Former Brewers catcher once again signs with Mariners, but this time in a different role

Jacob Nottingham spent a majority of his MLB career with the Milwaukee Brewers as a backup catcher, though he hasn't appeared in a game for the Crew since 2021. It's been a long road for him since then, and he's finally making the move to coaching, which effectively means he's retiring from baseball as a player.

Nottingham played for the Brewers from 2018-21, getting part-time duty behind the plate in each of those seasons. His best "extended" campaign came in 2020, when he played in 20 games and posted a .736 OPS, with his 0.5 WAR setting a high-water mark for his career. However, his tenure in Milwaukee ended shortly thereafter, as the Seattle Mariners claimed him off waivers.

Thus began the journeyman era of his career, as he made his way back to the Brewers before Seattle once again scooped him up. In total, the Mariners signed/claimed/traded for Nottingham five times in a 4.5-year span, including their new pact with him as he converts to coaching.

Former Brewers catcher Jacob Nottingham caps crazy MLB journey with coaching job in Seattle Mariners' organization

Nottingham was originally a sixth-round pick of the Houston Astros before getting shipped to the then-Oakland Athletics for Scott Kazimir. Less than a year later, the Brewers traded Khris "Krush" Davis for him and Bubba Derby.

He turned in some middling campaigns with Biloxi and Colorado Springs/San Antonio (then the Triple-A affiliates of the Brewers), which more or less describes his MLB career. Known as a bat-first catcher, Nottingham registered an unplayable 38.5% strikeout rate in the big leagues, which doomed his chances of ever emerging as a star backstop.

What then transpired between him and the Mariners simply defies all logic, as he oscillated between stints in their minor-league system and brief detours with other Triple-A squads (and even a brief tenure in the Mexican League).

Now, he'll make the long-awaited jump to coaching, following a long pipeline of catchers who found second careers in baseball in the dugout. Just 30 years old, it's also not impossible for Nottingham to return to playing if he finds the grass not to be greener — perhaps he'll become the first player-manager in MLB since Pete Rose.

For any longtime Reviewing the Brew readers, you can refresh your memories of that legendary Game 163 in 2018 in former RTB writer Matthew Dewoskin's interview with Nottingham that is now... eight years old! Time flies.