The Mariners announced a handful of front office promotions on Monday evening. Assistant general manager Andy McKay was given a vice president title alongside his AGM tag. Seattle also bumped Joel Firman to assistant general manager. Scott Hunter was promoted to VP of amateur scouting, while David Hesslink received a bump to VP of baseball product development.
McKay and Firman now jointly hold AGM titles. That ostensibly slots them third and fourth in baseball operations behind president of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander. McKay has spent a decade in the Seattle organization. Initially hired as player development director, he briefly worked on Scott Servais’ coaching staff before getting the AGM title during the 2022-23 offseason.
Firman has been with Seattle for 11 seasons. Formerly an intern with the Yankees, the Washington native has worked his way up the M’s analytics department. According to the team’s press release, he’ll be in charge of overseeing the M’s advance scouting work (game planning for opposing teams) while continuing to assume a key role in the team’s research and development.
Better than Mark Fuhrman. #TimelyReference
Lots of promotions in the article. How does any of it figure to make the Mariners get better? It’s all the same people sitting at different desks.
Corporate synergy, my friend.
#SYNERGY
All the same people sitting at the same desks, probably. Even that turd Kevin Mather is still lurking around as a minority owner.
These guys don’t get paid to win championships, they get paid to be ‘good enough’ to keep the profits flowing.
Didn’t know Mather was still minority owner. If they gave it to him like a Pres gets stock options maybe they are stuck with him. But YUCK no matter what!
Wow look at all the White dudes with Dad bods and receding hairlines.
Yeah, so like how is this gonna get us better hitters next season? This seems a bit like shuffling the deck chairs on the…..
Uhh… it won’t get us any- I MEAN it won’t not get us hitters!
All these “supposedly knowledgeable people” and still can’t make any rational or logical decisions. How do these people even have jobs?
The rational logical decisions they make are dictated by ownership’s unwillingness to spend on making the lineup better. They are trying hard…trying hard to waste their window of epic pitching. What a terribly run organization…sell the team Stanton!
When we don’t have savvy people in the FO but not great payrolls that doesn’t equal playoffs
That doesn’t equal 54%!!! That doesn’t equal +90 fun differential!!!
Wrong. They’ve decided to prioritize profit.
Nobody is forcing you guys at gun point to be Mariners fans. You can go along your merry little way now.
Switching teams to root for isn’t just like snapping your fingers… especially if you’re from the Pacific Northwest. We’re a thousand miles from the nearest baseball team here. If you’ve grown up a Mariners fan… you’re kinda stuck.
I’d be a Dodger fan, but would get bored with winning every season and a team willing to spend to improve…
Over the past four seasons the Mariners have the fourth-best cumulative regular-season record in a 15-team league that now sends six teams to the postseason.
Some rational and logical decisions must have been made … as well as some decisions that have not worked out. Those are the risks in any business.
So ..they’re willing to spend money on THOSE promotions….
Dear Anthony Franco,
In the past, no one ever published articles like this one. It used to be that the fan base never heard about front office hires or promotions. As someone who has been following baseball for over fifty years, I just want to add one more piece of feedback for this particular article.
No one cares.
Thank you for your contribution,
Z the P
So true. We’re in a generation that these guys are not allowed to go long without writing something. This isn’t news. Not even close. Next thing we know they’ll be writing about the Mariners decision to offer 2 extra types of micro brews in The Pen next season followed by an upgrade on the big screen and our viewing pleasure.
What it does is make you mad they can promote the guys within and am sure they got raises. But not spend money on the team. How many millions of dollars did they just handout for a guy to get a new sign on his door? Reading this was just depressing.
Assistant TO THE general manager
Beat me to it lol
Can he hit?
Just a few more people in high places who will dodge the press when things go south. Dipoto has even (probably needed) shut his mouth, and no one knows any of the owners aside from Stanton (and Griffey) unless they get drunk at a morning rotary club meeting or harass female staff members.
Jerry Dipoto has also been promoted. He’s now in charge of the annual Christmas grab bag in the Mariners’ front office.
The grab bags were filled to precisely 54 percent capacity…
Nothing like watching my Mariners doing something but not really doing something. Shuffling internal front office guys around like they’re accomplishing things is such a Mariner move.
A shell game…another banner year upcoming with a hard hitting 1 through 9!
Typical Mariners move, cutting players and adding front office personnel. When are they going to add more special event games ??
More hot dogs from heaven, and fewer professional hitters…