Mariners' Jerry Dipoto explains decision to fire popular hitting coach

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Jul 25, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerry Dipoto didn’t mince words.

“Our offense,” the Seattle Mariners president said, “has been abysmal for two months.”

The lethargy that has enveloped the Mariners’ lineup isn’t the fault of any one individual. Dipoto wanted to emphasize that Saturday in explaining the decision to fire assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes.

Dipoto even acknowledged that he wasn’t sure the dismissal of Magallanes was ultimately the right move — and manager Dan Wilson did try to change Dipoto’s mind — but the Mariners’ front office ultimately concluded it was the best move right now to rattle the cage, so to speak, of this offensive group.

“Bobby's a wonderful person. I think he's a good coach, but we needed to stir up the offense to try to offer something different than we've been doing,” Dipoto said. “Because what we've been doing just simply hasn't been working.”

The Mariners were averaging just 3.4 runs per game since June 13 — dead-last in MLB — and they had fallen 1.5 games back of the Texas Rangers entering the second game of their pivotal AL West showdown Saturday night.

Dark times, these are, for these Mariners, a team that expected to enter the second half of the season fully in control of the AL West, if not the league at large.

“There’s just been a disjointed feeling within what we were doing offensively all year long,” Dipoto said. “It just never really felt like we were like we were all moving in the same direction, and it shows on the field, shows in our results. I hate that this (falls on) Bobby; Bobby is a wonderful guy. …

“But at the end of the day, the only way to instigate some type of change is by making some type of change.”

Last week, the Mariners came out of the All-Star break with one of their most discouraging performances of the season in a 7-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants, one of the worst teams in the majors this season.

That game, Dipoto said, sparked debate in the front office about short-term measures to fix the offense. The group’s conclusion was to shake up the hitting group’s coaching staff.

“I'm not trying to scapegoat Bobby,” Dipoto said. “We had internal discussion on what could we do that wouldn't create absolute disarray, that could turn some dials with a team that really needs a dial (turned). We're not playing well, and there are consequences for not playing well. We have to figure out how to get better, and this is, I hope, a move that pushes us in that direction.”

The team’s three veteran hitting coaches — franchise legend Edgar Martinez, Kevin Seitzer and Magallanes — all share the same hitting philosophy, which can fairly be described as an old-school, up-the-middle approach. It’s a philosophy that worked well in 2025 when the Mariners won the AL West and ranked third in MLB in home runs (238) and third in the wRC+ metric (113, where 100 represents league average).

Whatever the reasons, it isn’t working now.

Minor-league hitting coordinator Ed Paparella was promoted to the major-league staff to replace Magallanes. The 31-year-old Paparella is more fluent with technology and advanced metrics that Dipoto hopes can offer some new perspective for M’s hitters.

“Ed Paparella brings a different skill set than any of our other hitting coaches and provides access to content that is just different than the other guys,” Dipoto said. “He's more in tune with you know the bio-mecs (biomechanics), the way the body works, the communication in and out with the HP (high performance) group.”

Paparella worked with many of the Mariners’ major-league hitters during spring training while Magallanes (Team Mexico) and Martinez (Team Puerto Rico) were coaching in the World Baseball Classic.

“Ed’s not just a hitting coach; he has a lot of different ways he can affect players' outcomes,” Dipoto said. “He's been with us for a number of years now. He's developed very nicely in our minor-league system, and I think he's got a skill set that can really help our group. And we'll find out if that's meaningful.”

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