Results suggest strong start for McKay overhauling M’s system

Published 10:30 pm Saturday, July 2, 2016

EVERETT — Andy McKay is no ordinary farm director.

It’s a regular occurrence for the Seattle Mariners’ director of player development to drop by Everett Memorial Stadium and check in with the Everett AquaSox, the Mariners’ affiliate in the short-season single-A Northwest League. But usually the farm director can be found in street clothes, watching the game from either the press box or the stands.

Not so McKay. When McKay, who’s in his first season in charge of Seattle’s minor-league system, showed up for the AquaSox’s home opener last week, he got himself into uniform and staked out a spot in Everett’s dugout.

“You’re in the group, and you’re seeing guys, and you’re seeing how they interact with each other, and you’re seeing how coaches interact with the players,” McKay explained when I caught up with him during the AquaSox’s opening homestand. “If you really want to scout the game it’s probably easier to do it in the stands. But if you’re trying to get a feel for what’s really happening, you probably need to be in the dugout.”

The unusual sight serves as a metaphor for how the Mariners’ minor-league operations are undergoing a transformation under McKay.

There was much buzz when McKay was hired last October to usher the development of Seattle’s prospects. McKay had been serving as the Colorado Rockies’ peak performance coordinator, which is more commonly described as the team’s mental-skills coach. When he was introduced to the local media at the Mariners’ pre-spring training media luncheon in January, McKay talked about incorporating mental skills into the minor-league routine and creating individualized plans for every Mariners minor-leaguer.

So the Sox getting their season started gave me the opportunity to ask McKay how the overhaul is progressing.

“So far, so good,” McKay responded. “With the things that we’re really trying to address we’ve made a lot of progress.

“In some areas it’s been really good, and in other areas we’re still working at it,” McKay added. “But overall, as we sit here today, I’m happy with the direction we’re headed and the progress we’ve made.”

The thing I was most interested in was the way in which mental-skills coaching is being incorporated into what the Mariners do at the minor-league level. Unfortunately, McKay wasn’t giving up any details, describing it as a confidential one-on-one thing.

But what McKay did go on about at length was the importance of changing the culture within the organization, and specifically the importance of emphasizing winning in that culture.

McKay inherited a farm system that was not held in high regard among the scouting community. Before the season began Baseball America ranked Seattle’s farm system 28th among the 30 major-league teams, and not a single Mariners prospect was rated in Baseball America’s top 100.

But despite the perceived lack of talent, through Friday the Mariners’ five minor-league teams (excluding rookie and Dominican leagues) had a combined winning percentage of .583. That was second best among MLB’s 30 organizations, trailing just the New York Yankee’s .619 mark. All five Seattle affiliates were winning at least a 55.7 percent of their games.

Contrast that to last season, when those same five teams combined to go 270-365 for a pitiful .425 winning percentage.

“The whole idea of the game is to win,” McKay emphasized. “Sometimes we get caught up in the development standpoint and we forget that what we’re trying to do is develop winners.”

That message has been heard loud and clear by the players. Sox infielder Jordan Cowan is in his fourth season in the Mariners organization, so he was well indoctrinated in how things were done under the previous regime. He’s noticed the changes, and he approves.

“Honestly, I haven’t heard one bad thing about it,” Cowan said. “(The players) love it, they’re all buying into it, and it’s exciting when everyone is believing in it and trusting in the process.

“It’s back to the culture thing,” added Cowan, who said the players are getting daily reminders about the importance of winning and being a good teammate. “That’s why they brought that word over, so it’s something we can all get used to and meld together as a team and as one unit — not just as the Everett AquaSox, but the entire organization all the way from the Dominican League to the big leagues.”

It’s only been three months, and the true measure of McKay’s developmental methods won’t be known for years. But the first step was getting everyone on board with the new program, and the results suggest McKay is off to a successful start.

For more on the Seattle sports scene, follow Nick Patterson on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.