Tanner Swanson hire continues Mariners' precision targeting with new coaches

It's always a good sign whenever a coach departing for a new job is treated as something akin to a tragedy in the place he's departing from. So with all respect to our pals at Yanks Go Yard, it seems like the Seattle Mariners' poaching of Tanner Swanson is worth celebrating on the Pacific Northwest.

Since Swanson's contract with the Yankees expired at the end of the 2026 season, maybe this wasn't technically a "poaching." Either way, Swanson has left his job as a major league coordinator with the Yankees to become the Mariners' bench coach under new manager Jason Kanzler. It's a homecoming for the 44-year-old Swanson, who was born in Seattle and had strong ties to the area even before the Mariners hired him.

Given how popular Manny Acta was in the role, Swanson has big shoes to fill as Seattle's bench coach. Yet his hiring, which was first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, seems like more than just an attempt to add another new voice to the dugout. The news was quickly followed by effusive praise for Swanson's past work with catchers, and it's not overblown.

Swanson has been specifically lauded for preaching the art of framing, and the proof is in the pudding with his work for the Yankees. In his seven seasons with the team between 2020 and 2026, their +84 Framing Runs were easily the most of any team in baseball. The Mariners rank 11th for this same span, but slipped to 29th with -10 Framing Runs in 2026.

This isn't ideal for any team, but it's especially harmful for a team like the Mariners, whose pitchers have built an identity on pounding the strike zone. So, whatever framing wisdom Swanson can impart on Cal Raleigh (-4 Framing Runs) and Jhonny Pereda (-2 Framing Runs) has the potential to make an outsized impact going forward.

Mariners' coaching hires suggest they know exactly what problems needed to be solved

Swanson makes it three coaches that have been added to the Mariners' bench, following Jason Kanzler in the manager's chair and CJ Gillman as the new lead hitting coaches. All three hires seem designed to take precise aim at specific problems that plagued the team amid its 76-86 season.

Whereas Dan Wilson was often out of his depth with in-game strategy and downright bad at communicating, Kanzler is cut from a modern wiz-kid mold and very obviously blessed with the gift of gab. His lack of experience may well prove to be a problem but, for now at least, he has an aura about him that casts him as Wilson's exact opposite.

Gillman, meanwhile, is coming back to the Mariners off a wildly successful stint with the Washington Nationals as their director of hitting. They were one of this year's most improved offensive teams, and it was because they grinded at-bats and intentionally chased power. The Mariners could stand to improve on both fronts in 2027.

Otherwise, it doesn't hurt that Gillman helped shepherd Cole Young, Colt Emerson, Lazaro Montes and Michael Arroyo to the majors as the Mariners' minor league hitting coordinator between 2022 and 2025. There's a read on his hiring as a direct response to complaints from players that things they learned in the minors were "abandoned" in the majors this season.

There are no promises to make as to whether these hires (and the ones still to come) will work out for the Mariners. But if the idea is address things that went wrong in 2026, this is a good start.

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