Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Cleveland Guardians are hiring longtime Seattle Mariners front office member Andy McKay to be a field coordinator. McKay has been with Seattle since the beginning
of the Jerry Dipoto era, coming over from the Colorado Rockies organization following nearly two decades of coaching experience in college and independent ball. Best known as the Director of Player Development, McKay was promoted to assistant general manager in 2022, and was slated to take an on-field role in 2024 before late changes to the organizational chart pushed him back into the front office. McKay has been in many ways the philosophical center of the Dipoto era in terms of player development. Known at the time of his hiring for what were then-outside-the-box philosophies around mental skills and cross-sport/medium mentalities for competition and success, McKay became one of the major leaders in increasing the team’s involvement in the mental preparation across the entirety of the organization.
At both the coaching and player level, McKay is frequently cited as a cultural guide to the M’s, fostering an environment where teammates and coaches alike are able to – and expected to – be sources of accountability for one another. He’s been present through many iterations of M’s emphases and challenges, including the Dr. Lorena Martin affair which resolved quietly. McKay’s departure leaves behind many longtime disciples and adherents, but it is one of the largest shifts in the Dipoto era, arguably as much a change as the decision to move on from Scott Servais a season ago. When McKay was promoted to AGM ahead of the 2023 season, Jerry Dipoto had this to say:
“It would be impossible to overstate the impact Andy has made for the Mariners over the past seven years,” said Dipoto. “His knack for identifying difference making people and cultivating learning environments has been a hallmark of our system since his arrival. His competitiveness, creativity, thirst to learn, talent to teach and a feel for baseball strategies will continue to challenge all of us to improve and grow.”
Dipoto is the only member, so far as I can tell, of the original pre-2016 front office to remain in Seattle. Former AGM Jeff Kingston is in the same role and is a vice-president of baseball operations with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mariners GM Justin Hollander is long-tenured, having worked with Dipoto in the Angels organization for many years, however he did not join Seattle until the end of the 2016 campaign. Best of luck to McKay in Cleveland and in his future endeavors. Seattle will be left to decide if they want to promote from within or seek an external perspective to expand on his work over the past decade.
