The Mariners finally did something about their offense on Thursday, just not the something anyone was really asking for. Seattle relieved assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes of his duties a day after dropping back under.500 with a loss to the Reds, according to MLB Trade Rumors.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that Seattle moved on from Magallanes.
Magallanes was only in his second season in Seattle, arriving alongside major league hitting coach Kevin Seitzer after both came over from the Atlanta Braves. He reportedly handled the mechanical side of hitting instruction while Seitzer leaned more into approach — a split that made him an easy, isolated piece to move on from without touching the bigger names in the room. Minor league hitting coordinator Ed Paparella is being bumped up to fill the void through the rest of the season.
And the offense this move is supposed to fix is genuinely one of the worst in baseball. The Mariners entered Thursday last in the majors in batting average at.229 and 29th in both slugging and OPS. Since June 12, over a 32-game stretch, Seattle has been the single worst offense in the league — a.208 average, a.610 OPS, and just 28 home runs as a team. That's not a slump, that's a full-blown organizational crisis.
What makes it sting more is the roster isn't short on talent. Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Josh Naylor and Randy Arozarena headline a lineup that should be nowhere near the bottom of the league in production. Injuries haven't helped — Raleigh missed a month, Rodríguez lost two weeks to a concussion, and prized offseason addition Brendan Donovan has been out for over two months — but that alone doesn't explain a lineup hitting like this deep into the summer.
Firing the assistant hitting coach while Seitzer keeps his job is the kind of move that reads as an org checking a box rather than solving a root problem. If Seattle's still hitting.200-something a month from now, this won't be the last staff shakeup, and it won't stop at an assistant's title next time.