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American League Non-Tenders: 11/21/25

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The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 4pm CT this afternoon. Below is a comprehensive list of players on American League teams who have been non-tendered today, which will be updated as more decisions are revealed throughout the day. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected 2026 salaries for all arbitration-eligible players last month. Non-tendered players will immediately enter free agency without needing to pass through waivers and can then be signed by any of the league’s 30 teams.

Today’s transactions:

  • The Angels announced they’ve non-tendered outfielder Gustavo Campero and catcher Sebastian Rivero. Campero is a depth outfielder who has hit .202/.272/.346 over the past two seasons. Rivero operated as the club’s third catcher for most of the season but spent the final few weeks on the active roster. Neither player had been eligible for arbitration. This just drops two players from the back of the 40-man roster. All their arbitration-eligible players were easy calls to retain.
  • The Athletics officially non-tendered outfielder JJ Bleday, the club announced. He’d been designated for assignment on Tuesday, so this was inevitable unless they found a trade partner. Bleday had been projected at $2.2MM.
  • The only non-tenders for the Red Sox were first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and reliever Josh Winckowski, each of whom had been designated for assignment on Tuesday.
  • The Mariners non-tendered reliever Gregory Santos, reports Francys Romero. He’d only been projected at $800K, narrowly above the MLB minimum, so the move was about dropping him from the 40-man roster. Seattle acquired the 26-year-old righty from the White Sox over the 2023-24 offseason. He has only made 16 MLB appearances with a 5.02 earned run average over the past two years because of lat and knee injuries.
  • The Orioles non-tendered swingman Albert Suárez, the team announced. Everyone else in their arbitration class was offered a contract, surprisingly including first baseman Ryan Mountcastle (as first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan). Suárez, 36, was a solid depth starter in 2024. He was limited to five MLB appearances this past season by a flexor strain but is not expected to require surgery.
  • The Rangers non-tendered each of Adolis García, Jonah Heim, Josh Sborz and Jacob Webb. MLBTR covered those moves in greater detail.
  • The Royals non-tendered outfielder MJ Melendez and reliever Taylor Clarke, per a club announcement.
  • The Tigers are non-tendering utility player Andy Ibáñez, according to Romero. He’d been projected at $1.8MM. The righty-hitting Ibáñez had been a solid short-side platoon bat for Detroit between 2023-24. His production against southpaws dropped this year (.258/.311/.403), limiting his value. The Tigers optioned the 32-year-old to Triple-A in early June and kept him in the minors until shortly before the trade deadline. Ibáñez is a career .254/.305/.389 hitter in parts of five seasons.
  • The White Sox plan to non-tender outfielder Mike Tauchman if they can’t find a trade partner, reports Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. The lefty hitter turned in a solid .263/.356/.400 line in 93 games this past season. Tauchman has gotten on base at plus rates in three straight years but was also non-tendered by the Cubs a year ago. The 34-year-old (35 next month) had been projected for a $3.4MM salary. The Sox also announced they’ve dropped lefty reliever Cam Booser and first baseman Tim Elko.

The Blue Jays and Astros tendered contracts to their entire arbitration classes.

Mariners Remain Interested In Jorge Polanco After Naylor Deal

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The Mariners have made the biggest move of free agency to date, re-signing Josh Naylor to a five-year deal. The $92.5MM commitment was handily their biggest to a free agent hitter in the decade that Jerry Dipoto has run baseball operations. Seattle’s goal of retaining as much of their 2025 roster as possible continues, as Dipoto told reporters at the press conference announcing the Naylor deal that the team is still interested in re-signing Jorge Polanco.

“Polo’ is a great guy, and we have been in touch with him and his (agency),” Dipoto said (link via Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). “I don’t imagine that it’s going to move as fast as it moved with Josh.” Seattle also hasn’t closed the door on bringing Eugenio Suárez, Jude writes, but it appears Polanco is more of a primary focus.

