Seattle Mariners let offensive coordinator Brant Brown go

The Seattle Mariners have parted ways with offensive coordinator and bench coach Brant Brown just 58 games into his tenure with the team.

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In a press release Friday afternoon, the Mariners said they have relieved Brown of his duties, with director of hitting strategy Jarret DeHart and assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph continuing and expanding on their roles with Seattle’s hitters.

The Mariners created an MLB offensive coordinator role when they hired Brown this offseason with the idea of improving the team’s output on offense. While hitting coaches would focus on swing specifics, the OC would oversee a more overall approach. But despite roster additions and subtractions that were meant to cut down on strikeouts, Seattle leads the league with 594 strikeouts entering Friday after finishing last season 29th out of the 30 MLB teams with 1,603 strikeouts.

Shortly after Brown’s addition in the winter, he spoke on The Hot Stove on Seattle Sports about his role as offensive coordinator, which had come with a lot of questions due to being a term much more associated with football coaching staffs than those in baseball.

“First and foremost, it’s not what the pitcher is trying to do, it’s what you are trying to do to the pitcher,” Brown said. “Second, is there a situation that needs to get done to help us win that changes what you are trying to do? And three, we don’t know which run in the game is going to win the game. We have to understand at the end of the day is you have to know where you are at in the count. You have to understand as you get into deficit counts, the slug goes down and the chase goes up. We have to modify our intent to where we are at in the at-bat, where we are at in the game and everything needs to be tapered towards a letter which is a ‘W,’ instead of a number.”

Seattle is currently first in the American League West with a 31-27 record, but its success has largely been due to the pitching staff. On offense, the M’s are tied for 28th in MLB with 211 runs scored, are 28th in team batting average (.221) and OPS (.656), and are 27th in on-base percentage (.295).

Brown spent the 2023 season as Miami Marlins hitting coach, receiving credit for helping the offense improve from finishing 27th in team OPS in 2022 (.657) to 19th last year (.721).

A former teammate of Mariners manager Scott Servais when both were with the Chicago Cubs as players in the 1990s, Brown began his coaching career as a hitting coach in the Texas organization under Servais, who was Rangers farm director. Brown moved on to various roles with Seattle over five seasons beginning in 2013, and then spent time with the Dodgers, eventually becoming one of LA’s two hitting coaches in 2020.

The Mariners open a three-game series at home against the Los Angeles Angels at 7:10 p.m. Friday. Mariners Radio Network coverage will be carried on Seattle Sports 710 AM, the Seattle Sports app and SeattleSports.com beginning at 6 p.m. with the pregame show. For details on how to stream M’s broadcasts from Seattle Sports, click here.

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