In an off season of change, the Seattle Mariners fire manager Lloyd McClendon along with the majority of his coaching staff. Some of the members of the coaching staff opted to resign rather than being fired.
This was the first major decision for the Mariners new general manager, Jerry Dipoto, who decided it was time to part ways with McClendon after just two seasons.
“I have a great deal of respect for Lloyd, as a person and as a manager,” Dipoto said. “It’s a credit to his professionalism that the team continued to play hard through the final days of the season. However, after extensive conversations it became clear to me that our baseball philosophies were not closely aligned. On behalf of the Mariners I want to thank Lloyd and his staff for their hard work the past two seasons, and I wish him the best moving forward.”
The coaches that were let go were bench coach Trent Jewitt, third base coach Rich Donnelly, outfield coach Andy Van Slyke and bullpen coach Mike Rojas. As for the other coaches that remain, two of them were reassigned to other areas of the organization. Pitching coach Rich Waits and quality control coach Chris Prieto.
Hitting coach Edgar Martinez and infield coach Chris Woodward were the only two coaches from McClendon’s staff that were retained to coach on the big league staff for the 2016 season.
In McClendon’s first season as manager in 2014, he posted the Mariners first winning season since 2009 with an 87-75 record. And in doing so, it sparked playoff aspirations from not only the fans, but the Mariners organization as well. However, in McClendon’s second season as manager, the Mariners were unable to meet the lofty playoff expectations as they struggled to find any consistency which ultimately led to the disappointing 76-86 record for the 2015 season.
Even though McClendon was under contract for the 2016 season, Jerry Dipoto was given permission by the team president Kevin Mather and CEO Howard Lincoln to determine whether or not he wanted to keep McClendon or start his regime with a manager of his choosing.
This move by Dipoto isn’t totally unexpected considering his tenure with the Los Angeles Angels, where he had issues with the manager Mike Scioscia. There were numerous disagreements and power struggles with the Angels owner Arte Moreno who always seemed to side with Scioscia, which ultimately led to Dipoto’s departure.
The Seattle Mariners are expected to make the announcement Friday morning and Dipoto will then begin to search for McClendon’s replacement immediately.
Dipoto is required to follow the hiring rules of Major League Baseball, which include interviewing a minority candidate, numerous baseball sources have said Angels special assistant Tim Bogar is a favorite to get the job.