Seattle brought the switch-hitting Polanco back on a $6MM deal last winter. They were rewarded for their faith that his down 2024 season was due to playing through a meniscus injury in his left knee. Polanco popped 26 homers with a .265/.326/.495 batting line over 524 plate appearances. He spent most of his time at designated hitter to keep him healthy but got more regular run at second base in September and into the postseason.

Polanco is going to command a much stronger contract this time around. He’s a lock for at least two years. MLBTR predicted a three-year, $42MM contract covering his age 32-34 seasons. That price point would have been the M’s largest deal for a free agent hitter under Dipoto until the Naylor signing. It seems there’s still room in the budget for a mid-tier free agent deal of that ilk even with Naylor on the books for $16.5MM next season ($10MM salary plus a $6.5MM signing bonus).

Ryan Bliss, Cole Young and Leo Rivas are the second base options for the time being. Top infield prospect Colt Emerson is looming after hitting .285/.383/.458 between the top three minor league levels as a 19-year-old. Emerson seems likelier to break in at third base, where light-hitting Ben Williamson projects as the starter. That could change if the Mariners are unable to re-sign Polanco and wind up focusing on Suárez instead.

Mariners Acquire Alex Hoppe, Designate Tayler Saucedo For Assignment

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The Mariners announced that they have acquired right-hander Alex Hoppe from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league catcher Luke Heyman. Hoppe has been selected to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Left-hander Tayler Saucedo has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Chris Cotillo of MassLive first reported that Hoppe was heading to the Mariners. Tim Healey of The Boston Globe first reported that Heyman was heading to the Sox.

Hoppe, 27 in December, was a sixth-round pick of the Sox in 2022. Since then, he has been working as a pure reliever in the minors, with good amounts of strikeouts and ground balls but also some wildness.

Dating back to the start of 2024, Hoppe has thrown 127 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, allowing 5.01 earned runs per nine. His 12% walk rate in that time is quite high but he also punched out 23.6% of batters faced and got opponents to hit the ball into the dirt more than half the time.

Perhaps the Sox didn’t have much faith about Hoppe reining in his control going forward, or perhaps he was just the casualty of a roster squeeze. The Sox have been busy today, shuffling guys around to make space on Rule 5 deadline day. In addition to this deal, they also sent lefties Brennan Bernardino and Chris Murphy to the Rockies and White Sox respectively. Giving Hoppe a roster spot would have required opening another 40-man spot.

Instead, they have flipped him to the Mariners, getting back a non-roster prospect in exchange. Heyman, 22, was taken by the Mariners in the 14th round of the draft just a few months ago. He showed big power in his college career but hasn’t yet made his professional debut. He gives the Sox a long-term lottery ticket behind the plate while the M’s get more immediate pitching depth.

To make room for Hoppe, the Mariners have nudged off Saucedo. The 32-year-old lefty has some decent big league work on his track record but he spent most of 2025 on optional assignment, only making ten big league appearances. He exhausted his final option season in the process. Saucedo qualified for arbitration a year ago and made $937,500 in 2025. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a small bump to $1.1MM next year. It seems the M’s weren’t planning to tender him a contract.

They will have some time to explore trade interest. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the lefty posted a 3.54 ERA over 86 1/3 big league innings, with most of his success due to a strong 55% ground ball rate. With those numbers and three years of club control, he could entice some teams. However, given his out-of-options status, he’d be hard to roster. It’s possible he ends up non-tendered on Friday, which would send him to free agency.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Mariners Re-Sign Josh Naylor

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The Mariners officially announced they’ve brought back Josh Naylor on a five-year deal. It’s a reported $92.5MM guarantee for the ISE Baseball client.  Naylor will get a $6.5MM signing bonus upfront. He’ll make a $10MM salary in 2026, $16MM in ’27, $18MM in ’28, $20MM in ’29 and $22MM in 2030. The deal also includes a full no-trade clause and has no deferred money.

Naylor becomes the first headline name of the 2025-26 free agent class to land a new contract, just two weeks after the World Series concluded.  It counts as a surprise to see any major free agent sign their next contract this quickly, even before the players who received qualifying offers have made their decisions.  (Naylor was notably not eligible for a QO, since he was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Mariners during the season.)

MLB Trade Rumors ranked Naylor 12th on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and the five-year term matches our projection that Naylor would receive a five-year, $90MM deal.  The five-year length of Naylor’s contract also matches the longest free agent deal the Mariners have given out during Jerry Dipoto’s decade in charge of Seattle’s baseball operations department.  The M’s inked Robbie Ray to a five-year, $115MM pact during the 2021-22 offseason, and Ray’s contract and Yusei Kikuchi’s four-year, $56MM deal in January 2019 were the only free agent deals of the Dipoto era to exceed even two years.

There are multiple reasons behind the lack of big free agent strikes.  The Mariners’ infamous 10-year, $240MM deal with Robinson Cano from December 2013 could’ve led to some organizational wariness over blockbuster signings.  Since John Stanton’s ownership group bought the team in 2016, the M’s have only once finished a season with a top-10 payroll, and are only moving back into the middle range of spending league-wide.  There is also “Trader Jerry’s” own personal preference to build rosters via trades rather than free agents, as Dipoto has become known for being very active in negotiating swaps.  Players may have had misgivings about joining a Mariners team that has two just postseason appearances in the last 24 seasons, and hitters in particular weren’t exactly lining up to play in a notoriously pitcher-friendly environment.

With all of this in mind, there was such mutual interest between Naylor and the Mariners that it certainly seemed like the team was very willing to stretch beyond its usual free agent comfort zone.  Dipoto was open in telling the media — including Darragh McDonald on the MLBTR Podcast back in September — that re-signing Naylor was a priority for the organization, and Naylor himself was just as effusive in how much he enjoyed playing in Seattle.

Considering how Naylor performed after arriving in the Pacific Northwest, it’s easy to see why both sides moved quickly on a long-term deal.  Naylor was already enjoying a strong season with the Diamondbacks, but with Arizona falling out of contention, the D’Backs dealt the slugger a week before the trade deadline, landing rookie left-hander Brandyn Garcia and pitching prospect Ashton Izzi.

Naylor proceeded to hit .299/.341/.490 with nine homers and 19 stolen bases (without a single caught stealing) over 210 regular-season plate appearances for the M’s, and he followed that up with a .340/.392/.574 slash line over 51 postseason PA.  Adding this type of pop into the lineup was perhaps the primary reason the Mariners won the AL West, and then outlasted the Tigers in the ALDS before falling just short of the first World Series berth in franchise history in losing the ALCS to the Blue Jays in seven games.

This kind of success made the Mariners want to more or less bring the band back together for 2026, which was no small feat since Naylor, Jorge Polanco, and Eugenio Suarez (among others) were all set for free agency.  Re-signing Naylor is the first major domino to fall, and it now remains to be seen if either Polanco or Suarez can also be retained in the wake of the team’s sizeable commitment in Naylor.  The M’s entered the offseason with approximately $34MM to spend, according to Dipoto’s statements after the playoff run was over, with more money potentially available at the deadline if more in-season reinforcements were required.

For now, the Mariners and their fans can at least enjoy the idea of Naylor suiting up at T-Mobile Park for the next five seasons.  Naylor turns 29 in June, so his contract will run through his age-33 season.  There has been some league-wide hesitancy in recent years about giving major contracts to first base-only players (especially as those players enter their 30s), yet Naylor’s production outside of just his stretch run with the Mariners makes him a solid choice for a five-year investment.

Naylor’s 128 wRC+ in 2025 was a career high, narrowly topping the 127 wRC+ he posted with the Guardians in 2023.  Since emerging as a regular with Cleveland in 2022, Naylor has hit .275/.336/.464 with 88 home runs, translating to a 123 wRC+ and 9.9 fWAR over the last four seasons.  His barrel and hard-hit ball rates are okay but uninspiring, and his walk rate from 2022-25 was below average, so Naylor doesn’t exactly fit the profile of a classic slugging first baseman.

