Returning from a lost Minor League season and with a pipeline of promising prospects, the Mariners’ player-development staff eyes a huge season ahead. On Wednesday, the club announced who would comprise that staff.

The most notable promotion was Kristopher Negrón to manage Triple-A Tacoma. The six-year big leaguer retired following the 2019 season, during which he played 10 games for Seattle and then was dealt to the Dodgers at the Trade Deadline. He also played for Seattle in ’18 and spent time in four organizations at the big league level after being drafted in ’06.

Negrón spent last season as an assistant to Mariners director of player development Andy McKay, most notably overseeing the alternate training site in Tacoma, in addition to coaching at Spring Training before the shutdown. Negrón takes over for longtime Rainiers manager Daren Brown. Negrón and new Double-A manager Collin Cowgill, who took over for Dave Berg, are first-year managers.

“His playing career was really built on serving others,” McKay said of Negrón during the Mariners Virtual Baseball Bash. “This transition for him, it will be challenging. It will be very hard for him because he'll be coaching people he played with, which is always unique. … He knows that for him to be a successful coach and realize the dreams that he has as a coach, it's really going to come down to his ability to have hard conversations with players, to tell them the truth.”

• More on Mariners Virtual Baseball Bash

Cowgill was in Spring Training with the Mariners as a player in 2020 on a Minor League contract.

Louis Boyd will keep his post with the Everett AquaSox, whose classification was bumped up from Short Season Class A to Class A Advanced in December, moving from a 76-game schedule to 140. Also, the club recently hired former fan favorite Hisashi Iwakuma to be a special assignment coach.

Here are the nine positions on McKay’s staff that were announced:

• Minor League field coordinator: Tony Arnerich
• Hitting coordinator: Connor Dawson
• Pitching coordinator: Max Weiner
• Special assignment coach: Alvin Davis
• Special assignment coach: Dan Wilson
• Special assignment coach: Mike Cameron
• Special assignment coach: Franklin Gutierrez
• Latin American field coordinator: Cesar Nicolas
• Coordinator of pitching strategy: Ari Ronick

And here is a breakdown of the Minor League coaching staffs:

Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers (Pacific Coast League)
• Manager: Kristopher Negrón
• Hitting coach: Roy Howell
• Pitching coach: Rob Marcello
• Coach: Eric Young Jr.

Double-A Arkansas Travelers (Southern League)
• Manager: Collin Cowgill
• Hitting coach: Joe Thurston
• Pitching coach: Alon Leichman
• Coach: Ryan McLaughlin

Class A Advanced Everett AquaSox (Northwest League)
• Manager: Louis Boyd
• Hitting coach: Shawn O’Malley
• Pitching coach: Sean McGrath
• Coach: Jose Umbria

Class A Modesto Nuts (California League)
• Manager: Eric Farris
• Hitting coach: Rob Benjamin
• Pitching coach: Nathan Bannister
• Coach: Geoff Jimenez

Arizona Rookie League Mariners
• Manager: Austin Knight
• Hitting coach: Michael Fransoso
• Pitching coach: Yoel Monzon
• Coach: Zac Livingston

Dominican Summer League Mariners
• Manager: Luis Caballero
• Hitting coach: Brett Schneider
• Pitching coach: Jose Amancio
• Coaches: Juan Pimentel, Gaudy Jabalera