The Seattle Mariners announced Tuesday evening that Lloyd McClendon has been hired as the 16th fulltime manager in club history. The Puget Sound Business Journal first reported the hiring.
#Mariners will name Detroit Tigers hitting coach Lloyd McClendon as their new manager, a source close to team says. Announcement soon.
— PSBJ News (@PSBJ) November 5, 2013
McClendon, 54, has spent the past eight seasons as a coach with Detroit, most recently serving as the Tigers’ hitting coach, and was a hopeful for that club’s managerial job before the Tigers instead hired Brad Ausmus to replace Jim Leyland, who stepped down following the season.
“Lloyd is a bright and articulate guy,” Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said in a press release. “He has Major League managerial experience and has served in a vital capacity in Detroit under one of the game’s best managers. He is a tireless worker and is very respected by the players with whom he has worked. We look forward to Lloyd embracing our players as we move the Mariners forward.”
McClendon, who had an eight year career as a player in the Major Leagues, served as the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2001-2005, compiling a 336-446 record.
“I am extremely excited about the opportunity to manage the Seattle Mariners,” McClendon said in the press release. “Seattle has a tremendous group of talented players and the fans and city should be excited about the club’s future. I’m looking for this group to take a big step forward.”
McClendon replaces Eric Wedge, who announced in the final week of the season that he would not return in 2014, telling reporters, “It got to the point where it was painfully obvious that I was just wasn’t going to be able to move forward with this organization. We see things differently. We talked about it but it got to the point where I couldn’t continue to move forward.”
McClendon will certainly have his work cut out for him, taking over a team that has posted a losing record in eight of its last 10 seasons, including six seasons with 90 or more losses.
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