As was speculated upon on Thursday, the Seattle Mariners have brought franchise legend Edgar Martinez back into the fold as the team’s hitting coach.

They made the announcement official on Friday afternoon before game one of a series with the San Francisco Giants.

Major League Manager Dan Wilson announced today that Hall of Fame Designated Hitter Edgar Martinez will serve as our Major League Hitting Coach for the remainder of the 2024 season.

Interestingly enough, the release says that Martinez will be in this capacity “for the remainder of the 2024 season.” That is different than Dan Wilson, who the M’s made it known is the team’s full-time manager with no interim tagged attached. The team fired manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jared DeHart on Thursday.

“When Dan reached out to me, I told him that I’d be happy to assist him this season in whatever way I could,” Martinez said. “I know the talent and work ethic this group of hitters has and I hope I can be of help to them.”

Martinez is one of the most beloved figures in team history, having spent 18 years in Seattle. He played on five different playoff teams and made seven All-Star teams. Martinez was a five-time Silver Slugger and a two-time batting champion. He is a member of both the Mariners Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Martinez spent four years as the M’s hitting coach previously, from 2015-2018. He is now 61 years old.

The Mariners play the Giants on Friday night with first pitch coming at 7:10 p.m. PT. Luis Castillo is on the mound for Seattle.

NEW PODCAST IS OUT: The latest episode of the “Refuse to Lose” podcast is out as Brady Farkas talks about the Mariners firing Scott Servais, hiring Dan Wilson and Jerry Dipoto getting to stay on the job. Furthermore, we are joined by Ty Buttrey, who played most of this season at Triple-A Tacoma. He shares his opinion on Servais, the organization and the state of baseball as a whole in an enlightening conversation. CLICK HERE:

LONG OVERDUE? One former Mariner says the firing of Scott Servais should have happened earlier. CLICK HERE:

DAN is the MAN: Dan Wilson has been given the job, permanently? CLICK HERE:

Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch and @wdevradiobrady. You can subscribe to the “Refuse to Lose” podcast by clicking HERE:

Early in the decade, Kiana Williams established herself as an important figure at Stanford, helping the Cardinal win the 2021 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament en route to the school’s first women’s basketball title since 1992. Williams, along with players like Cameron Brink, Haley Jones and Lexie Hull formed a dominant roster that will forever go down in history as arguably one of Stanford’s best and most talented.

After Williams graduated following the title-winning season, she left as the school’s all-time leader in three pointers while cementing herself as a true Cardinal legend. Now, only three years after leaving college, Williams’ basketball career is in limbo after her recent release from the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.

Selected by the Seattle Storm with the 18th overall pick of the 2021 WNBA Draft, Williams was initially a longshot to make the roster as the team already had Sue Bird, Jordin Canada, Jewel Loyd and Kennedy Burke in their backcourt. Against the odds she made the final roster and proceeded to spend the following two seasons in Seattle, playing in 13 games between 2021 and 2022 where she averaged 1.7 points in the latter year. Released three games into the ‘22 campaign, Williams signed with Connecticut where she played the rest of the season with the Sun.

Williams did not play in the WNBA last year before once again rejoining the Storm on a training camp contract before this season. Her performance was good enough to earn her another spot on the initial roster, but after getting waived on July 2, she signed two 10-day contracts. Playing in 13 games with the team where she averaged only 0.8 points, she was not retained following the expiration of her second 10-day contract and was waived for a second time. 

Never missing a game while in college with 128 consecutive starts, Williams ended her tenure averaging 13.4 points per game with 3.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds. With her being the program’s all-time three point leader, her career percentage from behind the arc was .370. One of Tara VanDerveer’s most reliable players during her time there, Williams’ legacy will never be forgotten.

Listed as a 5-foot-7 hybrid guard, Williams’ versatility as well as her strong shooting ability make her the type of player that any team could use, and as the WNBA playoffs approach, Williams will continue to grind in the hopes of either finding a home for a team’s playoff run, or come back better than ever next season, ready to help a franchise achieve its aspirations.

High temperatures again today were well below seasonal average, only peaking in the low 70s. We saw more clouds and scattered showers, even some rumbles of thunder.