Seattle Mariners Hitting Coach Leaves to Take Same Job with American League Rival
The Seattle Mariners will have to find another new coach for 2025.
Mariners fans are anxiously waiting to see what moves the team makes in free agency. But so far, the biggest move aside from player and club options is relating to the coaching staff.
Assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph will leave Seattle after one season on the staff to take the same role with the Baltimore Orioles, per a report from MLB.com Mariners writer Daniel Kramer.
MASN Sports' Orioles reporter Roch Kubatko was the first to report the move.
Tommy Joseph is indeed leaving the Mariners after one year as their assistant hitting coach, according to a source ... He'll take on the same role with the Orioles, as @masnRoch first noted.
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) November 5, 2024
Joseph spent 11 years as a professional player from 2009-2019. He played two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies from 2016-17 and one more year in Japan's Nippon Professional League in 2019.
Joseph joined Seattle's coaching staff in 2024 and was one of the lone holdovers in the hitting staff when offensive coordinator Brant Brown was fired in May and when his successor Jarrett DeHart was fired on Aug. 22.
Joseph's departure from the team sets up an interesting scenario for the coaching staff in 2025.
Mariners and Baseball Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez was hired as the new hitting coach on Aug. 22 with manager Dan Wilson.
Martinez took the job in a full-time capacity as a favor to Wilson, a former teammate of his with Seattle in the 90s and early-2000s.
It was only a month-long sample size, but the duo of Martinez and Wilson netted possitive results for the Mariners, especially on offense. Seattle had the fourth-best record (21-13), had the 11th-most hits (292), the sixth-most RBIs (165), the 10th-most home runs (42), the third-most steals (42) and eighth-highest batting average (.255) in te league after Wilson and Martinez were hired.
Julio Rodríguez reached the 20/20 mark with this two-run home run in Seattle's 8-1 win over Houston on Wednesday, joining Bobby Witt Jr., as the only other player in MLB history to do so in each of their first three seasons. pic.twitter.com/mgueuymDF6
— Joe Veyera (@JoeVeyera) September 25, 2024
Several reports and stories have indicated that Martinez is unlikely to be back in the same role in 2025. At least not in a full-time capacity.
Martinez's role on the team next season is still to be determined. But it looks like the Mariners will have to be extra diligent to make sure their hitting staff can maintain the success they showed at the end of the year.
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