To fill the assistant hitting coach void left behind by Eric Chavez, the Yankees have “cast a wide net” in their search but are looking to hire an experienced former player, Kristie Ackert of The New York Daily News reports. The Yankees’ coaching staff is thin on MLB playing experience, so the club was looking to address that issue by hiring a hitting coach who is well-versed in competing at the Major League level. A 17-year veteran like Chavez would have been a perfect fit, and yet Chavez was only officially a member of the staff for a few weeks before being hired away by the Mets as their new lead hitting coach.
The Yankees had lined up Chavez and Casey Dykes as assistant coaches under lead hitting coach Dillon Lawson, with the trio presenting a varied set of perspectives. Lawson and Dykes each played college ball and have coached at the collegiate and minor league levels, but neither played pro ball. Chavez, meanwhile, has never worked as a coach before, but he was a minor league manager with the Angels and also worked as a special assistant within the Yankees’ and Angels’ front offices, in addition to his lengthy playing career.
One of the names under consideration for the assistant hitting coach job is Mark Trumbo, though it remains to be seen if Trumbo is necessarily interested in the position. A source tells Ackert that it would “take a lot” to convince Trumbo to return to the daily grind of big league life, as he has “settled” into a nice family life after 10 MLB seasons. Trumbo hit .249/.302/.459 with 218 home runs over 4419 career plate appearances, spending four seasons each with the Angels and Orioles while also suiting up with the Diamondbacks and Mariners.
Known for his power, Trumbo led baseball with 47 homers in 2016, resulting in a Silver Slugger Award and one of his two career All-Star nods. Knee problems hampered Trumbo following that big year, however, and he played only 12 games in 2019, which now seems to be his final season. While Trumbo wasn’t ready to officially retire following that abbreviated 2019 campaign, he hasn’t signed anywhere since, and even suggested to The Athletic’s Dan Connolly that a coaching career might eventually be in the cards.
If Trumbull doesn’t work out, here are some notable hitters that retired in 2019 of 2020:
Ben Zobrist
Yonder Alonzo
Mark Reynolds
Curtis Granderson
Martin Prado
Ian Kinsler
Carlos Gomez
Nick Markakis
Ryan Braun
Hunter Pence
Howie Kendrick
Alex Gordon
Dustin Pedroia
Ichiro
Troy Tulowitzki
I doubt Pedroia would suit up as a Yankee…even as a coach
Another one who would be great but wouldn’t work for the Yankees is Chipper Jones. Larry Walker maybe. Someone else mentioned Ichiro, but how good is his English?
hitting does not speak english! A lot of players don’t either.
Speaking only Japanese is going to be a major hindrance to coaching
Another one who would be great but wouldn’t work for the Yankees is Chipper Jones. Larry Walker maybe. Someone else mentioned Ichiro, but how good is his English?
Yonder could barely hit himself. I would hate to see what an entire lineup hit like if they had to learn from him. Ichiro would be interesting. I don’t know if his “hit as many singles as possible* approach would work this day and age though. I hear he could actually hit for power but preferred to take more singles instead. He would probably rather coach in Japan than the US anyway.
Contrary to popular belief, the way a guy produced as a hitter isn’t necessarily the type of hitters he will produce as a coach. If that were the case, then why would guys who weren’t good players make good coaches? It is pretty simpleminded to think it would be the case.
Your right, But there’s a lockout and none of us know what kind of teachers- coaches they would make. But Nick Markakis was a real good professional hitter. Who knows!
Markakis doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy that would want to coach. He seems pretty family oriented and didn’t linger as a player like some do after their prime.
Your probably right, He had his wife and kids around during alot Braves games.
@Chipper Jones’ illegitimate kid
That’s not entirely the same issue though. The ability to teach is one issue. The style of hitting a coach teaches is another.
If, as a player, a coach found success with a particular style of hitting, it’s not unreasonable to expect him to favor that approach when coaching.
When Sonny Gray went to Cincy from New York, he blamed his struggles on the Yankee coaching staff for forcing him to throw a slider he wasn’t comfortable with. With the Reds, he went right back to pitching like an ace.
