The Seattle Mariners continued to assemble their coaching staff Thursday by hiring former major league catcher Ron Hassey as their bench coach.
Hassey, 51, played 14 years for six major league teams and made it into two World Series for the Oakland A’s. He retired as a player in 1991 and has worked as a coach, scout or front-office assistant since then.
He was the St. Louis Cardinals’ bench coach in 1996 and also has coached at the major league level with the Colorado Rockies. He spent the last seven seasons in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization as a scout, minor league coordinator and special assistant to the general manager.
This year, Hassey managed the Carolina Mudcats, the Class AA affiliate of the Florida Marlins.
“Ron is a good baseball man with a lot to offer,” Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. “He worked with Don Baylor in Colorado and Tony LaRussa in St. Louis, and he was a big part of the World Series teams in Oakland. Ron’s very creative and will be a good fit here in Seattle.”
Hassey played for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Oakland A’s and Montreal Expos and finished with a .266 career batting average.
He is the only catcher in major league history to catch two perfect games – for Len Barker with the Indians in 1981 and for Dennis Martinez with the Expos in 1991.
The Mariners also made official what had been known for days, that Bryan Price will return as pitching coach. Other coaching positions remain unfilled.
When the Mariners fired former manager Bob Melvin early this month, they told every coach except Price, who is under contract for next year, they were free to look for other jobs. Rene Lachemann, Melvin’s bench coach for two years with the Mariners, was the first to land one, hired Tuesday as Oakland’s new bench coach.
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