Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto and Mariners Manager Scott Servais announced today that the team has hired Jared Sandberg as the club's new Major League Field Coordinator.
"Jared brings a lot of experience in building relationships with young players, having managed successful teams in Durham," Dipoto said. "He has a demonstrated track record of using a wide expanse of tools, from data analytics to sports psychology to traditional baseball education, and allowing each of those things to affect his decision-making. We think he is going to impact our staff in the ability to create order, deliver messages and convey plans, both among our staff and our players."
Sandberg has spent the last 11 seasons as a coach in the Rays organization, including the last 10 seasons as a manager. Sandberg, who was born and raised in Olympia, WA, has been the skipper of Triple-A Durham for the last 4 seasons. He led the Bulls to back-to-back International League titles in 2017 and 2018, highlighted by the Triple-A National Championship in 2017. In 10 seasons as a manager in the Rays minor league system, he led his clubs to 7 winning seasons and 3 league championships. He boasts a career mark of 612-522 (.540) as a minor league manager.
The product of Olympia's Capital High School was drafted by Tampa Bay in the 16th round of the 1996 MLB First-Year Player Draft and retired following a 12-year playing career as an infielder, including 3 Major League seasons with the Rays (2001-03). He spent a total of 9 seasons in the Rays organization and holds the Rays all-time minor league record with 113 home runs, 473 RBI and 417 runs.
After retiring from his playing career in 2007, Sandberg began his coaching career in 2008 as a coach with Short-Season-A Hudson Valley. He managed the Rays' rookie league affiliate Princeton in 2009 before spending 3 seasons as the skipper of Hudson Valley. He spent one-year stints as the manager of Single-A Bowling Green (2013) and Advanced-A Charlotte (2014) before joining Durham in 2015.
Sandberg resides in Olympia, WA, with his wife, Julie and their children: Evan and Clara. He is the nephew of Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg.