The Mariners announced Wednesday that senior director of baseball development Andy McKay has been promoted to the title of assistant general manager.
“It would be impossible to overstate the impact Andy has made for the Mariners over the past seven years,” president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said of McKay, who was originally hired as the team’s director of player development in Oct. 2015. “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.”
Prior to his time with the Mariners, McKay worked as a coach in the collegiate ranks and spent four seasons as the Rockies’ minor league “peak performance coordinator.” In his new role with the club, McKay will oversee player and staff development as well as the organization’s mental skills and education programs, in addition to working closely with the baseball operations staff with regard to roster building.
McKay’s promotion comes less than two months after Seattle promoted then-assistant GM Justin Hollander to the post of general manager (though Dipoto still remains entrenched atop the team’s baseball operations hierarchy). As is often the case with promotions of this nature, McKay’s elevation to AGM status makes it more difficult for other organizations to hire him away. Clubs typically only allow their executives to interview elsewhere if it means pursuing a promotion, so McKay’s bump to AGM greatly reduces the possibility of another team offering a similar title when looking to build out its baseball operations and player development staff.
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