The Mariners announced their 2026 coaching staff on Friday morning. There are three news additions to Dan Wilson’s group: bullpen coach Austin Nola, third base coach Carlos Cardoza, and field coordinator Jake McKinley. MLBTR covered Nola’s hiring last month.
Cardoza, 39 in January, gets his first job on an MLB staff. The Puerto Rico native has coached professionally for a decade, spending the majority of that time working in the Texas farm system. He served as a minor league manager and has led the Rangers’ Double-A affiliate for the past three seasons. Seattle needed a new third base coach to replace Kristopher Negrón, who departed to take over as Don Kelly’s bench coach with the Pirates.
McKinley is also making his debut on a big league staff. He makes the jump from the college ranks after spending the past three seasons as the head coach at the University of Nevada. (Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball reported that McKinley was leaving the Wolfpack to join the M’s as field coordinator earlier this week.) The 2025 Mountain West Coach of the Year, McKinley led Nevada to a 19-11 record within conference play to win the regular season conference championship. He’d previously worked in the professional ranks as part of Milwaukee’s player development department.
The rest of Wilson’s staff returns on the heels of the ALCS berth. Bench coach Manny Acta, senior director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes, pitching coach Pete Woodworth, assistant pitching coach Danny Farquhar, director of pitching strategy Trent Blank, first base coach Eric Young Jr., and infield coach Perry Hill are all back in their previous roles.