In 2019, the Padres starters threw the slider 13.8% of the time. During Rothschild’s coaching tenure from 2020 through August 23, 2021, the Padres starters threw sliders 21.8% of the time. SD gave Larry the axe.
I don’t know if Larry favored the slider during his own brief time as a pitcher in the majors, but his preference seems to have been more than just a rumor floated by Sonny.
I could totally see Granderson returning as a coach somewhere.
Granderson recently turned down an interview with the Mets.
Probably just didn’t want to work for the Mets. Might be a good fit for the Yankees
The thing I’ll say about Granderson is he’s a real player-first guy, having been really active with the union and then starting that “Player Alliance” group that advocates for players. He honestly would probably be a good coach but I don’t think that’s where his heart is.
Zobrist is having some weird personal/legal issues, so maybe not yet
Kinsler has a front office gig with the Padres, so I doubt he comes over for an assistant hitting coach role
Prado and Gomez strike me as decent targets. Prado wasn’t successful with the Yankees but he’s bilingual and he was definitely good at his peak. Gomez is also bilingual and has NY experience.
Lol…
Granderson is a great guy and would probably make an outstanding coach but he seems like a more “community” and charity guy than anything else. But who knows?
Take Ichiro off your lengthy wish list. C’mon man, short stint with that team east of the Poconos doesn’t mean he’s enamored. Not everyone is!
Ichiro is with Mariner brass, an assistant.
There is life west of the Poconos. Lots!
Kinsler. His dad’s from the Bronx and he owns a bat company
Brett Gardner… if you get called out on third strike make sure you bang your bat on the roof of the dugout to show your displeasure.
LOL
Mark Reynolds? Is that serious?
Tulo, Prado, Zobrist and Pence seem like they would all be great coaches. I feel like Kinsler would be a good overall coach. I don’t see Zobrist going to the yanks, and I feel like pence would join the Giants first.
What’s Kevin Maas up to these days?
Whatever it is, you can be sure he’s still unable to hit MLB pitching.
Sounds like a good plan to hire Trumbo if they want to continue the three outcomes style of play that they are already doing. Emphasis on striking out. So Judge and Stanton might homer more but strike out a lot more.
You’re assuming a coach only coaches the style he employed as a player.
Marcus Thames did and it showed
Yea too many fans confuse talent and playing style with how a person would be as a coach when they have virtually nothing to do with each other.
Thames lifetime slash line: 249 .302 .459
Trumbo lifetime slash line: 246 .309 .485
Yankees obviously looking to continue a trend with any hitting coaches on the staff
exactly this… let’s get someone who actually made contact to teach bat on ball and getting on base.
It doesn’t work that way. Talent in the field has nothing to do with coaching ability.
There certainly won’t be a shortage of candidates if the pool they’re selecting from are former players. Needs to be the right fit. Someone who can interface with the analytics side.
It would seem this would be a good opportunity for Beltran to step back into the game, but he seemingly wants a manager’s job or a front office job.
Bartolo Colon
For strength ad conditioning coach
How novel
What about Mark Teixeira does he want to get into coaching?
Texeira bad choice… never adjusted to shift… Beltran great choice… he may not want it but $ talks
IIRC, Tex mentioned in a lengthy interview that he was paid as a power hitter was to pull the ball out and not hit singles through the left side.
Same with McCann, @YBC.
Those guys got paid to hit the ball out of the park. They were not compensated like they were in order to go the other way (thus clogging up the basepaths, ect) for a one out single or whatever.
In my eyes he was paid to be a complete hitter and be a true middle order of the bat and continue to be one of the best all around offensive players in the game. I feel like he took it upon himself to act like he got paid to hit HR’s and not worry about anything else. He got his money, got his championship in his first season with the Yanks so lets just call it like it is…..Tex got paid and stopped caring about being an all around player anymore bc he was rich as ish.
I think you are arguing the shape of Texeira’s stat line. The aesthetic.
Mark Texeira career batting average: .268
Mark Texeira career OB%: .360(!)
Now I thoroughly appreciate it is an aesthetically unappealing batting average. & aesthetics are important to me. I make all kinds of choices based on them. Ya know?
Spring goose season is coming up.
