Overview
- Multiple outlets, citing Joel Sherman, reported Friday that Tanner Swanson has been hired by the Seattle Mariners to be bench coach for new manager Jason Kanzler.
- Swanson spent the past several seasons with the New York Yankees as major-league quality control coach and director of catching after joining pro baseball as the Twins’ minor-league catching coordinator in 2017 and earning his first big-league job in 2019.
- He is credited with improving catcher pitch framing and receiving technique in New York, including work with Austin Wells and Jose Trevino, and helped popularize the one-knee-down receiving position that teaches catchers to present low pitches more cleanly.
- As bench coach Swanson will act as Kanzler’s day-to-day deputy and is expected to work beyond catchers on game planning, player development, and in-room mentorship for a first-time, relatively young manager.
- The hire creates an immediate vacancy in the Yankees’ catching-development pipeline and gives the Mariners a targeted tool to address Seattle’s 2026 catcher framing shortfall, a change that could alter how opposing pitchers attack Mariners hitters and how the club develops its catchers.