His biggest offensive weapon is his ability to make contact, as Naylor is among the league’s more difficult players to strike out though he is prone to chasing pitches off the plate.  There is also the amusing oddity of Naylor’s 30-for-32 record at stealing bases in 2025, which speaks to his skill as an opportunistic baserunner despite being one of the slowest players in baseball.  Defensively, public metrics are mixed on his glovework.  The Outs Above Average metric has him solidly above average with +12 OAA, while his -6 Defensive Runs Saved paints a less-flattering picture of his work at first base.

Naylor joins Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez as Seattle players locked up through at least the 2029 season, and Rodriguez’s deal could actually extend through 2039 depending on a complicated set of options following the 2029 campaign.  These three All-Star position players, veteran righty Luis Castillo, and a core of homegrown starters (George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller) have become the building blocks of an AL West title team that looks to remain competitive for at least the rest of the decade.

Though many pundits — including three of us at MLBTR — predicted Naylor would re-sign the Mariners, the fact that he has found a new deal so suddenly creates an interesting ripple effect on the rest of the free agent class.  Teams in need of lineup help have one less big bat to consider, and the first base market in particular has now lost a name many teams would’ve considered as perhaps a preferred alternative to Pete Alonso, Munetaka Murakami, or Kazuma Okamoto.  Murakami or Okamoto could be deployed at third base and Cody Bellinger could be viewed as a first baseman or outfielder in equal measure, depending on a suitor’s needs.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Mariners and Naylor were closing in on a five-year deal. Ari Alexander of 7 News Boston had the guarantee landing in the $90-100MM range. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first on the $92.5MM figure and the absence of deferred money. Robert Murray of FanSided first noted the $6.5MM bonus and the full no-trade clause. Andrew Destin of The Associated Press had the specific salary breakdown.

Inset photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear — Imagn Images

Mariners Acquire Robinson Ortiz From Dodgers

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The Mariners and Dodgers each announced that Seattle has acquired left-hander Robinson Ortiz in exchange for minor league right-hander Tyler Gough.

Neither player has any big league experience, but the trade is likely more about the Dodgers’ desire to clear a spot on their 40-man roster.  Tuesday is the deadline for teams to set their rosters in advance of the Rule 5 Draft, and Friday is the non-tender deadline, making for a very busy upcoming week of roster churning.

Interestingly, it was only 10 days ago that Los Angeles selected Ortiz’s contract to the 40-man roster, but the Dodgers have now changed course and sent Ortiz to Seattle.  L.A. now has 38 places filled on its 40-man, while the Mariners have at least 39 spots addressed and potentially a full 40 depending on when Josh Naylor’s new contract is made official.

Ortiz (who turns 26 in January) had spent his entire pro career in the Dodgers organization prior to today’s trade.  Between the canceled 2020 minor league season and multiple injury problems, Ortiz pitched only 22 2/3 innings over a five-year span covering the 2020-24 seasons, but the 2025 campaign represented some return to relative normalcy.  The southpaw posted a 2.73 ERA and 28.3% strikeout rate over 59 1/3 combined innings at three different minor league levels, with Ortiz making his debuts at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels last year.

A nasty slider/sinker combo has led to a lot of strikeouts for Ortiz, though control has continued to be an issue, as evidenced by his 13.2% walk rate in 2025.  Seattle is notably thin in left-handed pitching, as Gabe Speier currently represents the only lefty slated to be part of the Mariners’ bullpen mix next year.  Ortiz adds a bit more depth in that department, and there appears to be plenty of upside for Ortiz as a relief weapon if he can cut back on the free passes.

Gough was a ninth-round pick for the Mariners in the 2022 draft, and he posted a 4.66 ERA over 125 2/3 innings at A-level Modesto in 2023-24, starting 32 of his 33 career games.  A Tommy John surgery in September 2024 has since kept Gough off the mound, though the usual TJ recovery timeline should put the right-hander in line to be ready for a healthy Spring Training come February.

Mariners Notes: Ford, Right Field, Hancock

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With Mitch Garver headed into the open market, the Mariners have a hole to fill on their roster without a clear backup for Cal Raleigh behind the plate. As noted by Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, GM Justin Hollander indicated at the GM Meetings this past week that, as the roster is currently constructed, that backup catching job would go to longtime top prospect Harry Ford.

