Mariners expand role for Edgar Martinez, add experienced hitting coach

Edgar Martinez will indeed play a prominent role with the Seattle Mariners in 2025.

A source confirms news first reported Monday night by MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer that Martinez, who ended the 2024 season as Seattle’s hitting coach, will return in a new capacity in 2025 that will have the Hall of Famer overseeing the Mariners’ hitting program. In addition, the Mariners are in the process of hiring Kevin Seitzer as hitting coach and Bobby Magallanes as assistant hitting coach.

While Martinez accepted the Mariners’ hitting coach position on an interim basis in August when Dan Wilson was named manager, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto made it clear at the end of the season he wanted Martinez involved moving forward in a significant manner.

“We’re trying to figure out how to develop a creative situation with our hitting program that allows Edgar to play a prominent role without asking him to be with the team for 162 days,” Dipoto said in late September. “But I think you will see Edgar play a significant role, whether that’s as our full-time hitting coach or as some other high level hitting instructor.”

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Martinez will be at spring training and with the team when they are at home. He will also travel on a limited basis. On an appearance earlier this month on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight Podcast, Dipoto indicated that Martinez already had a special project when asked about the early-season struggles Julio Rodríguez has had the past few years.

“Maybe the new voice (will help), especially having Edgar there with him through both his offseason and into his early season,” Dipoto said to Buster Olney. “We’ve already talked about getting more reps in spring training and see if we can working into a little bit of a rhythm as the season starts.”

Seitzer will join the Mariners after serving as Atlanta Braves hitting coach for the past 10 years, with Magallanes his assistant the past four years. The pair were not retained after the ’24 season. Seitzer brings with him a long resume, having coached with the Diamondbacks, Royals, Blue Jays and Braves after wrapping up a 12-year playing career with four teams in the majors.

Seitzer hit .323 as a rookie with Kansas City in 1987, making the All-Star team and tying for the American League lead with 207 hits while taking over the Royals third base spot previously held by Hall of Famer George Brett, who moved to first that year. Seitzer was an All-Star again with Milwaukee in 1995.

In addition to being highly regarded throughout the game as a hitting coach, Seitzer had major impact on a former teammate and still close friend of both Martinez and Wilson. In the years between his playing days and his first job in the big leagues as a coach, Seitzer was a private hitting coach in the Kansas City area. In 2001, he received a call from a 29 year old Raúl Ibañez, who the Royals had just sent to the minors. Ibañez began working with Seitzer and credits him with saving his career.

The moves, which could officially be announced by the Mariners as soon as Tuesday, bring decades of both playing and coaching experience to the Mariners’ hitting group. In retaining Martinez in a senior role, Dipoto gives him a much bigger voice than he has had in recent years.

“I would love him to continue what he is doing because I think it is truly difference-making,” Dipoto said of Martinez in September.

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