The Mariners won’t retain pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. for 2019, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. The rest of manager Scott Servais’ staff has been invited back for next season, Divish adds.
To this point, the 54-year-old Stottlemyre has been Servais’ sole pitching coach since the latter took the reins as the Mariners’ skipper after the 2015 season. During its three years under Stottlemyre, Seattle’s pitching staff was a middle-of-the-pack group, ranking 14th in the majors in ERA (4.19) and 17th in fWAR (39.5).
It’s difficult to quantify how much credit or blame to assign to Stottlemyre for the work he did, though it’s worth noting the Mariners have seen hurlers James Paxton, Edwin Diaz and Marco Gonzales emerge as strong pieces over the past couple years. Their presences will surely carry appeal as the team searches for Stottlemyre’s successor.
When will Edgar get the boot as well? I’d hate to see him go, but some of the players I thought he could help turn around, he hasn’t (Seager & Zunino are examples).
He’s like Tom Cable on the Seahawks, when their o-line was terrible he was never the problem. I’d hear every year that he was a great coach and it wasn’t his fault that the o-line was ranked in the bottom of the league every year. Finally they had to let him go.
So how long can Edgar really last?
Zunino got promoted too soon. You shouldn’t blame Edgar for busts… Lol. What Cruz is doing at his age, more than enough proof, Edgar is plenty competent.
That was me
They wouldn’t let him go until after the voted into the HOF at least. Too much good marketing to pass up.
If he gets voted into the HOF. It may take the veterans committee to get him there
“In the past 22 years, all 13 players who received 68.3% or more of the vote without being elected wound up being inducted the following year. Overall, since Hall of Fame voting began in 1936, there’s been 29 players who fell between 70-74.9%, and all of them eventually wound up in Cooperstown.”
Edgar is guaranteed to get in.
I think he will get in. Too great a player not to. However… until the fat lady sings…
Hopefully he gets in before Big Papi
Zunino was 1. Promoted too soon, and 2. Had his best offensive seasons (’16, ’17) were with Edgar. And Seager had his best season in 2016, too. He was also suffering from a broken toe this year, just like Dee Gordon
Zunino….can’t help
Seager…..has to want to go the other way against the shifts
The M’s need a healthy King Felix to anchor their rotation next season…
Felix made 28 (basically 29) starts, and had a -1.3 WAR.
Is that a joke? Felix hasn’t been anything to anchor a rotation for a few years now… best they can hope for is a Sabathia like renaissance. I wish him well but it looks like the tank is empty.
Felix is the 5th starter at best. The only anchor he provides is the one anchoring us firmly out of the playoffs if he is a major piece of the staff
Mel was DiPoto’s buddy from the AZ organization. He’s been worthless. Paxton was broken under his watch and was only fixed by the AAA pitching coach. DiPoto better get the right guy because this is his last MLB gig. Chose wisely.
There will always be an MLB job out there for guys like DiPoto. He is too strong with analytics to be unemployed for long. Unfortunately, he is probably better suited to be in a supporting role rather than the final decision maker. Maybe the M’s could offer a trade to the Cubs and get Jed Hoyer tonbe their GM/President and Epstein can have his old buddy DiPoto back to be his #2.