diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/WALPlayer.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/WALPlayer.java
index 9d9cee0e8a8..d36721ed364 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/WALPlayer.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/WALPlayer.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Put;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.RegionLocator;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Table;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.ImmutableBytesWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.wal.WALCellCodec;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.wal.WALEdit;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.wal.WALKey;
@@ -292,6 +293,12 @@ public class WALPlayer extends Configured implements Tool {
       // No reducers.
       job.setNumReduceTasks(0);
     }
+    String codecCls = WALCellCodec.getWALCellCodecClass(conf);
+    try {
+      TableMapReduceUtil.addDependencyJars(conf, Class.forName(codecCls));
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      throw new IOException("Cannot determine wal codec class " + codecCls, e);
+    }
     return job;
   }
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/WALCellCodec.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/WALCellCodec.java
index 6b89e892dd2..87850aa1e64 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/WALCellCodec.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/WALCellCodec.java
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ public class WALCellCodec implements Codec {
     this.compression = compression;
   }
 
-  static String getWALCellCodecClass(Configuration conf) {
+  public static String getWALCellCodecClass(Configuration conf) {
     return conf.get(WAL_CELL_CODEC_CLASS_KEY, WALCellCodec.class.getName());
   }