If you think a prime Joe Torre, or a reincarnated Casey Stengel, or an unretired Dusty Baker would do much more with this team, you’re probably mistaken.

The Seattle Mariners (64-63 entering Wednesday night’s game) haven’t descended into this abyss because of an incompetent skipper — they’re plunging because their position players can’t hit the ball.

A new manager isn’t going to recreate Julio Rodriguez’s 2022 and 2023 form. He’s not going to inspire Mitch Haniger back to his old All-Star self or cure Mitch Garver of his career-worst swing struggles.

But the bottom line entering Wednesday is they were 12-17 since the All-Star break and had watched a 10-game lead on the Astros plummet to a 4 1/2-game deficit. So maybe this is it for Scott Servais.

A change in the dugout has felt like a possibility for a couple of weeks and even more so since a column by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was posted.

Rosenthal asked Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto if the team might benefit from replacing Servais with a new voice, to which Dipoto replied: “It definitely has to be a consideration for us, to talk through everything. We’ve underperformed and there is some discussion for each of us to have the part we have played in coming up as short as we have to the point.”

This wasn’t Dipoto deflecting blame from himself. He emphasized that he put this roster together and feels responsible for Seattle’s disappointing results. But publicly entertaining the idea of a new manager in late August is rare. So would nixing Servais help?

It would be one thing if Scott were regularly mismanaging situations, but there isn’t a long list of egregious mistakes. Bullpen decisions will always be criticized when they don’t go as hoped, as will botched pinch-hit situations. But those “what the hell is Scott thinking?!” moments? They don’t seem grossly abundant.

Some might point to a decision two years ago, when Servais brought in Robbie Ray — who had virtually no relief experience — to face Houston’s Yordan Alvarez in Game 1 of the ALDS. Alvarez pummeled a three-run walkoff home run, but it sounded as if the choice to go with Ray had been predetermined by the Mariners’ analytics team.

Maybe Servais is too beholden to the analytics. Remember, though, after clashing with then-Angels manager Mike Scioscia during his time in Anaheim, Dipoto wanted a skipper who would carry out his game plan. Servais was and has been that guy.

I guess the better question is: How much can an MLB manager really do these days, anyway? There is a reason NFL and NBA coaches are so much more generously compensated.

The in-game adjustments, the complexity of the strategy — a brilliant football coach can double a team’s win total. I’m not sure baseball is made like that.

What stands out to me about this club is a number of offensive regressions — most notably from Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford — that has contributed to Seattle being last in the majors in batting average. What I see is an offseason whiff with the additions of Haniger, Garver and, for most of the year, Jorge Polanco.

What I see is a team that is still in the bottom half of MLB in payroll, even if it did jump up from 18th last year and from 21st from the year before. These are the main reasons the Mariners are struggling.

But I’m also not in team meetings. I’m not sneaking into the clubhouse after it’s closed to the media. If the “chemistry” — something generally dictated more by results than personalities — isn’t right, perhaps a new voice is necessary. The Mariners are entering desperation mode. Little is out of bounds, including a new skipper.

In December the Edmonton Oilers canned their coach after starting 3-9-1. They ended up going to the Stanley Cup Final after finishing 49-27-6. You don’t always have to move to get a change of scenery. Sometimes you just replace the face you’ve been looking at every day.

But the Mariners aren’t the Oilers, who are one of the most talented squads in hockey. This is an elite pitching team burdened by what may be a bottom-three offense. The “O” has shown who it is through the first 80 percent of the season. It doesn’t feel like a reflection of the manager.

Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a new skipper come Thursday. It makes sense to try something, I suppose. I would, however, be surprised if such a change made any real difference.

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