“As of today, Harry would definitely be the backup,” Hollander said, as relayed by Divish. “I think that Harry’s in a great spot. He has checked all the boxes along the way that you would want from a high school catcher coming through the draft. He’s performed at every level.”

It’s not hard to see why Hollander feels positively about Ford, who has been a consensus top-100 prospect for years and got a brief taste of the majors late in the season with eight games down the stretch this year. Ford hit .283/.408/.460 in 97 games at the Triple-A level this year, an impressive slash line that was good for a 125 wRC+ even in the Pacific Coast League’s inflated offensive environment. He struck out just 19.2% of the time while sporting a massive 16.2% walk rate, and while he didn’t run as often as he had in the lower minors (just seven steals on the year) he did slug a career-high 16 home runs. Overall, it was a strong showing for the 22-year-old and clearly sets him up to be ready for more exposure to major league pitching in 2026.

Whether that comes in Seattle or elsewhere has not entirely been decided yet, however. Divish notes that while the Mariners do seem comfortable having Ford join the roster as the backup to Raleigh, they remain open to trade offers that involve Ford. That’s a sensible position to take, given that Raleigh has cemented himself as baseball’s best catcher after posting perhaps the best season at the position in MLB history this past year. With the Mariners surely intent on continuing to play Raleigh (who has started at least 114 games behind the dish in each of the past three seasons) as much as possible, the role of backup catcher isn’t quite as important for Seattle as it is for other teams.

While there are no obvious alternatives in the organization to Ford at the moment, Divish points out that a number of viable backup options figure to be available on minor league or low-cost big league deals. Many of those options could surely offer similar production to Garver in the spot. Given the scarcity of quality catching options around the league, if another team views Ford as a plug-and-play starter behind the dish they might value him enough to make the return for his services worth the downgrade from Seattle’s perspective. A weak catching market in free agency that is highlighted by J.T. Realmuto and Victor Caratini should only further bolster Ford’s value if the Mariners were to decide to shop him this offseason.

Turning away from Ford, Hollander also expressed confidence in the group of players they already have in the organization when it comes to filling out the outfield next season. Randy Arozarena is locked in as the club’s everyday left fielder (barring a move that sees him traded, at least), while Julio Rodriguez has cemented himself as a franchise cornerstone in center. Right field was handled by a hodgepodge of different players throughout 2025, and in 2026 Hollander points to three names who could factor into the mix: Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone, and Victor Robles.

Even though none of them were impact players in 2025, it’s not hard to see why the Mariners would want to give that trio a run at the position rather than pursuing an external addition. Raley is just one year removed from back-to-back seasons where he slashed .246/.326/.476 while totaling 41 homers and 42 doubles across 255 games. While Raley has never been successful against left-handed pitching, it’s not at all difficult to imagine that he could rebound enough to be worth affording regular playing time to when a right-handed starter is on the mound for the opposing team. Robles, meanwhile, missed all but 32 games this past year due to injury and was someone the Mariners believed in enough that they afforded him an extension just two months into his tenure with the organization.

Canzone has the weakest overall track record of the three, but actually delivered by far the best results this year. In 82 games as a part-time player for the Mariners, Canzone raked to the tune of a .300/.358/.481 slash line with 11 homer and 11 doubles while he struck out at a reasonable 21.9% clip. A tough postseason where he went just 3-for-28 with a walk and ten strikeouts saw him leave 2025 on a sour note, but the 28-year-old clearly had a 2025 worth building on next season. Perhaps adding a second right-handed hitter to the mix alongside Robles could allow the Mariners to maximize matchups and create depth in the event of injury, but an everyday starter in the outfield does seem unnecessary given the far more significant holes around in the infield.

