Seattle Mariners fire offensive coordinator and bench coach Brant Brown, per reports
The Seattle Mariners have parted ways with their offensive coordinator and bench coach, Brant Brown, per Daniel Kramer, who is the exclusive Mariners journalist with MLB.com. Brown joined the ballclub to fill in a newly created position last winter, and since then has been highly touted by the staff, players and manager Scott Servais.
Brant Brown's special position with the Mariners had a multitude of roles, including the mental side, midgame adjustments and general approach. Besides fulfilling all those roles, Brown also served as the bench coach alongside manager Scott Servais during game days.
After the announcement of parting ways with Brown, the Mariners manager discussed increasing the responsibility of roles for Jarret Dehart and Tommy Joseph, who are the ballclub's director of hitting strategy and assistant hitting coach, respectively.
Further, manager Scott Servais said:
"We've got people within the organization; some of them have Major League experience. They can come up and work – hitting coordinators and different people that come through town to help out there."
Despite the Seattle Mariners sitting atop the AL West rankings, their offensive production has been subpar this season. They lead the league in strikeouts while sitting at the bottom of the pile in batting average, OPS, slugging percentage and OBP. Furthermore, Seattle has scored the second-fewest runs in the majors, only slightly more than the bottom-placed Chicago White Sox.
Reflecting on the team's offensive struggles, Servais added:
"We have not reached anywhere close to what our potential is yet. So I'm looking forward to what lies ahead. It doesn't make this day any easier. No question, it is very difficult."
Notably, Servais and Brown had been teammates in the past and played in the MLB together in the 1990s.
Brant Brown has built up a good resume working in big leagues
Seattle's RF Mitch Haniger commented on Brant Brown's firing, with whom he had spent time in the MiLB in 2017. He said:
"Unfortunately, our collective production as an offense kind of led to this decision, and all of us don’t feel too great about that. 'Brownie' is not the one to blame for that. It's not his fault. So as far as other reasonings, I have no idea."
Before clearing multiple interviews and eventually joining the Seattle Mariners in November, Brown had excelled as a hitting coach, leading the Miami Marlins to the 2023 postseason. Before that, he had worked with the LA Dodgers as their hitting coach from 2020–22.