AquaSox announce new coaching staff

EVERETT — The Seattle Mariners organization announced Wednesday the coaching staff for the 2025 Everett AquaSox.

Zach Vincej, who managed the Class A Modesto Nuts to back-to-back California League Championships in 2023 and 2024, will take over as the new skipper for the AquaSox.

Vincej, named the 2024 Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America, makes the move up in the Mariners organization along with a number of AquaSox players who were promoted from Modesto to Everett last season.

“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead these men this season in Everett,” Vincej said in an AquaSox press release. “I am excited to work with my staff to help our players compete at a high level and grow on and off the field.”

Vincej played eight seasons (2012-2019) in the minor leagues, and made 10 appearances with two Major League teams — Cincinnati in 2017 and Seattle in 2018. A 37th-round draft pick by the Reds out of Pepperdine University in 2012, Vincej won a 2016 Minor League Gold Glove as a shortstop in Double-A Pensacola.

Joining Vincej in Everett this summer:

• Jordan Cowan, hitting coach: An AquaSox player from 2014-2016, Cowan was a player-coach in the Mariners organization in 2023 and the Nuts’ hitting coach last season.

• Matt Carasiti, pitching coach: Carasiti pitched in 53 games for the Rockies and Mariners (2019), appearing in his final Major League game for Colorado on June 7, 2024.

• Hecmart Nieves, bench coach: Nieves, who played at Ottawa University in Kansas in 2017-18, enters his fourth season in the Mariners organizations. He spent the past two seasons with Modesto.

• Max Miller, strength and conditioning coach: Miller performed the same role for the Arizona Complex League Mariners last season.

• Stephanie McLain, athletic trainer: McLain has been with the AquaSox the past two seasons.

The AquaSox open their season in Spokane April 4-6. Everett’s first home series begins April 8 against the Hillsboro Hops.