SEATTLE - New Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik has made more changes to his executive staff, demoting director of player development Greg Hunter and promoting staffer Pedro Grifol to director of minor league operations.

Seattle also named former Washington Nationals third-base coach Tim Tolman as its new coordinator of minor league instruction on Monday. That was Grifol's old job.

Since becoming GM last month, Zduriencik has fired scouting director Bob Fontaine, and vice president for player personnel Benny Looper refused a demotion and left the team.

Zduriencik is about to name a new manager. That announcement is expected this week.

Hunter was named Seattle's player development director in August 2007. The 12-year veteran of the Mariners' front office has been offered a reassignment within the organization.

"We are focused on doing everything we can do to improve our player development department," Zduriencik said in a statement. "Giving Pedro increased responsibility and adding Tim to our staff should help us in that process."

Before becoming the Mariners' coordinator of minor league instruction, Grifol, who turns 39 this month, was the manager of the Seattle's Class-A team in Everett, Wash. He was the Mariners' scout for South Florida and Puerto Rico from 2000-05. The former sixth-round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins in 1991 played eight seasons in the minor leagues, reaching as high as Triple A.

Tolman, 52, spent the past two seasons as the Nationals' third base coach and spring camp coordinator. He was Cleveland's minor league field coordinator from 2003-06 and was in Houston's player development and scouting departments for 14 years.