I prefer the aesthetic (water/rock/bare trees/me, like a Japanese wood block print…) of rivers as opposed to winter grain fields, uh? & I rarely get shut out. The guys who hunt the fields get shut out all the time. But: they also drop 50/day sometimes. Whereas 10 is a Huge Day for me. But I have a much more picturesque backdrop.
His career OB% is excellent. Tex took his rips when he swung, but that was absolutely what he was supposed to do. Man, he always started so slow. But he showed up to play every game. His efforts on defense & his patient grinding at bats are proof enough of that. Dropping him into 1B/3rd in the order on this particular squad would be transformative.
stop it
Hahaha. The poors always say the darnedest things.
Did they pay him to take pitches?
BobGibsonFan: Baseball is a team game.
The object is to score more runs than the other team. Unless you hit a home run, you can’t score if you’re not on base. So, the answer to your question is: Yes,he was paid to take pitches.
Do you think they pay him to swing at balls off the plate which are difficult to make hard contact on?
Tex can say whatever he wants but that’s a moronic statement by him. I’m sure the team would prefer an opposite field single over a weak groundout to first. His statement shows his arrogance.
And his approach worked very well for him. Changing his approach to improve his Average would cost him power and he was paid for his power + walks (or at least that’s what I think he was saying). I feel you misinterpreted what he was trying to say
Yes hire someone, anyone, but let’s be real- their problem isn’t as much hitting which figures to likely be the same… it’s their continual aversion to securing quality starting pitching that’ll continue to hold them back.
Oddly enough, the opposite was true last year. Indeed, the same can be said for ’22@Sinhalo.
Cole (obviously), Montgomery, Taillon & German all had pretty decent seasons. The latter 3 look to be above average starters. Then we have two differing flavors of wild card: Severino & Cortez. Have some pretty well regarded young arms in AAA too: Gil, Garcia, & Schmidt.
That’s the makings of a pretty good rotation.
Reminds me of last year’s sox starting pitching (4 or 5 guys that give you a chance every night.)
’18-’20 the Yanks reached home plate more than any other team in MLB, man.
Contrast that to last year’s finish of 19th(!) & our shortcomings were mostly due to the offense. Our pitching (both starting & relieving) carried us to 92 wins & the play-in game. *Not* our bats.
This is the reason most of the Yankee guys on the board want to see offense addded way before anything is done with the pitching. Our pitching – for a change – is in pretty good shape moving forward.
Outside of Cole (who was really a 6 inning pitcher) that fizzled in the 2nd half or after the substance crackdown, that gave away the WC game to BOS in 2 innings, Monty was ok, Taillon/German had ERAs over 4… they don’t have any horses. A few bounceback hopefuls, a few prospect hopefuls… nothing you can pencil in with confidence by any stretch. The bats not hitting is on the hitters. They have proven track records of success and need to be better regardless of who is coaching.
The Yankees ranked second in the American League in pitching in 2021. It was their hitting that interestingly failed them.
nothing interesting about it… they strikeout a lot, don’t move base runners when they do get on.
Judge 200k
Stanton 200k
Gallo 200k
Sanchez 200k
That’s just laughable, this lineup has zero chance at a WS
Outside Cole who’s a 6 inning pitcher, not the same after substance crackdown & blew their postseason after 2 innings in the WC against Boston, they have not much really in their rotation. We can say Monty, Taillon, etc were nice lil pitchers but nothing that inspires confidence. Regardless of where they ranked in pitching or hitting Cashman still still still has an aversion to getting the horses they need to make noise.
Cole a 6 inning pitcher……LOL
Thanks for that expert analysis done from afar……and who exactly does have a rotation that “inspires” confidence….in your expert opinion of course!
30 starts, 180 innings, that’s 6 innings/start… don’t be afraid of math kid… plus he tanked after they cracked down on substances so good luck with that. LAD every year has a stable of horses. For 2021- ATL,HOU,STL had rotations absolutely more formidable.
If I’m hiring the next coach, I’m getting a guy like Ben Zobrist. A contact and base hit heavy mentality paired with a heavily analytical and hard hit balls could work extremely well.
