Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Matt Brash to Return in April? + Mariners Finalize 2025 Coaching Staff

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Mariners have officially announced their coaching staff for 2025, and while there are some new faces, there isn't as much turnover as you'd expect for Dan Wilson's first full year as manager. Plus, some good news on Matt Brash and a couple other interesting nuggets about the bullpen coming up here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Ahoy, Sailors, it is Wednesday. November 27th, 2024. This is Tadigazolson, Colby Patnode for the Locked-on Merritts podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. We're going to be talking about the Mariner's 2025 coaching staff on today's episode. That was formally announced yesterday by the team. Plus, Adam Jude of the Seattle Times dropped an article this morning with a bunch of interesting info about the bullpen, so we'll get into that as well.

Starting point is 00:01:00 But before we do, shout out to our title sponsor today. Fandul, new customers can place a $5 bet. you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Visit fan duel.com to get started. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do is click the link in the description of this episode. So we had been waiting for this for a while now,

Starting point is 00:01:25 but we officially have an announcement from the mayor as of yesterday. 2025 coaching staff has been finalized. we were wondering Colby and I how much turnover there would be on this staff with Dan Wilson heading into his first full year as manager. Ryan Divish had put it out there when he was on the C-level podcast where their friend Ben Reneery a few weeks back that he wasn't actually expecting that many changes. We talked about that on the show a little while ago. But yeah, it seems like that's the case.

Starting point is 00:02:00 Not too many new faces. there is quite a bit of change on the staff, but it's mostly guys switching roles more than new guys coming in. So let's go over all the changes here that were announced by the Merrers yesterday. Mani Acta in his 10th year on the Marriss staff is transitioning to bench coach. He is no longer the third base coach because Christopher Negroen is now the third base coach, transitioning over from first base coach, and that is because Eric Young Jr. is now the first base coach.

Starting point is 00:02:32 coach in Seattle. Eric Young had been with the Rainiers as their first base coached. I believe back in 2021. Then he joined the nationals in that same role in 2022 and 2023. I believe he took 2024 off. But now he's back into coaching here with the mayor's Major League staff. The big one here, though, we were wondering is Edgar Martinez going to be part of this thing? In what capacity is he going to be part of this thing?

Starting point is 00:03:02 He is part of the staff, but in a different role. He is now the senior director of hitting strategy. And it seems like he will be with the team when they are in Seattle. Doesn't seem like he's going to travel that much. So we'll see if maybe he travels a little bit with the team, maybe like on West Coast trips. Who knows? But that's as expected as had been speculated here over the last few weeks. So taking over as hitting coach, the mayor is still needed an official hitting coach in their dugout on a game to game basis.

Starting point is 00:03:41 It's Kevin Siteser who had served as the Braves hitting coach for the last few years. He was not retained by the Braves despite having one year left on his contract this offseason. The Braves were pretty much middle of the pack. every category they did post the ninth highest K rate in all of baseball. But of course, they did that without Ronald Acuna Jr. for a good portion of the year as well. Siteser brings over his assistant hitting coach as well to serve in the same role. Bobby Maggianas, who is widely regarded as one of just the good people in baseball.

Starting point is 00:04:22 And Siteser is someone that has a really good reputation around the league as well. I know like Raul Abayas credits him with helping him in kind of the midpoint of his career. So yeah, so that's, oh wait. And also Louis Boyd is now the Major League Field Coordinator. He was the manager of the Aqua Sox back in 2019 and I believe 2021. Not completely sure about that. He had been serving as the minor league field coordinator for the mayor's last couple of years, though. And he's taken over for Carson Vital, who has joined the Marlon's.

Starting point is 00:04:56 coaching staff as their bench coach. So yeah, that's it for the changes. Tony Arnrich is back as the bullpen coach and catching instructor, Trent Blank, is back as Major League coach and Director of Pitching Strategy. Danny Farquhar is back as the assistant pitching coach and pitching strategist.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Perry Hill is back as the infield coach, Pete Woodworth, which is the biggest one here, is back as the pitching coach for the Marys. as well. So, um, yeah, what do you think here, Colby? Um, like some turnover, but, um, mostly just guys kind of switching roles here. Um, still a bit surprised by that, that there just wasn't a complete overhaul of the staff with, uh, Wilson now at the helm. Yeah, there, there was some turnover, certainly, but largely the coaching staff looks exactly how it did last August and September.

