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Seattle Mariners announce 3 new hires to 2026 coaching staff
The Seattle Mariners announced their 2026 major league coaching staff on Friday morning, which includes a trio of new hires.
The Mariners hired Carlos Cardoza as their third base coach, former M’s catcher Austin Nola as their bullpen coach and Jake McKinley as their major league field coordinator.
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Cardoza replaces Kristopher Negron, who was hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ bench coach. Nola replaces Tony Arnerich, who was hired as the Cleveland Guardians’ bench coach. McKinley replaces Louis Boyd, who is transitioning to Seattle’s assistant director of player development.
The rest of manager Dan Wilson’s staff remains the same following the club’s deepest playoff run in franchise history.
Senior director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes are back in the same roles for their second season together.
Seattle’s highly successful pitching brain trust also remains intact, with director of pitching strategy Trent Blank, pitching coach Pete Woodworth and assistant pitching coach Danny Farquhar all returning to their same roles.
Bench coach Manny Acta, first base coach Eric Young Jr. and longtime infield coach Perry Hill are back as well.
Cardoza spent the previous nine seasons as a manager in the Texas Rangers’ farm system, including the past three seasons as Double-A Frisco’s skipper. He managed Frisco to an 84-54 record in 2024, which was the best regular-season win percentage in club history. Following that season, he was named the organization’s 2024 Bobby Jones Player Development Man of the Year.
Nola is joining the coaching ranks after a six-year career as an MLB catcher with the Mariners (2019-20), the San Diego Padres (2020-23) and the Colorado Rockies (2025).
Nola made his MLB debut with Seattle in 2019 and then batted .306 over the first 29 games of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He was then dealt to the Padres as part of a seven-player trade that sent two-time All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz, first baseman Ty France, catcher Luis Torrens and outfielder Taylor Trammel to the Mariners.
McKinley spent the past three seasons as the University of Nevada’s head coach. This past season, he guided the Wolf Pack to the Mountain West Conference regular-season title and was named the league’s coach of the year.
Prior to that, McKinley spent three years working in player development for the Milwaukee Brewers, including 2021 as their vice president of player development. In addition, he was the head coach at Menlo College (2014-17) and William Jessup (2018).
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