If I’m the Yankees I’d like to see if Zobrist willing to come out of retirement. Yankees desperately need more contact hitters
Lololol not to play, he can’t ball anymore
Amazing how the narrative has changed…..now everyone wants contact when we’ve been living in a world of exit velocity, launch angle, and distance balls are hit….and of course hard hit ball statistics…..and basically tons of strikeouts that never are criticized in a world that worships the home run….now all of a sudden, we want a contact, base hit offense that moves runners along.
Would love to see Hendu or JR Phillips get a look.
They need someone with with actual experience. All these analytics based coaches never played pro ball seem to be a problem. Theres still a human element of the game that isn’t tangible to computers. Having coaches that can recognize that is key.
I mean, isn’t every team targeting former MLB players for literally every coaching position in the organization? Little bit of a silly headline.
No.
You should just break down & read the article.
Bernie Williams would be the first call I’d make if I was the Yankees GM.
Bernie seems to like the music career. Doubt he’d want to coach
How about ENDY Chavez? Strikes me as a team-first guy, beloved out in Queens. Recently coached in the Mets’ minor-league system and may still be (not obvious from my quick couple Google searches), so Endy has some experience and likely some interest in a MLB role.
Tulo would be a great choice.
… if you need someone to teach high altitude hitting.
Too bad Paul O’Neill is so comfy in Studio 21 and reportedly has no interest in coaching. Anybody who’s heard his in-game analyses on YES can testify to his spot-on insight into what Yankee hitters are doing wrong when they’re in a slump. I think he’d be an outstanding coach.
Trumbo (I’ve felt even when he was still playing) would make an excellent coach. Surprised he’s not somewhere in the O’s system (though I’m sure he would not take an minor league assignment and they’re staffed at ML level).
Yankees should acquire JBJ from Boston so he can play/coach. Man, that guy can hit. Every time I see JBJ strikeout or pop-up/roll-over to second, I think “the kid’s a natural.”
Trumbo wasn’t the best teammate so I can’t see him being a coach. Vocally complaining about the pies and sunflower seed showers isn’t a great way to endear yourself. Pass.
Is it just me or wouldn’t you want your coach to be a knowledgeable bat-to-ball type of person? I played that knew how to hit well for average?
Not saying he couldn’t be a power hitter, but wouldn’t also like someone with a diverse hitting appetite?
I’m wondering how “smart” it is to hire Chavez as your top hitting coach when he’s never coached hitting before.
Beltran or Jason Giambi would be good gets for the Yankees
They could hire this guy:
Steve later coached in the Kansas City Royals organization, developing their younger hitters. He was coach of the Spokane Indians in 1998 and Wilmington Blue Rocks in 1999-2000. After three years with the Royals, he joined the Montreal Expos organization, where he ran their extended spring training program and managed the Vermont Expos in 2001. Moving to the St. Louis Cardinals’ chain, he was coach of the New Haven Ravens in 2002 and Tennessee Smokies in 2003-2004. As of 2010, Balboni was a major league scout for the San Francisco Giants. He still coaches part time at the Steve Balboni Baseball School and resides in Berkeley Heights, NJ with his wife. He has three sons, all of whom play baseball. His youngest, Matt, was a member of New Jersey’s best American Legion team in state history, the Flor-Mad Royals. Steve helped coach the team in his spare time, and much of the team’s success was attributed to his help as hitting coach.
Nick Punto
Would we see more Trumbombs from the Yankee lineup if Mark was hired?
Someone suggested Zobrist but isn’t he still reeling from his wife’s transgressions that lead him into his sabbatical in his last season on the north side.
When will SOMEONE ask Aaron Boone AND Joe Judge: “What did you think of your team’s execution, Coach?”
“Well, true we’ve been underperforming a bit, yes. But I think executing the players might be a bit extreme.”
Last April, Boone reportedly held a closed-door meeting and reamed his players for poor execution. Google: “Aaron Boone chews out Yankees after brutal loss: ‘He obviously was very upset, and rightfully so’” and “Gerrit Cole reacts to Aaron Boone reaming out Yankees, slow start to season.”
What’s Wade Boggs up to?
Rip
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