5 playoff coaches for Seattle Mariners to actively court as their new manager

The 2026 MLB playoffs are ongoing, and so is the Seattle Mariners' search for Dan Wilson's replacement in the managers' chair. These two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times has a new article out on the Mariners' manager search, and among the many bits of useful information concerns how the team is approaching coaches who are still involved in the postseason. These folks aren't technically off-limits, and Divish reports that the Mariners have asked for permission to speak with manager candidates who work for playoff teams.

So, who might they have in mind?

We can narrow down the list of teams to just four, as it's down to the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS and the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS. From there, we can read some tea leaves scattered and make some best guesses.

5 best guesses for who Mariners have in mind to poach from 2026 playoff teams

Stephen Vogt, Cleveland Guardians manager

Once Torey Lovullo returned to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a two-year deal, Vogt was pretty much all alone atop Mariners fans' wish list for the team's next manager. He got his coaching start as the Mariners' bullpen coach in 2023, and has since cemented himself as one of baseball's great skippers with back-to-back Manager of the Year wins in 2024 and 2025.

It may not hurt that Vogt and his family live in Olympia during the offseason. And hypothetically, at least, the Mariners job is worth coveting for him more than most. He'd get to take over a talented roster that still features many of the players he got to know in 2023, and even the Mariners' mid-level payroll is an upgrade over Cleveland's pitiful $87 million payroll.

Of course, Vogt is a very busy man right now. The Guardians also have a strong hand to play as far as a potential trade with the Mariners. They have Vogt on a multi-year contract and could command a player or prospect in a deal, which Divish's sources tell him makes the whole Vogt concept "basically a non-starter."

Andy McKay, Cleveland Guardians field coordinator

Ah, but what about McKay? This is his first and only season working under Vogt in Cleveland, but the two had crossed paths in Seattle while McKay was working as assistant GM under Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander.

Before he was the Mariners' assistant GM, McKay had been a key figure in the team's player development machine. As Colin O'Keefe of The View Level put it, he literally wrote the book on what it means to be a Seattle Mariner in the modern day.

That point is especially salient right now, following a season in which Dipoto heard from multiple players that "what they learned in player development that got abandoned in the big leagues." If ever there was a guy who could restore order, why not the guy who had the biggest hand in teaching what the team's current core learned while coming up through the system?

Rodney Linares, Tampa Bay Rays bench coach

The credit for this one goes to Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports, who referenced Linares as a potential fit for the Mariners in an article last week.

Though Linares lacks ties to the Mariners organization, he's no stranger to the AL West. He's a former minor league coach in the Houston Astros system, where he helped in the development of recent greats like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer and Alex Bregman. He also managed the Dominican Republic team for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

For his last four years with the Rays, Linares has worked under two-time AL Manager of the Year Kevin Cash as his bench coach. There isn't a team in baseball with a longer track record of blending analytics with communication to get the most of its roster. After they were less than the sum of their parts in 2026, that aspect of hiring Linares should have especially strong appeal to the Mariners.

Spencer Allen, Milwaukee Brewers first base coach

Allen is another name from Drayer's list, and a guy who notably has local ties as an Olympia native who played ball at Capital High School and Green River Community College.

He's an interesting candidate for those who want the Mariners to operate more like the Brewers, and we count ourselves among the members of that club. They're much like the Rays in how they win games on the margins, and Allen has been particularly influential in turning them into one of the best defensive and baserunning teams in the league.

Like Brewers manager Pat Murphy, Allen cut his teeth in the college ranks as the head coach for Northwestern from 2016 through 2021. As MLB teams have begun to look more seriously at college coaches as the league's population has shifted younger, the Mariners would be getting on board with a trend if they were to hire Allen. That could specifically benefit up-and-comers like Cole Young, Colt Emerson, Lazaro Montes and Michael Arroyo.

Chris Woodward, Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach

Back in 2015, the Mariners were in the running for Dave Roberts before the Los Angeles Dodgers hired him as their manager. Roberts has since won three World Series titles, while Scott Servais got the Mariners job and… well, did not win three World Series titles.

Call it a hunch, but the Mariners are not going to correct their mistake by getting Roberts now. But if anyone on the Dodgers' staff represents the next-best thing, it's Woodward.

Woodward was formerly with the Mariners as a player and a coach in the late 2000s and early 2010s, though he left the organization before the Dipoto regime established itself in 2016. He went on to work two stints as a coach for the Dodgers, wrapped around four mostly forgettable years as the Texas Rangers' manager between 2019 and 2022.

He's known for being a good defensive instructor, though what the Mariners might really be hoping for if they want him is for a little of the Dodgers' magic. Their success obviously can't be separated from the size of their payroll, but it's easy to take it for granted that they also play smart, clean baseball. As in, the kind of baseball the Mariners need to get back to playing.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow