SEATTLE -- Austin Nola was caught completely off guard when the career-altering call came in late October. The 36-year-old journeyman catcher was at his home in Whitefish, Mont., helping with a local independent league team -- the Glacier Range Riders -- and planning his offseason conditioning for 2026, having signed a Minor League deal with the Braves with an invite to Spring Training days earlier. The gig in Atlanta would’ve been a fresh start, and realistically in his mind one final hurrah to playing in The Show. He’d been released by the Rockies in August, six weeks before they finished a 119-loss season, and opportunities were thinning out. Which made that phone call all the more fateful. “It just seemed like it was meant to happen,” Nola told MLB.com by phone. |
The exchange was with former Mariners general manager Andy McKay, who two days earlier was in Toronto for their gut-punch loss in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Already, Seattle’s front office was turning the page to running it back -- albeit with a shakeup to its coaching staff. They wanted Nola to be their bullpen coach and gave him the weekend to think it over. “To get the call of, 'Whoa, this could be retirement. It might be time to move on.' That was what really messed with my brain,” Nola said. “But I will say, that the little stint for three or four weeks that I was with the Range Riders kind of made me realize that there are still ways in the game to help people -- and that's something I've made part of my game anyway the last couple years. “Just trying to help pitchers, help my team, do the best of being a servant leader. And then it happened, and I was like, ‘This could be the right opportunity.’”
McKay was part of the turnover, albeit going from a front-office to coaching role as field coordinator in Cleveland, fulfilling a lifelong dream of being on a Major League coaching staff. Nola is replacing Tony Arnerich, who earned a promotion -- also in Cleveland -- as bench coach. Additionally, third-base coach Kristopher Negrón left for the bench-coach gig in Pittsburgh.
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These moves were expected with nine managerial changes this offseason, as, naturally, teams seeking fresh voices typically go to those who are in the midst of success. Because he has barely hung up his cleats, this will be Nola’s first true coaching job. Yet despite a lack of specific experience in this realm, he does bring 15 years of experience as a player in pro baseball -- and an incredibly unique path that led to this point. Fans who followed the Mariners through their rebuild in 2019-20 will easily remember him -- and his inspiring story. Nola played eight seasons in the Minors before finally making his MLB debut with the Mariners on June 16, 2019, at age 29. He was one of a then-record 67 players they used in that season of long-term player evaluation, but he quickly resonated for his baseball IQ, flexibility to do whatever the team needed and, despite Seattle’s last-place finish, a determination to make those around him better. He also played really well, too. |
In 79 games, Nola had a .796 OPS with 10 homers and 31 RBIs, good for 1.1 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, and 114 wRC+ (league average is 100). He was one of Seattle’s success stories -- for being a pleasant surprise -- in a year that there weren’t many. Other front offices took notice. And the following summer, Nola wound up being the centerpiece of a defining trade in that rebuild -- going to a Padres team that reached the postseason for the first time in 14 years, along with relievers Austin Adams and Dan Altavilla, in exchange for Ty France, Andrés Muñoz, Luis Torrens and Taylor Trammell. And he’ll now oversee Muñoz’s unit. In a roundabout way, even though Nola was no longer in Seattle, one could see his fingerprints on the organization from the very outset of its rebuild to where it is today. Which makes his return -- in a coaching debut -- somewhat full circle. “It just seemed like the stuff that, right when I got traded, that they were hitting on was clicking,” said Nola, who closely followed Seattle’s playoff run last year from afar. “And I was like, 'Man, it actually worked.' The stuff that they were pushing for and the way they played, it just has been an accumulation of years, and it looked a lot of fun. And I just had to tell myself, ‘I'm going to miss out on that if I push one more year to play,’ and I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to miss out on it.” |
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