The Royals announced two additions to their coaching staff today, with Brian Sweeney being named pitching coach and José Alguacil named infield coach.
Sweeney, 48, is a former big league pitcher, having thrown for the Mariners and Padres over 2003-2006. He went to Japan for three seasons from 2007 to 2009 and came back to the Mariners in 2010. He played a few more seasons in the minors but that was his last stint in the big leagues.
Prior to the 2015 season, he took a pitching coach job in the minor league system of the Phillies. He joined Cleveland’s coaching staff at the big league level going into 2018 and has served as their bullpen coach for the past three years. He’s now been poached by Cleveland’s division rival and will come to Kansas City to serve as the pitching coach. Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports that Royals’ owner John Sherman, who used to be a minority owner of the Guardians, has been “extremely involved” in the process of filling out the coaching staff.
Getting better results from the pitching staff will surely be a primary area of focus for the Royals, as many of their young pitchers have disappointed in recent years. Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic and Jackson Kowar have all struggled in their MLB time so far, despite being first-round draft picks. Those disappointing results have helped lengthen the club’s rebuilding period, with their last season above .500 coming with their World Series victory back in 2015.
They’ve made many changes to try to turn their fortunes around going forward, including firing president of baseball operations Dayton Moore, manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred. General manager J.J. Picollo is now in charge of the front office while Matt Quatraro is now the bench boss. Sweeney will jump onto Quatraro’s staff to replace Eldred.
As for Alguacil, 50, he spent 15 years in the Giants’ organization, taking on various roles including first base coach at the MLB level from 2017 to 2019. He spent last year as a minor league infield coordinator with the Nationals but will now return to the big leagues with the Royals.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Sweeney’s hire prior to the official announcement.
Match Game
Gene Rayburn-This hiring has the recipe for : blank
Charles Nelson Reilly you go first
Uhhh what
Dude, you’re seriously aging yourself. And me, because I know what this means.
I’m 28 and know what it means. Everyone loves the older match game episodes.
I’m 30 and don’t have a clue
Teams just keep taking pitching coaches from Cleveland.
This guy had an illustrious career didn’t he
And your point?
Don’t know anything about him but my hot take is I’m not going to complain about hiring anyone who has been involved with developing pitching for Cleveland.
Good Lord, sounds like John Sherman would rather be loyal than find the best candidate.
If Sweeney is the best, or the best that would go to KC, fune. However, hiring who he knows, instead of the GM, gives me pause.
twentyfivemanroster;
You may want to check out what Matt Blake has done with the Yankees pitching staff, and Ruben Niebla with the Padres – particularly the last half of 2022 as it takes a bit for a pitching coach to take hold with a new team.
If it’s a good hire, great. I just wish owners would let the GM do their job.
Brians Weeney is a good hire, but not as good as Mikes Weeney.