The Red Sox have finalized manager Alex Cora’s coaching staff for the 2022 season, announcing Monday that they’ve hired Luis Ortiz and Ben Rosenthal as assistant hitting coaches. As previously reported, they’ve also promoted Peter Fatse from assistant hitting coach to hitting coach. Meanwhile, 2021 quality control coach Ramon Vazquez will move to first base coach, while Andy Fox will be the Major League field coordinator after previously serving as assistant field coordinator. Former bullpen catcher Mike Brenly is now a Major League staff assistant as well.
Ortiz joins the Red Sox after spending three years as the Rangers’ hitting coach. He was also the Dodgers’ assistant hitting coach in 2018. It won’t be Ortiz’s first time donning a Red Sox uniform, however; the 51-year-old was an eighth-round pick by the Sox back in 1991 and played 16 big league games with them from 1993-94, splitting that brief time between third base and designated hitter. He also played in 44 big league games with the Rangers over the next two seasons.
In addition to that limited MLB action, Ortiz’s playing career included stops with several other MLB organizations: the Royals, Brewers, D-backs, Cardinals and Expos. He also spent time in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, in the Mexican League and with the independent Winnipeg Goldeyes. A true baseball journeyman, Ortiz has experience as a minor league hitting coach with the Rangers in addition to stints with the player development departments in Cleveland and San Diego.
The other external hire announced today is Rosenthal, a 42-year-old with a broad-reaching level of experiences in the game himself. Rosenthal spent a few seasons as a catcher in the Cardinals’ minor league system and has also played with five different independent organizations. He’s also been a third base coach and hitting coach in the college ranks (Point Loma Nazarene University), and, more recently, spent five seasons as a minor league hitting coach with the Astros organization. Rosenthal has been Houston’s Triple-A hitting coach since 2019 and spent the 2017-18 seasons coaching at two different Class-A stops.
The rest of Boston’s coaching staff will return in their same roles. Will Venable enters his second season as manager Alex Cora’s bench coach, and he’ll also serve as the team’s outfield coach. Dave Bush is back for a third season as the Major League pitching coach. Bullpen coach Kevin Walker is also back for a third season on the Major League staff (and second as bullpen coach). Carlos Febles is returning for his fifth season as third base coach, and Jason Varitek will be back for a second season as Boston’s catching coach and game-planning coordinator.
Even baseball is weighed-down by bureaucracy – “quality control coach” and “assistant hitting coaches.” Coaches for coaches and so it goes.
I’m surprised there isn’t an assistant manager yet.
Bench coach?
A lot of coaches. At least the team will lead the league in something.
dewey – LMAO!! HO HO HO Merry Christmas!
So the Red Sox basically traded Hyers for Ortiz?
Thank you.now red Sox can hit 232 like rangers did last season.
It’s going to be strange not seeing Goody at 1B anymore, he was a very popular coach especially with the ladies in the crowd whom he often tossed baseballs to. Vazquez had zero experience as a 1B coach prior to filling in for Goody toward the end of this past season. He will have big shoes to fill, but his close relationship with Cora will help.
These teams are getting a bit like private schools:
We have a 2.3:1 player to coach ratio here at the Beantown Institute for Baseballogy.
A private school with a low teacher to student ratio is probably going to give the best education. Red Sox owners are betting the same thing. Yankees will copy in a few years.
So Alex didn’t want his brother and his windmill?
Would have liked to see Butterfield come back to work with Bogey and Devers. Where the heck is he?
Per the NY Daily News (not the best, I agree), BB will be working for Buck with the Mets.
Out of touch Buck will need all the help he can get.
With Alex Cora, Boston can shoot for stars and reach them, Buck Showalter and the Mets will get to the clouds and sputter as his track record has proven to be once the regular season is over.
nbresnak – Maybe they can steal the stars but shooting for them is ridiculous with Cora still messing things up daily. I heard Cora is coming up with a way for the on deck hitter to swing the bat with a smart sleeve on so it makes one sound for fastball and another sound for off speed pitches!!! hahaha I sure wish the Grinch would steal Cora!!! hahaha
Buck Showalter and the Mets will get to the clouds
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Unless they add at least one more SP, then the NYMs are flawed and thin. As is, I think they need 60 starts from Scherzer & DeGrom to compete for the WC.
One will be in charge of trash cans.
If you mean throwing away all your drama, then yes
Thanks Bob, We need an infield coach specifically for Devers and Bogey if they stay where they are or shift to second or first.
Ham – Bogey has no issues that wouldn’t go away if Devers was the DH. All the bogus metrics are caused by Devers not knowing how to play third and hurting Bogey’s range factor. His fielding percentage is still one of the top ones among the elite shortstops.
Alex must not think very highly of his brother Joey. A little nepotism never hurt anyone.
