Chip Hale Returns To Athletics As Third Base Coach

The Athletics announced today that Chip Hale has been re-hired by the organization and will fill the role of third base coach that was vacated when Ron Washington took the same title with the Braves earlier this month. Hale, whose talks with the A’s were first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser, has spent the past two seasons managing the D-backs but was dismissed from that post at season’s end. Prior to his time in Arizona, he served as Oakland’s bench coach under manager Bob Melvin from 2012-14.

“We’re thrilled to bring Chip back to the organization and to retain the rest of our coaching staff,” Athletics general manager David Forst said when announcing the hiring (Twitter link). Slusser tweets that Hale will take on Washington’s role of working with the team’s infielders as part of his duties as third base coach.

Hale, 51, had a seven-year playing career as a utility infielder with the Twins and Dodgers in the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s. His Diamondbacks exceeded the expectations of many pundits in 2015 by finishing 79-83 — good for a third-place finish in the NL West behind the Dodgers and Giants. However, Hale was one of many in the D-backs organization to pay the price for the team’s disastrous 2016 campaign, during which the Diamondbacks struggled to a 69-93 record and finished fourth in their division. His experience in a variety of coaching roles and as a big league manager, however, should make him a candidate for future managerial openings, even if he obviously won’t be in that type of role next season.