The Seattle Mariners might fill at least one of their two coaching vacancies, and perhaps both, by the end of this week.
The Mariners are believed to have settled on Jeff Pentland as their hitting coach and either Mel Stottlemyre or Roger McDowell as their pitching coach.
General manager Bill Bavasi wouldn’t comment Wednesday on who the team has spoken with or whether decisions already have been made. Teams are discouraged by Major League Baseball from making announcements until after the World Series.
“I would guess we’ll have it done by the close of the World Series, but we don’t have a timetable on it,” Bavasi said.
Pentland has been the hitting coach for the Royals and Cubs. Stottlemyre was the Yankees’ longtime pitching coach before leaving that position early this month and McDowell was pitching coach at the Dodgers’ Class AAA affiliate in Las Vegas.
Stottlemyre played and coached with the Yankees for 21 years, but stepped down this month after 10 years as pitching coach following a season of criticism. Stottlemyre, 64, said he wanted to keep coaching and would welcome an opportunity with the Mariners. He grew up near Yakima and lives in Issaquah during the offseason.
McDowell, 44, pitched 12 seasons for the Mets, Phillies, Dodgers and Orioles. When Bavasi was the Dodgers’ farm director, he hired McDowell as a minor league coach.
The Mariners also interviewed three in-house candidates, bullpen coach Jim Slaton, who has been a longtime pitching coach in the organization; minor league pitching coordinator Pat Rice; and current Class AAA Tacoma pitching coach Rafael Chaves.
Two jobs on the Mariners’ staff became vacant when hitting coach Don Baylor and pitching coach Bryan Price announced they wouldn’t return. Baylor would like to manage again and Price decided it was best to leave after six seasons as pitching coach. He has since been hired to be the Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitching coach.
At least two other jobs in the Mariners’ organization – one on the major league staff and one in the minor leagues – seem to have been settled.
The Mariners are expected to move Class AAA Tacoma manager Dan Rohn to a job on the major league coaching staff, where he will work with players and spend time with scouting reports.
That move will allow the team to promote Dave Brundage, whose success at Class AA San Antonio made him one of the top managers in minor league baseball, to Tacoma.
Rohn managed the Rainiers the past four seasons and won the Pacific Coast League Pacific North Division championship this year despite having his roster continually plucked by the Mariners. It won him the PCL manager of the year award.
Brundage has managed the Missions the past five seasons, leading them to four playoff appearances and the Texas League championship in 2002 and 2003. Baseball America named him its minor league manager of the year in 2003.
Other assignments within the Mariners’ minor league system, including the Everett AquaSox managerial job, won’t be determined until about Dec. 1.
The Everett job became vacant early this month when the Mariners promoted Pedro Grifol, who had managed the AquaSox for three seasons, to minor league coordinator of instruction.
Price settles in: The transition to a new team has sent Bryan Price back to the books.
He has immersed himself into the Arizona Diamondbacks’ media guide, doing his best to learn the organization’s pitchers as their new pitching coach. He resigned as the Mariners’ pitching coach on Oct. 3, one day after the season ended, and was hired Oct. 17 by the Diamondbacks.
“There’s a huge sense of responsibility to familiarize myself with their strengths and weaknesses so I can be a sounding board and a positive influence in their development,” Price said.
The move reunites Price with former Mariners manager Bob Melvin, who will begin his second season as the Diamondbacks’ manager, and will allow him to live year-round at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Price said he spoke with seven teams about a variety of jobs, from managing to coaching in the minor leagues.
“The Diamondbacks are a great organization, being back with Bob is huge and living at home is huge,” Price said. “I have a lot of things to look forward to.”
He’ll also miss Seattle, where he spent six years as the pitching coach and was a player or coach in the organization for 18 years.
“You don’t stay 18 years in one organization because you don’t like it,” he said. “It was a very difficult decision to leave, but we’ve all got to make tough decisions.”
For at least the next week, Price will work with his left arm in a sling.
He went mountain biking with Melvin near his home in Scottsdale took a spill over the handlebars. It left Price with a broken collarbone and damage to his shoulder so severe that he needed surgery.
Abbott wants to pitch: Former Mariner Paul Abbott, who never returned to form after shoulder problems in 2002, is keeping himself in shape and hopes to land with a team in spring training. He’s been talking lately with the Texas Rangers.
Abbott pitched most of the past season in the independent Golden Baseball League with the Fullerton Flyers, going 3-5 with a 2.71 earned run average and 51 strikeouts in 531/3 innings. The Flyers traded him just before the postseason playoffs to the San Diego Surf Dawgs, who won the league championship.
Abbott, 38, is helping coach at Fullerton College, where his son is a freshman, and staying in shape with hopes of playing again in the majors.
“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll know I gave myself every opportunity,” he said.
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