KD17. I agree that Devers gets in the way a lot but Bogey has always had room to improve. As he ages he’s gonna loose a step too. I almost think Dalbac needs to be given a fair shot at third.
Ham – I love the Dalbec suggestion. A week ago when people were talking about the top shortstops in baseball I posted the top 10 by fielding percentage and Bogaerts was 3rd!! I figure Mayer will play in 2025 if all goes well so Bogey if he’s still with Boston by 2025 can move to 2B or 3B depending the situation. If he’s still hitting well he can slide over to 2B.
Based on Casas’ fall numbers he may be ready sooner rather than later so those two should be the corner infielders for the next decade with Devers at DH, Bogey/Mayer at SS and Kiki/Bogaerts at 2B. Now if the Red Sox can find a long-term controllable CF (hopefully Duran) and corner outfielder to go with Verdugo they might be able to win the AL East again!! OK, they may need a closer too..
KD – Mayer will be up sooner than that, we are talking about a guy who should have been the #1 pick in the draft and has already done well in Rookie League playing against guys 2 years older than him..
Xander came up at 20.
Correa came up at 20.
Seager came up at 21.
ARod came up at 18..
I think Mayer will get a cup of coffee in 2023 and be a regular by 2024.
FPG – He is drafted in 2021 out of high school. Bobby Witt is drafted in 2019 out of high school. Witt got 62 games at AAA in 2021 two years after he was drafted. So Mayer might get some playing time at AAA by 2023. If he’s deemed ready he’ll be brought up prematurely in 2024 to be a regular and probably fail get send back down until he masters AAA and his first full season will be 2025.
Yes, he could fast track things but his ROK numbers don’t suggest it. He had 100 at bats and hit .275 against ROK pitching. 3 HRs 7 SBs OPS .817.
Solid numbers but not great. Sample size too small to make your projection. You are speaking from your heart not his actual performances to date.
Remember why players vary so much with respect to their promotions to the the majors. AROD was a mountain of a player at 18. Probably started taking steroids to build size sophomore year in High School. Mayer doesn’t have AROD’s physique. He’s not as filled out as AROD was at 18.
If he makes it at 20 that should be fine. I’d rather they not rush him like Devers but history shows they will. Let’s hope he adapts quickly so if he comes up in 2024 he gets to make adjustments and has a decent 2025. Otherwise, he comes up mid year 2024 and probably does great then during the off season the pitching book on him gets published and he struggles much like Devers after his quick start in 2017 and his down 2018.
So realistically Mayer will be a rising star by 2026 and a fast starter in 2024 and regresses in 2025 like most rookies going into their second year. It could happen like you expect but to me the odds are against it.
KD – Awesome post as usual. I actually agree with you, comes up to stay in 2024 and does great because opponents don’t know how to pitch to him, regresses a bit in 2025 as opponents expose his weaknesses, then rebounds in 2026 … just like Devers. It could happen.
Xander was the opposite though, his first full year was by far his worst and then he became a star his sophomore year.
I said Mayer would be a regular by 2024, I didn’t say he would be a star that quickly. LOL
FPG – I really hope things work out and baseball is played in 2022 so Mayer can arrive in 2024. What I also wish for is the restructuring of the roster income distribution to stop now before we become a revolving door of utility players and graduating farm players.
During the last decade we graduated lots of guys from the farm system and they were good enough to help contribute to winning rings. The reason that worked out like it did was the other pieces that were acquired along the way. They weren’t utility guys for depth, they were star players like Sale, Price and Kimbrel. Once Papi retired the emphasis shifted from getting quality starting pitchers to finding a replacement bat for Papi. That bat was JD. That led to another ring.
Now the team has lost Mookie and once again is in need for a big bat. Unfortunately, due to all the middle payroll adds the last two years there is no money for a big bat. People need to see that DD had the right idea on how to split his roster. He had 6 elite players making over $15M a year, nearly nobody making $5M to $15M a year and the rest making under $5M a year. By promoting one starter a year out of the farm system the team spread out the arbitration and free agency money jumps. By smoothing the cost growth curve they were in a position to build a window of targeted success. DD’s window was from 2017 to 2022. 2017 could have been a ring if Houston hadn’t cheated. 2018 was a ring. 2019 was a bad manager and injuries.
And then the DD plan got blown up and we’ve had 3 bad seasons in a row without winning the division. The first was from the inept manager and injuries, the second was due to pure stupidity by ownership and the third was because the lost talent never got replaced. As 2022 approaches fans need to see something positive from a talent acquisition stand point. We can’t keep picking up guys like JBJ and Wacha and saying we’ve improved our talent level. That simply isn’t true. The money was available but the distribution of payroll is now so radically different we have less stars and more mediocre players by design. That’s not a design that has ever won. Count the TB World Series trophies as proof.
So here is to a new year where talent is ACTUALLY acquired not discussed and to the Red Sox winning the division again.
Sneaky best hire is new AAA manager Chad Tracy