Mariners announce minor-league staff

The Seattle Mariners have announced their minor-league staff for next season. Larry Stone of The Seattle Times has the list, starting with Daren Brown returning for a seventh season as the manager for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers.

Brown will have a new hitting coach in Howard Johnson, who had three seasons in which he hit more than 30 home runs. He spent the last three seasons with the Mets as their major-league hitting coach. He replaces Jeff Pentland, and there's no word on Pentland's status going forward.

Jim Pankovits returns as manager of Double-A Jackson, Eddie Menchaca at Single-A Clinton, Rob Mummau at Everett (rookie), Claudio Almonte in the Dominican League and Russell Vasquez in Venezuela, according to Stone.

New managers include James Horner, who is returning to the organization after two-plus years as associate head coach at Texas Tech University. He'll manage Single-A High Deser, while Darrin Garner will manager their Arizona League and Chris Prieto will manage Pulaski, another rookie team.

For a full list of the coaching assignments, check the source link above.