Another place where it seems the Mariners could look to go internal is with starting pitching depth. Divish reports that right-hander Emerson Hancock is expected to prepare this winter and enter Spring Training as a starting pitcher. Hancock has served as a swingman with below average results (4.81 ERA, 5.23 FIP) across his three seasons and 162 2/3 innings of work in the majors, but looked quite good in short relief down the stretch for Seattle this year. That made some wonder if he would stick in the bullpen full-time going forward, but it seems as though the Mariners value Hancock’s versatility given their lack of upper-level starting pitching depth. Beyond their starting five pitchers, only Logan Evans has spent significant time starting at the big league level aside from Hancock.

Pirates Hire Kristopher Negron, Tony Beasley To Coaching Staff

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The Pirates will be hiring Kristopher Negron as their new bench coach and Tony Beasley as the third base coach, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Negron has been on the Mariners’ coaching staff for the last four seasons, while Beasley returns to the Pirates organization after spending over a decade with the Rangers.

After concluding his six-year MLB playing career, Negron took on an assistant role in Seattle’s player development department in 2020 and then was the manager at Triple-A Tacoma in 2021.  He was then promoted to the big league staff as the first base coach before acting as the Mariners’ third base coach in 2025.

Negron (who turns 40 in February) now takes on his highest-profile coaching job yet, as Don Kelly’s chief lieutenant.  Kelly was Pittsburgh’s bench coach himself when he was promoted to the manager’s job in May when Derek Shelton was fired, and though Gene Lamont essentially filled the bench coach role in a capacity as an advisor to Kelly, the position wasn’t officially filled until now.

Beasley is a familiar face in Pittsburgh, having spent six seasons with the Bucs as a minor league player and then several seasons as a manager, coach, and instructor at both the minor and Major League levels.  Beasley’s previous stint on Pittsburgh’s MLB staff came in 2008-10, when was the club’s third base coach.

Once that stint ended, Beasley moved on to four years in the Nationals’ farm system as a manager and instructor before he joined the Rangers as their third base coach prior to the 2015 season.  Beasley’s time in Texas included a World Series ring with the 2023 team and a 48-game stint as interim manager in 2022 after Chris Woodward was fired.

Negron and Beasley are the latest new faces on a revamped Pittsburgh coaching staff, as Bill Murphy was also hired as the new pitching coach a few weeks ago.  The Pirates liked enough of what they saw from Kelly to give him a contract extension at season’s end, and the skipper is now apparently getting some input in reshaping his staff.  In a sense there’s nowhere to go but up for a team that has endured seven straight losing seasons, and still hasn’t gotten out of rebuild mode despite the presence of Paul Skenes and an overall enviable amount of pitching depth.

Mariners Looking To Retain 2025 Roster, Add Bullpen Help

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After winning the AL West and reaching Game 7 of the ALCS, it isn’t surprising that the Mariners are looking to stick with a successful formula.  That means “ideally keeping as much of the group that we had last year, that we really believed in, together,” general manager Justin Hollander told the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and other reporters at the GM Meetings this week.

“Our offseason is largely going to start with the guys who were on the team last year and try to bring as many back as possible,” Hollander said, with the M’s “then filling in the rest of the roster as required.”  To this end, Hollander said the team has been in contact with the agents for their six free agents — Josh Naylor, Jorge Polanco, Eugenio Suarez, Caleb Ferguson, Luke Jackson, and Mitch Garver.

“I think they know how we feel, and don’t really believe in progress or no progress,” Hollander said.  “When you get to a deal, you get to a deal, but I think everybody’s aware of where we’re at right now and that we do have interest, and we’ll just keep playing it day by day until we can get deals or have to pivot elsewhere.”

Hollander naturally didn’t give any hints about the details of these negotiations, though logic would dictate that the Mariners won’t be re-signing all six players.  The M’s have been open about their desire to retain Naylor, so the common belief is that Naylor and Polanco are the most likely internal free agents to re-up for new contracts, while the other four will probably be playing elsewhere in 2026.

The potential departures of Ferguson and Jackson coincide with Seattle’s desire to add to its bullpen, which Hollander said was another “area of focus for us this offseason.”  Led by star closer Andres Munoz, the Mariners’ relief corps was more solid than a surefire plus in 2025, as the club’s collective 3.72 ERA (ninth of 30 teams) was undermined by control problems and middling strikeout numbers.  Beyond these numbers, Hollander also acknowledged “the realities that our high-leverage group just worked really hard for an extra month of the season.  We would be silly not to expect that to take a toll over time….Making the bullpen deeper and longer is important.”

