Scott Servais couldn’t believe what he saw when his phone buzzed Thursday morning.

Servais was fired as manager of the Mariners on Thursday as the team plunged into a crisis and its chances of making the playoffs were in jeopardy. But he learned through a notification on his phone of a tweet from Ken Rosenthal, who shared the news less than 90 minutes before he was scheduled to meet with Seattle President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto.

Servais, 57, did not like the fact that he – and his three children and his father, who called him when the news broke – found out about his dismissal in this way.

“That was obviously one of the hardest things to learn about through an alert on my phone,” Servais said Friday, according to the Seattle Times. “It was just the reality of what could happen here in the next few hours. When you’re part of an organization for nine years, it feels like family. And it was alarming that I learned about it that way, but it happened. I can’t say it didn’t happen. It definitely happened that way.”

Dipoto expressed regret about how Servais learned of the news.

“On one of the least favorite days of my professional life, the worst part was the fact that Scott and (hitting coach Jarret DeHart) found out about it through the news channel,” Dipoto told reporters Thursday. “It’s killing me and I know it hurts them a lot.”

Rosenthal said on Friday in “Foul Territory” that it was “uncomfortable” that Servais learned of the firing through his reporting.

Servais was in his ninth season as manager of the Mariners and had two consecutive 90-win seasons in 2021 and 2022 before finishing 88-74 last year.

During his tenure, they made it to the postseason just once, a five-game ALDS loss to the Astros two years ago.

When he was fired, the Mariners, who once led the AL West by 10 games that season, were 64-64 and had just finished a brutal 1-8 road trip.

Heading into Sunday’s playoff game against the Giants under new coach Dan Wilson, Seattle is 4.5 games behind the Astros at the top of the division and 7.5 games behind the last wildcard spot.

Servais was prepared for changes if the Mariners missed the playoffs again, but did not expect to lose his job before the end of the season.

“I knew that probably at the end of the year, if we didn’t make the playoffs, I would have a time of reflection about where the organization is and where I fit in the future,” Servais said, according to the Seattle Times. “I just expected that I would get a chance to finish the year. Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen.”