Starting point is 00:05:55 So that's a little unusual. Usually when you bring in a new manager, they bring in their own guys, right? And then they kind of build their own coaching staff. And so it's a little bit of a weird thing here because it does lead to speculation. Like, does Dan Wilson just not have a network big enough to bring in his own guys? Is, are these, you know, Jerry DePoto hires and not Dan Wilson hires? Or is it just simply, you know, Dan's been around the organization. for the last few years anyways, and he knows these guys, and he likes them and he trusts them

Starting point is 00:06:29 and all that stuff. It also opens up questions like, well, I mean, like, did Scott service just take the arrows for the rest of his terrible coaching staff and the mayor's are bringing them all back? Or is there something about Scott that we don't know about that made him a bigger issue than we thought? So I don't know. It's just when you have this little turnover, and I mean, it's about half the staff got turned over.

Starting point is 00:06:52 But, you know, again, same pitching code. I mean, just reshuffling about, you know, three or four guys. And it's four new faces and the rest are the same. Some of them again in different roles, but overall it's pretty much the same. It's going to be very similar messaging like overall, though. I mean, you have the same pitching strategist. You have the same pitching coaches. So that messaging is going to remain consistent, which is good.

Starting point is 00:07:13 You didn't need to change things on that front. No, I don't think you needed. Yeah. So like obviously retaining Woodworth. Like that was the guy I was sure that they were going to retain unless he, you know, happen to get managerial looks. And yeah, you know, it's interesting to Grown. Going to be a manager someday very clearly.

Starting point is 00:07:29 He was apparently a finalist for the White Sox show. Right. Pretty sure he was a finalist for another job or he interviewed for another managerial job last year, too. So the mayors won't have him for long. But yeah, it's pretty interesting that there wasn't just like this mass turnover. Perry Hills back. And so I wonder again, how much of this is Dan Wilson choosing these guys and want these guys, how much of this is, you know, Dan not having this.

Starting point is 00:07:57 I mean, he hasn't really coached out on a full-time basis ever in his career, managed on a full-time basis. So how much of this is like he doesn't really have like a deep network on his rolodex of guys that he trust and he can call up, how much of this is, you know, the front office just dictating what his, what his coaching staff will be. So, yeah, we don't quite know, you know, how the, how much say. the Mariners let, for example, Scott's service have in building his coaching staff and all that.

Starting point is 00:08:27 So it does feel like he had more say than Dan Wilson apparently does. But again, this could just be as simple as, you know, Dan knows all these guys and we just don't know like the relationship he has with them. And there's just a lot of, you know, there's nothing we can say definitively.

Starting point is 00:08:43 I would just say that it's a little bit weird to me that they didn't pretty much clean house. Like this is not a clean house protocol. for a coaching staff. This is very much intact from what he took over. And that's unusual. It is unusual for a guy to take over in the middle of the season and then the following winter basically put the band back together and bring him back.

Starting point is 00:09:06 So, you know, we'll see. I don't know what the reason why these guys were picked. And we're probably not going to know ever. But it is interesting to say the least that so many faces are returning. You know, they are in new roles. Yeah. again like you said I think at least part of it has to be that you know Dan has been around the organization he's been around these guys he probably just knows them very well and trusts at least some of these guys and that's why they wound up coming back but yeah it's really interesting because it's just it's not something that you typically see really in any sport when a new coach you know or manager takes over so yeah if you guys are interested in hearing more from the new Mariners hitting coach Kevin Sitzer he was actually on yesterday's episode of foul territory.

Starting point is 00:09:53 So you can go check that out. He talks a little bit about last year's offense and what it kind of looked like before service and Jared DeHart were fired. And then kind of what the philosophy is now under Edgar. So check that out if you want. All right. So we're going to talk a little bit about the Marin's bullpen coming up here. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times dropped an article with some info on Matt Brash, Brandon

Starting point is 00:10:19 Garcia, and also, Apparently, the Marers are looking to add to the bullpen via free agency as well. So we'll go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marries podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 back in bonus bets if you win. The Fandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets.

