The Mariners announced their full 2025 coaching staff today. Most of the names are either holdovers from 2024 or were previously reported, though there were a couple of new names. Eric Young Jr. has been promoted to first base coach with Louis Boyd promoted to major league field coordinator.
Those two additions are part of a larger shuffle. Kristopher Negrón was the first base coach, but he will move over to third base coach. Last year’s third base coach Manny Acta will transition to bench coach. Brant Brown was the bench coach and offensive coordinator going into 2024 but he was fired back in May. Director of hitting strategy Jarret DeHart and assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph expanded their roles to compensate for Brown’s departure, though DeHart was fired in August and Joseph recently hired away by the Orioles. Boyd is taking the role that Carson Vitale had last year, though it was reported this week that the Marlins are hiring him away. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times (X link) relayed the shuffling prior to the official announcement.
Young was with the M’s last year, working in the system as baserunning coordinator. He will continue working on baserunning but now gets promoted to the first base coach position in the big leagues, though it’s not his first time in that job at the MLB level. He was the Nationals’ first base coach for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Prior to coaching, he played in the majors from 2009 to 2018.
Boyd gets a major league coaching job for the first time. He has been in the Mariners’ organization for the past six seasons, working in the minors. Most recently, he was the minor league field coordinator for the past two seasons.
Acta has been on Seattle’s staff for many years, but has shifted around to various roles. He was third base coach in 2016 and 2017, then became the bench coach for a couple of years. He went back to the third base job from 2020 to 2024 but now returns back to the bench coach gig once again. He has worked as a coach or manager in the majors since 2006, working for the Expos, Mets, Nationals and Cleveland prior to coming to Seattle.
Negrón played in the majors from 2012 to 2019 before transitioning into coaching. The M’s hired him as the assistant to the director of player development in 2020 and he served as manager at Triple-A Tacoma in 2021. He then got promoted to first base coach at the big league level for the 2022 season.
Over ten seasons, EY Jr. had more SBs, 162, than RBIs, 112, also over ten seasons, had more triples, 22, than HRs, 13. Ten seasons for a cumulative 1.4 WAR for his career. Career OPS+ of 74.
Dodgers hitting coaches are Aaron Bates, who had a total of 12 plate appearances in his mlb career, and Robert Van Scoyoc, who never played past college baseball.
Yep. And Tim Hyers (Braves) has a career -1.2 WAR, hit .217 and had an OPS+ of 55. Good baseball players don’t necessarily make good coaches, bad baseball players don’t necessarily make bad coaches.
Can you name some good baseball players that have gained a reputation as being a good hitting coach? Can’t really think of any currently.
In terms of current ones, it’s a good question that made me flip through coaching staffs. I think the answer is there really aren’t any. There are two major potential ones in Edgar Martinez and Pat Burrell, but I think we need a couple more years to really judge them as coaches.
Past ones….just operating off personal memory/bias as a Sox fan, but Jim Rice in the late-90s for them?
Those that can’t do, teach.
Sometimes, those who excel aren’t very good at teaching/communicating with others on how to excel.
So true because the great ones dont understand struggling players that’s why great players like Gretsky and others are usually lousy coaches
And those that can’t teach….teach gym
Ted Williams was a horrible coach/manager.
Merely addressing the idiosyncrasies of his playing career, have no idea if he is a good coach or not.
I think hearing a player mic’d up on a day he isn’t playing gives some insight into their personality and communication abilities and how they might do well as a coach.
Examples from LAD who will likely be coaching candidates in the near future are Miguel Rojas and Justin Turner.
Where does he rank in the Baseball America’s Top 100 coaching prospects?
So basically this means Soto is gone 🙁
Gone? He was never an option in the real world
Definitely feeling old — Eric Young’s son is old enough to be a coach?… yikes.
EY Sr is still going with his grey beard
Exactly I remember Eric Young Sr. when he 1st came up. Was raw but had that crazy speed. Used to hide em @2nd when he wasn’t in OF. Just like Max Venable’s “kid,” remember the dad’s heyday n there sons have already come up through minors, had their own careers, n now onto coaching. Feel old thinking I watched their dad’s play as rookies. Getting older does beat the alternative plus more baseball.
No mention if Edgar was coming back. Offense looked noticeably improved when he stepped in granted it couldn’t have looked any worse than it did.
He’s staying on in a limited role. he’s the hitting coach’s boss
27th in OPS before he joined
4th in OPS after
I don’t want the hitting coaches boss
I want the boss hitting coach.
I get it though he doesn’t want to travel and I guess some Gar is better than no Gar.
Love Manny Acta back as bench coach.
Manny Acta may have been one of the worst managers of the past 20 years. I wouldn’t let him coach the bat rack.
Did you see the rosters he was given? If anything he did better than he should have.
I always enjoyed EYJr as a player. Very underrated skill set
EY Jr seemed like a great guy, but didn’t have any MLB-level skills except baserunning. His arm from the OF brought back memories of Johnny Damon.
For the youngsters out there, that isn’t a compliment.
I mean, they can’t do any worse. Can they?!
Maybe EYJ can teach the Mariners how to SBs. His dad and him were pretty good running the base pads in the majors. With him at first base, he can help coach players when to go for another base or not. With a bigger 2nd base, I thought there would be more stolen bases last year. I seriously thought Ricky Henderson single season SB record would fall because of a bigger bag at second. League wise, it was only a 18% increase over last year. I thought it would be near 30% increase and a record breaking event. I was completely dumbfounded by this stat. Stolen bases and small ball is a loss art in this modern MLB pedigree.
The Mariners were the best base-stealing team in the league last year.
Great. Glad the coaching staff has been solidly put together. They now need a 2B, 3B, 1B, and Back End bullpen arm to coach.
I always liked the Young family.
Colorado legend!
Good to see Luis Boyd joining the MLB staff.
Played two season, 2016 and 2017, in the outfield for the Arizona Wildcats baseball team as a junior college transfer and finished the 2016 season as a Coillege World Series runner-up with them.
Former teammate of Bobby Dalbec, Kevin Ginkel, Alfonso Rivas, Jared Oliva, J.J. Matijevic and Ryan Aguilar.
Now the only question remains: what does a baseball field coordinator do exactly? Does he make sure that manager and players don’t confuse the bullpen with the bench, while the relievers try to warm up in the tight confines of the dugout? Does he tell the catcher where to find home plate, maybe handing out maps to all the players, pointing out their positions on the diamond? inquiring minds would like to know.