Zach Bove is the latest new face on the Royals’ coaching staff, as Sports Illustrated’s Pat Ragazzo (Twitter link) reports that Bove is leaving the Twins’ staff to become Kansas City’s new assistant pitching coach. Bove has been in Minnesota for the last four seasons, working in the assistant pitching coordinator role in 2022.
It marks another Royals hire from inside the AL Central, as K.C. just named Brian Sweeney (formerly the Guardians’ bullpen coach) as the team’s new pitching coach earlier this week. Beyond these hirings, the Royals also named Matt Quatraro as their new manager and Paul Hoover is the new bench coach, with both men coming from the Rays organization. Additionally, longtime former Giants coach José Alguacil is coming aboard as the Royals’ new infield coach.
Bove is one of several pitching coaches and coordinators around baseball who came to the majors from the college ranks, as Bove was a pitching coach at the College of Central Florida for seven years before he joined the Twins. With more of a new-school, analytical approach, Bove brings some different perspectives towards the Royals’ stated goal of helping bring their younger pitchers along at the MLB level. Brady Singer pitched well in 2022, but with Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic, and Jackson Kowar all struggling, the Royals haven’t gotten nearly the expected results from the pitchers they thought would be the backbone of the team’s latest rebuild.
No Cal Eldred…sign me up.
Welcome aboard, Mr. Bove!
‘Bove’ sounds like a made up last name that happens when you switch the starting letters of someone’s first and last name.
His ancestor Bill Love got the sheet end of the stick on Ellis island.