SEATTLE (AP) -New general manager Jack Zduriencik made more changes to the Seattle Mariners front office Monday, demoting director of player development Greg Hunter and promoting Pedro Grifol to director of minor league operations.
Seattle also hired former Washington Nationals third base coach Tim Tolman as its new coordinator of minor league instruction, Grifol’s old job.
Since taking over as GM last month, Zduriencik has fired scouting director Bob Fontaine and cut ties with vice president for player personnel Benny Looper, who refused a demotion and left the team.
Zduriencik is about to pick a new manager, too. That announcement is expected this week, perhaps as soon as Tuesday.
Hunter became Seattle’s player development director in August 2007. He has spent 12 years in the Mariners’ front office and was offered another assignment within the organization.
“We are focused on doing everything we can do to improve our player development department,” Zduriencik said in a statement. “Giving Pedro increased responsibility and adding Tim to our staff should help us in that process.”
ore becoming the Mariners’ coordinator of minor league instruction, Grifol, who turns 39 this month, was the manager of Seattle’s Class-A team in Everett, Wash. He was the Mariners’ scout for South Florida and Puerto Rico from 2000-05. The former sixth-round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins in 1991 played eight seasons in the minor leagues, reaching as high as Triple-A.
The 52-year-old Tolman spent the past two seasons as the Nationals’ third base coach and spring training coordinator. He was Cleveland’s minor league field coordinator from 2003-06 and was in Houston’s player development and scouting departments for 14 years.
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