Mel Stottlemyre, Jr.

Melvin Leon Stottlemyre, Jr. (born December 28, 1963 in Prosser, Washington) is an American professional baseball coach and a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City Royals. He is currently a pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners.

The 6 ft (1.8 m), 190 lb (86 kg) Stottlemyre attended the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.^[1] He is the son of former New York Yankees starting pitcher and longtime MLB pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre and the elder brother of Todd Stottlemyre, who won 138 games during a 14-year big league career.^[1]

Professional career

Houston Astros

Stottlemyre was selected in the 1982 Major League Baseball draft by the Seattle Mariners but did not sign. He was later drafted in the January Secondary 1985 Major League Baseball draft by the Houston Astros. Stottlemyre began his playing career in 1985 with the Class-A Asheville Tourists of the South Atlantic League in the Astros organization. In his first year he went 5–4 with a 2.75 ERA in 14 games, 13 starts.

In 1986, Stottlemyre split the season between the Class-A Asheville Tourists and the Class-A Osceola Astros. He went 3–1 with a 2.10 ERA in seven games, all starts. With Osceola, Stottlemyre went 0–7 with a 7.82 ERA in nine games, eight starts. This gave him a combined record of 3–8 with a 5.01 ERA on the year.

Stottlemyre began the 1987 season with the Double-A Columbus Astros of the Southern League. He was traded by the Astros to the Kansas City Royals on July 29, 1987 for Buddy Biancalana.^[2]

Kansas City Royals

After the trade, Stottlemyre was assigned to the Double-A Memphis Chicks of the Southern League. He went a combined 7–6 with a 4.31 ERA in 20 games, all starts.

He played the 1988 season with the Double-A Memphis Chicks. He went 3–2 with a 2.40 ERA in seven games, all starts.

In a one-season career at the Major League level in 1990, Stottlemyre posted a 0–1 record with 14 strikeouts, a 4.88 ERA, and 31⅓ innings in 13 games pitched, two as a starter.

Coaching career

Stottlemyre began his coaching career while with the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, serving as their pitching coach. Stottlemyre also served as a pitching coach for the Class-A Yakima Bears in 2002, the Class-A Lancaster JetHawks, the Double-A El Paso Diablos and the Rookie-Level Missoula Osprey in 2005–2006.^[1]

On May 7, 2009, Stottlemyre was hired as the pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks after Bryan Price, the former Diamondbacks pitching coach, resigned.^[3] He was released as pitching coach after the 2010 season, but remained in the D-backs' organization as a roving minor league pitching instructor.^[4][5] On December 2, 2013, he returned to the Diamondbacks' Major League staff as bullpen coach under manager Kirk Gibson.^[5]

On October 26, 2015, Stottleymyre was announced as the new pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners during manager Scott Servais' inaugural press conference.^[6] He will replace Rick Waits, who was hired after the 2013 season.^[7]

See also

• List of second-generation Major League Baseball players

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)