ninth at Dodger Stadium, bases loaded, two outs. The first pitch Rays pitcher Colin Poche throws to the superstar, Ohtani hammers it to deep right-centre field. Jose Siri races to the wall as he watches the ball fly just over the outfield wall, bounce off a fan’s glove in the stands, and flop back over into the outfield.
Dodgers commentator Joe Davis knew it off the bat as he howled “No way! What a way to do it!” The moment was special.
As the Dodgers continue to flounder with injury issues and a surging division, Ohtani reminded everyone why the Dodgers are the best in the west.
What also makes Shohei’s entrance into the 40/40 clubs is how quickly he was able to accomplish the feat this season. Last year, Ronald Acuña hit his 40th home run on September 19th – almost an entire month later than Shohei. By that time, Acuña already had 66 stolen bases.
The scary thing is, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts seems to believe Shohei had his eyes on the achievement entering the year.
“I do think 40-40 is something that was on his radar from Spring Training.”
Next up for Shohei, the Triple Crown as he leads the National League in HRs with 41, second in RBIs with 94, and fifth in batting average with .292. While the batting average seems a little out of reach, with the way Ohtani continues to consistently set the bar higher and higher, it would not be surprising to see Shohei become the first Triple Crown winner in over a decade.

Seattle Mariners fire manager Scott Servais

Speaking of the Dodgers, they left a lasting impression on the Seattle Mariners this past week as following a sweep at the hands of Los Angeles, Seattle decided to sack their manager.
Scott Servais along with hitting coach Jarret DeHart were fired by the M’s on Thursday.
Unfortunately for Servais, he found out about Seattle’s intentions of firing him, from Twitter (or x, whatever you wanna call it).
90 minutes before he was scheduled to have a meeting with the president of baseball operations for the Mariners, Jerry Dipoto, Servais received a notification from Ken Rosenthal. Rosenthal’s tweet broke the news of Servais’ dismissal, setting the tone for his upcoming front-office gathering.
“It was just the reality of what may be coming down here in the next few hours. When you’re part of an organization for nine years, it feels like family.”
Not exactly the way Servais expected or wanted to get fired from a club he’s been a part of for almost a decade.
“It was alarming that I found out that way, but it happened. I can’t say it didn’t happen. It absolutely happened that way.”
The Mariners have had a free fall during the second-half of the season, going from a 10.0 game lead over the Houston Astros as recently as June 18th, to 4.5 games back from the ‘Stros and 6.5 games back from an AL Wildcard spot.
Since joining the Mariners in 2016, Servais holds a 682-643 record and only made the Postseason once during his tenure. While the playoff appearance did feature the infamous collapse from the Blue Jays, the Mariners would be swept in the ALDS by the eventual champs, the Houston Astros.
Dan Wilson takes over the reins from Servais. The former catcher spent 12 seasons in the Pacific Northwest, playing over 1200 games in a Mariners uniform. Wilson, who is an M’s Hall of Famer, has been around the team since 2013 in various roles including catching coordinator and a fill-in manager within the organization. Since he took over, the Mariners took two of three in their series with the Giants over the weekend and head into Tampa Bay on Monday.

Jordan Montgomery calls out Scott Boras for “butchered” offseason

Jordan Montgomery did not get the deal he was projected to receive when he hit free agency this winter, and he has one person to blame for that… Scott Boras.
Montgomery signed a one-year, $25-million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 29th, a day after the D-backs opened their season. Without a Spring Training to get into game shape heading into the season, Montgomery did not get into MLB action until April 19th, and it has not gotten any easier for the 2023 World Series hero.
So far this season Montgomery holds a 6.44 ERA with only 67 strikeouts in 95.0 innings, which has eventually relegated him to the bullpen. All of this has been a product, according to Montgomery, of Boras’ botched offseason.
“Obviously Boras kind of butchered it, so, I’m just trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it.”
After being a key contributor to the Texas Rangers World Series season last year, Jordan Montgomery was expected to receive a massive payday, 5+ years, north of $100 million. However, that never happened. Instead, Boras delayed until the start of the season to get Montgomery signed to a heavily reduced, short-term contract with the team he beat in the World Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks.
These comments come after his first appearance in Boston since the rumoured interest between the two parties this offseason. While Boston seemed like the most likely landing spot for Montgomery, it never materialized, in fact, Jordan only had one point of contact with the Red Sox the entire winter.
“I had a Zoom call with (the Red Sox), that’s really all I know. It went good.”
An outcome that Montgomery would’ve seemingly welcomed.
“It would have been awesome if it had worked out that way, but it didn’t.”
Montgomery fired Boras in April; only two weeks after signing with Arizona, and has since hired Joel Wolfe and Nick Chanock from the Wasserman Agency. But, current Boras client and fellow Boras Four member, Blake Snell disagrees with Montgomery’s evaluation of the super-agent’s winter.
“For him to just get bashed for what I believe is false, that’s not fair at all. I really strongly believe that.”
Snell compliments Boras’ transparency through his free agency process, something Montgomery claims he did not receive.
“He has the choice. I don’t know what other deals he was offered, but I know everything that was offered to me. It’s just sad that he thinks that way when I see Scott as a very honourable man.”
Snell also did not sign until late into the Spring and had a disappointing start to the year. However, unlike Montgomery, Snell has been able to turn it around in the second half of the season turning his 6.31 ERA pre-all-star break, down to a 3.76 ERA, 1.66 post-ASG.
While Snell may still be in Boras’ corner, I think we can all agree that his clients had a severely underwhelming offseason, leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table. And many of us don’t blame Montgomery for cutting ties with Boras. 

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