Mariners finally acknowledge their biggest flaw with weakest possible firing

A head has finally rolled as a result of the Seattle Mariners' less-than-inspiring start to the 2026 season, and it belongs to assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes. Yes, you read that right. The assistant hitting coach.

Magallanes found out on Thursday that he's now out of a job, with hitting coordinator Ed Paparella stepping in to take his place. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com was among those who broke the news.

The Mariners were meant to be a World Series or bust team in 2026, so the fact that they're only 51-52 and out of the money in the American League playoff picture is a damning indictment of, well, everything.

As he ranked under director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, Magallanes isn't directly responsible for Seattle's offense. But in this context, even guilt by association is a serious charge. The Mariners are second-to-last in MLB in scoring, with both the lowest batting average and the lowest slugging percentage.

The real culprits in the Mariners' slow start are going to be much harder to fire

Magallanes does leave behind something of a positive legacy, as he played an important role in getting Julio Rodríguez on track last year. But if his firing is a tacit admission from Jerry Dipoto that something on the hitting side needed changing, well, so be it. It's not the wrong conclusion.

What this really feels like, though, is the team gesturing at the bind it's in with its coaching choices. In the abstract, it's a cool story that Martinez and Dan Wilson, both Mariners Hall of Famers, are running things. And the Mariners hired Seitzer not long after he had coached an all-time Atlanta Braves offense in 2023, so getting him was a huge win. But the situation was inevitably going to get awkward if the results started to dry up. And well, here we are.

If the only reason those three haven't been fired is because the Mariners have not yet hit rock-bottom, one supposes that's fair. But with Magallanes' firing, at least the warning is clear and appropriate: Don't get any closer to said rock-bottom.

The new guy has his work cut out for him in solving the Mariners' offensive woes

As for Paparella, he's a fresh face if nothing else. He's only 31 years old and was still playing college ball less than a decade ago. He's worn various hats as a coach in the organization, all of which have been related to hitting.

Former New York Mets GM Zack Scott had an interesting thought on hitting coaches recently, positing that teams don't really know what makes a "good" hitting coach. And so, they resort to cycling different people through those roles in hopes of benefiting from fresh voices. Simply to this end, Paparella could prove to be a welcome addition.

It's a lot of pressure, though. Even if it's still Martinez and Seitzer calling the shots, Paparella nonetheless has some responsibility for fixing what ails Seattle's bats. And that's a long list, consisting of nothing less than power outages for Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor, Julio's general consistency and Colt Emerson's uphill battle against major league pitching.

Good luck, Ed. You're going to need it in this outfit.

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