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SEATTLE -- Kevin Seitzer remembers marveling at Edgar Martinez from the opposing dugout during their playing days from the late 1980s through the '90s, which made him all the more eager when his phone buzzed early this offseason about the opportunity to come to Seattle to become the Mariners' new hitting coach.

¡°Just playing against him way back when, I always loved his approach and the type of hitter he was,¡± Seitzer told MLB.com. ¡°And then when this whole process started, during conversations, I was like, ¡®Oh my gosh. He's just like me. I'm just like him.¡¯¡±

Seitzer, who spent the past 10 years as the Braves¡¯ hitting coach, was hired in November to be second in command to Martinez under a revamped coaching staff that itself represents a notable shift in organizational philosophy with its hitting program.

Specifically, the Mariners are going much more ¡°old school¡± than recent years as they try to find more offensive consistency, with Martinez elevated to senior director of hitting strategy.

¡°It's similar to what I had with Chipper [Jones] in Atlanta,¡± Seitzer said of working with the Hall of Famer, who¡¯s a Major League hitting consultant with the Braves. ¡°Use the middle of the field, stay on the fastball, hunt a certain zone depending on what the pitcher has and be aggressive. But it's a controlled, disciplined aggressive, not just swing-at-the-rosin-bag aggressive.¡±

Seitzer was MLB¡¯s longest active hitting coach with the same team when he was let go by the Braves in October with one year remaining on his contract. His tenure there included seven postseason berths, including the 2021 World Series title, but the Braves were looking for a new voice after a ¡®24 season in which they overcame a litany of injuries and reached the playoffs, yet still took a step back offensively.

Seitzer has nothing but positive things to say about the split, though he wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d get another call. But the timing and fit fast-tracked his hiring in Seattle, which was finalized shortly after the General Managers Meetings in early November.

¡°We wanted especially someone that had some experience, but also someone that would be a good extension of what [Martinez] talks about,¡± said Dan Wilson, who enters his first full season as Mariners manager. ¡°Just in the conversations that we had with Kevin, his idea of line-to-line hitting and using the middle of the field also is something that really resonated with us.¡±

To be sure, Seitzer still plans to leverage analytics as a significant component to his practices. In Atlanta, he collaborated with the front office to build proprietary programs that deciphered pitch movements, swings and more. That information fell more under the purview of Bobby Magallanes, who also transitioned from Atlanta to Seattle as assistant hitting coach and specializes more in mechanics.

The Mariners intended to have a specialized tandem like this entering last season, hiring Brant Brown as offensive coordinator to spearhead the overall approach and supplement their more analytically driven hitting coach Jarret DeHart. But Brown¡¯s methodologies were described by some players as too complex, leaving even more on DeHart¡¯s plate after Brown was dismissed in May. DeHart was then let go alongside manager Scott Servais in August, at a time when the Mariners had one of MLB¡¯s least productive offenses.

¡°If a guy wants more [information] but it's working against him, then you help him to be able to simplify exactly what's going to allow him to not get too domed up in the box,¡± Seitzer said.

The ambition is evident and the logic is sound, but as has been the case over the past two seasons -- when the Mariners¡¯ offense was arguably the largest culprit in falling short of the postseason -- the execution will ultimately determine the success of the new staff, headlined by Seitzer.

¡°We need to have versatility in our offense in how we score runs,¡± Seitzer said, well-aware that he¡¯s walking into arguably MLB¡¯s least hitter-friendly ballpark. ¡°It's going to be situational hitting, manufacturing runs, use the other side of the field, move runners, stay hard up the middle of the field. There's going to be a lot of emphasis on situational hitting and having team at-bats.¡±

In between shoveling snow in his offseason home in Kansas City, Seitzer has been watching video of Mariners hitters, excited most about what he saw over the season¡¯s final five weeks while Martinez served as interim hitting coach.

¡°It¡¯s all in there,¡± Seitzer said. ¡°It's just a matter of these guys buying in and embracing it.¡±