Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto and Manager Scott Servais announced today that Brian DeLunas has been added to the Major League coaching staff as the Bullpen Coach.
"We view Brian as a connector," Dipoto said. "Taking the bio-mechanical view of a pitcher, connecting with the analytical view, connecting again with the emotional/psychological angle and then how to reach players in today's times. His experiences from the collegiate coaching level to running his own program in and around St. Louis to working with high-end professional players -- like our own David Phelps and others - it led us to a guy with a really interesting background in how to coach and improve today's pitchers. He's an easy communicator and understands the game at a variety of angles."
"One of our off-season goals was to improve our ratio of coaches available to our pitching staff," Servais added. "We feel with Mel (Stottlemyre) as pitching coach, Jim (Brower) in the assistant coach role and Brian in the bullpen, we've really created a situation where we are giving every pitcher on our staff the opportunity to be successful."
DeLunas has spent the past six months as the Director of Pitching Development for CSE Baseball in St. Louis, MO. He has worked with Major League, Minor League and collegiate pitchers of all levels, focusing on development and preparation, mindset and performance. Prior to CSE Talent, DeLunas was the Co-Founder and Program Director for Premier Pitching and Performance (P3). P3 incorporated the services of a physical therapist and a massage therapist, used a markerless 3D biomechanical system for analysis, as well as several technologies to offer one of the most comprehensive pitching programs in the country.
DeLunas has also served as a pitching coach at the high school level, the junior college level, the University of Missouri (2006-09) and in the Northwoods League. Pitchers he coached at the University of Missouri who went on to be drafted included Max Scherzer (1st round, 2006), Aaron Crow (1st round, 2008), Kyle Gibson (1st round, 2009), Nathan Culp (4th round, 2006), Rick Zagone (6th round, 2008), Nick Tepesch (14th round, 2010) and Tyler Clark (24th round, 2010). He also coached current Mariner David Phelps, as well as pitchers Chris Sale, Jake Ordorizzi and many others.
Here's a look at the full 2018 Seattle Mariners coaching staff:
· Manager - Scott Servais (3rd year as Manager)
· Bench Coach - Manny Acta (1st year as Bench Coach, 3rd year on Seattle staff)
· Hitting Coach - Edgar Martinez (4th year as Hitting Coach)
· Pitching Coach - Mel Stottlemyre (3rd year as Pitching Coach)
· Third Base Coach - Scott Brosius (1st year as Third Base Coach, 2nd year on Seattle staff)
· First Base Coach - Chris Prieto (1st year as First Base Coach, 5th year on Seattle staff)
· Bullpen Coach - Brian DeLunas (1st year as Bullpen Coach)
· Assistant Coach - Jim Brower (1st year as Assistant Coach)     
In addition, Nasusel Cabrera will remain with the big league staff in his previous position as batting practice pitcher and Fleming Baez will return as bullpen catcher.