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Starting point is 00:11:30 But if not, this is your first episode of Lockdown M's here in the last few days. Colby's going to tell you what we got going on. Maybe you're hiding from your family in the bathroom watching a podcast. Hey, we've all been there. But anyways, yeah, we're doing a giveaway like we have. It's been a while. To be fair, it's been a while since we've done one. as we have in the past, it is a tiered giveaway.

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Starting point is 00:14:45 and if you guys go absolutely ham and we get to 12.5k over the next four four days somebody is going to walk away with this cow Raleigh autograph card and a $50 gift certificate to simply Seattle again thank you for those who you have entered if you haven't subscribe leave a comment it really is simple yeah very very simple and you might win some cool stuff all right so we got this article from madam jude of the seattle times today a bunch of information about the mayor's bullpen in here. Let's start with the little piece about Matt Brash, who's been working down in Arizona,

Starting point is 00:15:23 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He had the procedure done back in early May. Apparently, he's ahead of schedule, and the mayor has think that it's possible he could be back by the end of April at the earliest. That's very optimistic. And, you know, as we've seen over the years, with pitcher injuries, you know, things happen.

Starting point is 00:15:44 Setbacks happen. So while that is good news, while that is exciting, it's also, I don't know, concerning might be the wrong word, might be a little too strong over word here, but it does make me a little bit wary about like the faith they're putting in, brash returning, how much stock they're putting into the impact that he could potentially have on their

Starting point is 00:16:08 bullpen and how that might affect the way that they build the rest of the bullpen over the course of the winter, assuming that they're like going to get just peak Matt Brash back and all that. Right. I mean, any of you get them back on that hyper-aggressive timeline. Yeah. It usually takes about a year after you get the surgery to get the same feel in terms of like command, control, and stuff. So even if you get Matt Brash back and you can throw the baseball without hurting themselves. You might not get Matt Brash.

Starting point is 00:16:38 Right. It might not look like Matt Brash. Right. The correct way for the Mariners to handle this situation is to assume and build your bullpen out like you're getting zero innings from Matt Brash this year. Not that you might get four months of Brash. It's that you're getting zero months of Matt Brash. And you let Brash whatever version of him you get this year. And whenever you get him, he is the bonus.

Starting point is 00:17:02 Right. That's how you should build this thing. But I'm with you. I'm a little concerned they're going to look at that and be like, oh, oh, we have a high leverage arm. he's just sitting down there in Tacoma until like May May 8th and then all of a sudden it turns into like okay well you know that was a little aggressive it hasn't been a full year yet so yeah like we'll shoot June 1 and then June 1 becomes June 15 then June 15 becomes the all-star break and then the all-star break becomes August and all of a sudden you just went four months without a guy you were counting on at the end of April and well the mayors are smarter than that the the baseball people are smarter than that. They're also a little bit handcuffed. So they might take this shot and look at it and be like,

Starting point is 00:17:49 yeah, let's just let's have one of our shots be that we don't spend big money in the bullpen. And we just count on Matt Brash to come back early and also be awesome right away. And that's that's the wrong way to approach this. But I'm with you. I do fear that they might take that route because they may not feel like they have another option or two. So we'll see. but yeah, I thought the same thing when I read that. I was like, if they build this thing thinking they're going to have prime Matt Brash for five months, they're stupid.

Starting point is 00:18:21 Yeah. So I was not actually excited. Like a lot of people like, oh, man, Brash. And I was like, I mean, I'm excited for Matt Brash. And I love Matt Brash. It's like one of my favorite pictures to watch it in baseball. But yeah. And I'm excited for him, you know, the person to be able to get back on the mound.

Starting point is 00:18:38 all that. But yeah, no, there is a little bit of a weariness that comes with that. Maybe the mayor has put too much stock into, you know, hey, we're just going to get brashed back and he's going to be the same guy and, you know, we're just going to be off and rolling, right? So just think about what they went through with Santos last year and that wasn't Tommy John. Yeah. So, I mean, it went from, well, he might, he might be a little, he'll probably miss opening day, but a couple weeks after that. And it turned to him making his debut, what, in June and then going back on the IL for like eight more weeks. Like they only got eight games out of Santos. That's about what they should expect for Matt Brash.

Starting point is 00:19:20 That's how they should approach this offseason. Right, right. Does sound like they'll get more, but yeah, you never know. All right. So on that note, though, Jude did mention that they are looking at free agent relievers, affordable free agent relievers, whatever that means, whatever tier of reliever that necessarily. Oh, what's affordable for the Mariners?

Starting point is 00:19:43 Put them in. Yeah. So that could be anything, really. That could be like a $1 million guy like awesome vote was last year. That could be. Drew Pomerantz. It could be a three to four million dollar guy like Ryan Stanick was last year. Right. So who knows? Yeah, they did, they did sign Drew Pomeranz to a minor league deal. Yesterday, per our enlighten of Just Baseball, former locked on podcast hosts.

Starting point is 00:20:12 That's kind of interesting. Pomeranz hasn't thrown a major league pitch since 2021, though. He was recently in the Dodgers organization through about eight or nine innings with them in AAA this year. But obviously, Pomerant has been. 14, I believe. But yeah, whatever. Yeah. Pomeranz has been a pretty good reliever in the past.

Starting point is 00:20:31 But, you know, again, he's three years removed from pitching. in the big in the big leagues in these 36 years old so who knows. But the pile continues to grow in that regard with the Meyer League guys. Donna Smedina Juni, now Drew Pomeranz. It's a really interesting group and I'm sure they're going to add more guys to it as well

Starting point is 00:20:48 over the next few months. But yeah, so I don't know, I feel like Paul Sewell is going to be a mariner. Feels like it. Yeah. Now, Paul had some ridiculous statement about like how he wants to be a closer and he's proven he can close.

Starting point is 00:21:05 and that's how he wants to be treated on the open market. Paul, Paul, buddy, buddy. I know you're not stupid. I know you're not. Yeah. But what you just said was really stupid. Because the only team you're closing for in 2025 or the Chicago White Sox. Yeah, it's like the White Sox.

Starting point is 00:21:22 It's the Rockies. This teams like that. He's also said like he wants to go to a team that's going to help him get back to, you know, who he's been. And it's like those teams probably not going to help you do that. I'm just trying to figure out what team has. access to a time machine. Probably the Dodgers would be your best bet.

Starting point is 00:21:40 They seem to have everything. Yeah. Yeah, Paul, I don't want to be that guy, but it does feel like you're losing the father time more so than anything else. Fastball velo has dropped a little bit. The sweeper, not as good as it used to be. Although still pretty effective. Like, I think Paul as a sixth, seventh inning type who can, if he's going well, can pitch in some high leverage spots. I think that's where Paul Seawall needs to be.

Starting point is 00:22:05 be and I think that's what he would be with the Mariners. And obviously there's familiarity here. So, yeah, I do think that Paul at the right price doesn't make sense for the Mariners because he does kind of feel, I mean, for now, at least based on what he did last year, he fills that awesome both role that has been, the Chircua both role that has been, you know, exited by those guys. So, yeah, I does feel like if Paul is, it wants to be realistic about where he's at in his career and realistic with what he's asking for.

Starting point is 00:22:35 Seattle makes a ton of sense for Paul. And obviously, you know, Seawald is a great dude. Yeah. A big part of the leadership, you know, team last time he was here. So, yeah, I think that feels appropriate. But again, it has to be for that Ryan Stanek type of money. Yeah, if I had to guess, just considering the saturation on the market and just the year that Paul's coming off of, obviously he lost his closer job down in Arizona. he wasn't particularly good this year probably three to four million dollar base with incentives that maybe kick it up to six or seven if he reaches all of those or maybe there's like a club option that guarantees him five to six when it's all sudden done something like that I mean with how saturated the reliever market is and more and more teams kind of go into this model where it's like don't pay for average relievers just go with your minor league guys it's probably.

Starting point is 00:23:33 possible that Paul might have to settle for like 1.5 to 2.5 million dollars with the incentives. The incentives probably have to be pretty aggressive to get them to sign for that. But whatever. I think Paul will be affordable for the Mariners, depending on how much money they have to spend. But yeah, see, wall, like when when Jude talks about like, yeah, they're looking at like, you know, free agent relievers who, you know, they fit the right price. We can eliminate, obviously, like the Tanner Scots. Like, obviously they're not going to go get Tanner Scott. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:24:01 But yeah, like I think you're looking at like that seventh inning type of guy, the Ryan Stanick types. That's absolutely Paul C-Wall at this point. Yeah. Among some other guys. And if they could find another Gregory Santos trade, I bet they'd want to make that trade again too. So that's the other path they may go. So lastly here, Jude mentioned Brandon Garcia, one of the mayor's best pitching prospects as an option to make the opening day roster. I had talked about Garcia a couple weeks ago when we did top five Tuesday

Starting point is 00:24:33 as someone that I thought could perform pretty well out of the bullpen seems like the mayor's agree and he's possibly in the mix here to make the opening day roster as one of their typically they carry two lefties in the bullpen so he's probably in a competition there with you know Taylor Saucato and Gabe Spire and Austin Kitchen so you know and we'll see if they add anyone else that makes Drew Pomeran's, right? Drew Pomeran's, yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Yeah. So what do you think about Garcia is potentially an opening day option? Like, I think he performed pretty well out of the bullpen. Like, I don't think there's a performance risk here per se. It's got a really good sweeper that will dominate lefties. And I think the cutter will be kind of his, his go-to pitch against Ritees. Jam him up there. And then he's going to, I think he'll dominate lefties.

Starting point is 00:25:22 So I actually think that in terms of like, can he get major league hitters out right now in a short relief role where he's only going one inning at a time. Yeah, I think you can do that pretty well. I don't want to give up on him as a starter, though. Like, I think that he's got a shot to be like a legit, you know, number four, maybe number three type of starter. So it is one of those things where it's like, you know, hey, that we're kind of sacrificing long term gain here for short term gain, but maybe you're not sacrificing it because the overwhelming odds are always that Garcia is eventually going to end up in the bullpen anyways. like if that makes sense but it's not because

Starting point is 00:26:01 Garcia you know can't start it's because he's a pitcher and the overwhelming odds are that every single pitcher ends up in the bullpen uh you know for most of their career that's just how it works so yeah it's it's interesting I'm not all that surprise uh and again I do think that he'd actually be pretty darn effective uh coming out of the bullpen particularly if you can you can pick a spots where maybe it's it's a lefty and then a righty sandwiched in there and then a lefty again, I think he'll be very, very good against lefties. And I'm pretty confident he would do fine against righties too. So I don't think this is like a bad idea.

Starting point is 00:26:36 Just for me, it's like, you know, you don't have a ton of starting pitching depth anyways. And so like, are you going to go through this entire off season, getting him in the mindset that he's a reliever now and you're just going to lose one of your few, you know, depth pieces in your rotation. it leaves me a little uneasy, but yeah, I mean, I don't think it's a bad idea. I think Garcia was going to make his major league debut at some point anyways in 2025, almost certainly out of the bullpen. But I do worry a little bit about the Mariners rotation depth if they make this move. Well, it also makes you do anyways, but you get the point. Well, it also makes you wonder about like what exactly the pecking order is in terms of like,

Starting point is 00:27:20 you know, if there's an injury in the rotation, I would assume Hancock is still the first guy, but after that is Evans the second guy? Seems to be what this is getting. Yeah. Was Garcia the second guy? You know, where does Morales fit into all this? So how fast does anything say,

Starting point is 00:27:37 you can get to the, get to the majors? Sanja, yeah. And then, you know, obviously, there's this whole Roki Sasaki thing, right? So, yeah. Sure. So that's going to do it for our show.

Starting point is 00:27:52 Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. At L0 underscore Mariners, you can follow me at Tiding Azales and Colby at C-Pat 11 at CPAT-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Matt Brash to Return in April? + Mariners Finalize 2025 Coaching Staff

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