Drayer: Mariners’ offensive hires show different approach to staff

Any questions about what Dan Wilson’s first staff would look like were put to rest Tuesday morning as the Seattle Mariners announced their coaches for the 2025 season.

Seattle Mariners announce several changes to 2025 coaching staff

Mission accomplished in keeping the pitching group, with Pete Woodworth, Trent Blank, Danny Farquhar and Tony Arnerich all returning.

Aside from field coordinator Carson Vitale, who has moved on to take the bench coach job in Miami, the shall we call them veteran coaches – Manny Acta, Kristopher Negrón and Perry Hill – are not going anywhere.

Then there were the internal hires which you should be used to by now, with Eric Young Jr. and Louis Boyd, both who spent time with the team in the final months last year, getting the permanent call-ups.

The most dramatic change came on the hitting side. In cementing Edgar Martinez into a role that will make him the voice of Mariners hitting and adding the extremely experienced coaches Kevin Seitzer (hitting) and Bobby Magallanes (assistant hitting), this is not quite business as usual for president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto who has in recent years promoted mostly from within, keeping the continuity with the language and philosophies of the organization. While that has worked on the pitching side, on the hitting side it has been a challenge for some time with the offense failing to live up to expectations. Was it the talent? Was it the coaching? Was it the philosophy? At the end of the season, Dipoto’s comments indicated it all had been under the microscope in a different way.

“We’ve had the walk aspect of (dominate) the (zone) … but we’ve really struggled to command the contact,” he said. “Edgar really slowed that down for our hitters, thinking about an at-bat in a different way when you get into a two-strike count. Being more aggressive on the front end and not allowing yourself to get deep into counts against pitchers you might not match up well enough with their putaway pitches.”

Related: Mariners expand role for Edgar Martinez, add experienced hitting coach

Part of the Mariners philosophy on both sides of the ball was optimizing counts. Offensive coordinator and strategist Brant Brown, who was let go in May, took it a step further asking hitters to look for pitches in a specific spot of the zone. Edgar wanted the hitters to think more about themselves than the count up until they had two strikes. Early in the count, the at-bat is for you. Be aggressive, try and win that early count. Get to two strikes, it’s a team at-bat. Find a way to get the job done.

On the “Foul Territory” podcast Tuesday morning, new hitting coach Seitzer, who has been on the job for a short while connecting with hitters and watching video, was asked about his observations and thoughts on the Mariners’ struggles.

“There was a lot of sitting on pitches, taking a percentage of pitches in certain counts and then selling out to that,” he pointed out. “When you are wrong, you are in trouble. It’s a lot of guessing and a lot of in between. Edgar just got them hunting the fastball, staying in the middle of the field the other way and just be aggressive. For me that’s my No. 1 (modus operandi).”

It’s never that simple in hitting, but perhaps it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it appeared to be for Mariners hitters at times. Did they try to do too much? What part of the success we saw at the end of the season can be attributed to changes Edgar asked for and what will that look like going forward?

One thing is certain, by results alone, it was time to try something else, and the something else in the early going already looks very different.

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