Adding relief help of any kind is the priority, yet Divish feels the Mariners might make a point of adding a southpaw.  Gabe Speier is currently the only left-hander projected to be part of Seattle’s bullpen, and minor leaguers Jhonathan Diaz and Tayler Saucedo are the only other southpaws on the Mariners’ 40-man roster.

Austin Nola To Become Mariners’ Bullpen Coach

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Catcher Austin Nola is expected to rejoin Seattle’s organization as bullpen coach, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Nola will be released from the minor league deal he signed with Atlanta last month, adds Nightengale. The transition into coaching suggests Nola is wrapping up his playing career after six MLB seasons. Seattle has yet to announce the hiring.

Tony Arnerich served as Seattle’s bullpen coach and catching instructor last season. He was initially hired as hitting coach in 2022, a role he held for two seasons. Arnerich was moved to the bullpen position in 2024. The Mariners have yet to announce any change to Arnerich’s role or any other adjustments to the coaching staff.

Nola was drafted by the Marlins in 2012. He spent seven seasons in the minors with the organization, never reaching the big leagues. Nola signed a minor league deal with the Mariners ahead of the 2019 season, and he would make his major league debut later that year. He stepped into semi-regular playing time in a versatile role with Seattle, making starts at catcher, first base, second base, third base, and right field. Nola slashed a solid .269/.342/.454 over 79 games that season.

Nola was dealt to the Padres in the middle of the 2020 campaign. The seven-player deal featured mostly part-time players, though Seattle netted reliever Andres Munoz in the return. Munoz had just 23 MLB innings under his belt at the time, but would go on to become a fixture in the Mariners’ bullpen, earning All-Star nods the past two seasons.

San Diego received decent production from Nola across multiple seasons. He posted a 101 wRC+ over 56 games in 2021. Nola mostly played catcher, along with a handful of appearances in the infield. Nola took over as the Padres’ primary backstop in 2022, setting career highs in games (110) and plate appearances (397) while recording a .649 OPS. After hitting just .146 over 52 games in 2023, Nola found himself in Triple-A. He didn’t reach the majors in 2024, spending the year in Kansas City’s minor league system. Nola latched on with Colorado this past season. He went 7-for-41 in a brief stint with the Rockies. Nola was designated for assignment and then outrighted off the 40-man roster in August.

If this is it for Nola, he’ll conclude his playing career with a .247/.323/.364 slash line across 1,237 plate appearances. He hit 24 home runs and chipped in three stolen bases.

Guardians Hire Andy McKay As Field Coordinator

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The Guardians are adding Andy McKay to their coaching staff with the title of field coordinator, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. That job was previously held by Kai Correa, who departed last month to become bench coach for the Mets.

McKay has had an interesting career, oscillating between coaching and front office roles. He had been a coach in college ball for a number of years, before working for the Rockies in the minors as peak performance coordinator. Then he spent a long time working in the Mariners’ player development department, getting hired in October of 2015. That was not long after Jerry Dipoto had become Seattle’s general manager. Dipoto and McKay had worked together with the Rockies.

Going into the 2022 season, McKay was added to Seattle’s uniformed coaching staff with the title of major league coach and senior director of baseball development. However, as noted by Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, he had to pivot back to the front office during spring training when his replacement left. One year later, he was promoted to assistant general manager. A year ago, the Mariners added vice president to his title.

“It’s sad for me, but I’m thrilled for him,” Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said of today’s news, per Divish. It’s noted by Divish that McKay has held his desire to coach since his collegiate coaching days. He almost got the chance with Seattle a few years ago but it didn’t work out.

He’ll now get to join a big league coaching staff in Cleveland, working under manager Stephen Vogt. The Guardians also lost their bench coach/associate manager when Craig Albernaz became manager of the Orioles, so perhaps another hiring is still to come.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images

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