There’s been some real coaching turnover for the Seattle Mariners this offseason.

First, we learned that front office member Andy McKay was departing for an on-field coaching job with the Cleveland Guardians. Then, we learned that Cleveland was also taking bullpen coach Tony Arnerich. Finally, third base coach Kris Negron departed for a role with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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And on the other side, we knew the Mariners added former catcher Austin Nola as their new bullpen coach and that they’ve brought in former Nevada baseball coach Jake McKinley as their new on-field coordinator.

And on Friday, the M’s finalized their major league coaching staff by adding Carlos Cardoza as their third base coach to replace Negron.

Via a press release from the Mariners:

Carlos Cardoza joins the Mariners staff as Third Base Coach and enters his 11th year as a professional coach, his first on a Major League staff. He previously spent the last 3 seasons (2023-25) as the manager of the Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate, the Frisco RoughRiders. He managed the team to an 84-54 record in 2024, their best regular season winning percentage in Frisco franchise history, and was named the organization’s 2024 Bobby Jones Player Development Man of the Year following the season. Cardoza originally joined the Rangers organization in 2015 and spent 9 seasons as a manager in the Rangers organization, including for the DSL Rangers (2016-18), ACL Rangers (2019), Class-A Down East Wood Ducks (2021), High-A Hickory Crawdads (2022) and Double-A RoughRiders (2023-25). Cardoza was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and played college baseball at Georgia State University and Armstrong State University before beginning his coaching career.

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Despite being the more experienced coach on staff, Eric Young Jr. is remaining as the team’s first base coach. While we don’t have exact confirmation on why, it’s easy to speculate that the Mariners value his ability to help in base stealing and getting good jumps.

The Mariners stole 161 bases this past season, which was tied for third-most in the big leagues. Young was a big part of that.

The winter meetings begin on Sunday night in Orlando, Fla., and the Mariners have been connected to bullpen arms and second baseman. Jorge Polanco is a free agent and is reportedly drawing significant interest from other teams. ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney thinks he’ll sign early, but does he really need to do that?

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