Two members of the Cubs’ coaching staff won’t be back in 2024, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link) reports that bullpen coach Chris Young and game strategy/catching coach Craig Driver have been let go. Both coaches had been on the Cubs’ staff for the last four seasons, though Driver had previously worked as the catching coach and first base coach in 2020 and 2021.
While coaching turnover is common after every season, it is quite possible Young’s departure could be tied to the collapse of the Cubs’ bullpen down the stretch. Chicago’s 7-15 record over its last 22 games was marked by several late-game blowups, making for one of the shakiest months of relief pitching in recent franchise history.
The Cubs were missing several of their top relievers (Adbert Alzolay, Michael Fulmer, Brad Boxberger) to some or most of September due to injuries, so while the fault can hardly all be directed at Young, it could be that upper management felt a change was needed. Since the start of Young’s first season in 2020, the Cubs have had one of the less-impressive bullpens in the sport, though it is again hard to gauge Young’s effectiveness considering how the Cubs were in semi-rebuild mode for at least half of his tenure.
Young previously worked with the Phillies as an assistant pitching coach beginning in the 2017 season, then as the lead pitching coach in 2019 before being fired at season’s end. Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Young had worked as a scout and scouting supervisor in the Astros and Padres organizations for eight seasons, and also pitched for seven seasons in the minors and in independent baseball.
Driver also worked with Young in Philadelphia, as Driver was the Phillies’ bullpen catcher and receiving coach in 2018-19. That marked Driver’s first job with a Major League team following a long collegiate career in various coaching roles.
The only 2 Chris Youngs to play in MLB were Chris Young (starter) and Chris B. Young, the 20-20 outfielder. What’s this guy’s middle initial?
“FIRED “
Brilliant. Blame the bullpen coach for Ross mismanaging the ‘pen all year long. SMH.
That’s the Ross and Hoyer way, always deflecting, trying to keep their jobs while blaming someone else
What so many people continue – over and over – to forget – – is that there is a GM between Hoyer and Ross.
I’ll believe that when Hoyer stays in the background and Hawkins starts talking. Until then he’s just GM in name only. As long as Hoyer is the one shooting his mouth off all the time it’s obvious he’s running the whole show.
“Shooting his mouth off”, really! SMH.
When’s the last time you heard Hawkins say……….Well anything frankly? Watch when the League has the GM meetings and see who shows up for the Cubs. He’s an Assistant GM with a title.
They should of been fired long before when Tallion and Wisnecki (how ever its spelled) were pitching like they were lost.
The bullpen coach is to be blamed for starting pitching? Also, Wesneski was pretty good out of the pen.
Wesneski isn’t a starter, he’s a “stuff” pitcher. The guy has some of the nastiest breaks in the league but he cannot locate it. As a reliever, he is fine, his arm slot, velocity and movement give hitters a different look and he can take advantage of that for an inning or two but he cannot rely on “stuff” as a starter.
Tallion’s issue falls more on the coaching staff trying to get him to learn and use the sweeper. He developed it this past offseason, it looked good in the spring but he got tee’d off on when he tried using it during the season.
Nah… His sweeper graded as really good… His 4 seamer was getting crushed.
But Taillon was very good in the 2nd half, so whatever it was, it got fixed.
I wouldn’t call Taillons 2nd half performance anything close to “very good “. I’d just say that it was better or maybe improved.
When Taillon stopped using that ” Sweeper” pitch that hardly ever generates swings and went back to throwing his curve instead he was very good and the pitcher he was when they signed him. I think he’s a candidate for a big rebound next year. If he improves his change he could win a lot of games.
drasco, you are describing Carlos Marmol.
Driver did a good job in Philly by all indications. Wouldn’t mind him coming back.
That should put the Cubs over the top
What precisely does a “game strategy coach” do? “This game is important, guys, so we have to outscore the opponent”?
When Ross is ‘Managing’, a game strategy coach becomes very relevant. Next they need a ‘Lineup’ coach.
Whoever made the decisions to keep writing in Hosmer (anywhere in the lineup), and playing Mancini anywhere on defense – was the party that was responsible for the Cubs not making the playoffs. And also really not still being sure what they could have in Mervis.
the cubs made some blaffing decisons throughout the yr such as:
1. Not bringing Morel up till middle may
2. Playing him actually in the outfield losing many games
3. Playing Hosmer and Mancini so much
4. Sending down Mervis
5. Batting Mastroboui at 1 for a month where he was hitting .100 during that time
6. Keeping Ian Happ batting at 4 while he looked lost vs lefties at the end of the season
7. Pulling starters way too early and way too late.
Ill keep going but I gtg
Ross should be gone, he’s fkn clueless, fire BPcatcher , yea that was the reason. It wasn’t wisdom an mastraboni sucked ass
Except Mastrobuoni batted over .300 in the second half, including when he filled in for Madrigal the last three weeks of the season.
Problem is Ross was a terrible manager. He couldn’t manage the pen before Alzolay became the closer and couldn’t manage it after he went down. He constantly played Wisdom against lefties when he was equally bad vs lefties as righties and his defense was awful no matter where he played.
There were some real problems with the Cubs bullpen this year but Chris Young wasn’t one of them. He’ll have no problem finding a job. The bullpen collapse was more of Hoyer not adding at the deadline( Cuas? Really? ), Than CY. Boxberger was never a factor and Fullmer was bad, then good, Then hurt. Alzolay was overused then hurt and so were Leiter and Merryweather. Young didn’t pick who to pitch and when. That was Ross. Hoyer better figure it out this winter. Driver was just a scapegoat and token firing.
Unc, not to argue – but don’t you think that Hawkins played a big role (isn’t that his job?), in deciding roster makeup? Hoyer probably should have allowed his new GM latitude in those calls.
Cuas was a solid pick up but Ross, as with most relievers, misused him. Cuas is a great guy to bring in to give hitters a different look, it takes time for them to adjust to that arm angle and the funk. However, you should never use Cuas for two innings and you should avoid allowing the same hitters to see him twice in a series and definitely not on consecutive days.
Cuas would have been a perfect target had the Cubs either also added a high leverage arm in trade or brought up Little or Brown pre-deadline to see if they had the make-up to be a high leverage guy down the stretch.
Ross made so many mistakes down the stretch that I have zero confidence in him coaching in a playoff game (admittedly never liking him to begin with). I can’t believe he never gave Little a chance to prove himself when he was burning through the same guys and those guys were coughing it up every single game. I can’t believe he pulled Assad from the starting rotation to put him in the pen when Stroman hadn’t pitched in so long and didn’t get spun up.
Ross’s entire end of the season was a guy so afraid to lose he couldn’t win. He was afraid to manage the players, I.e. giving Merrifield a low leverage outing after a couple high stress outing where he struggled. Not managing Smylys workload when he was clearly burning out. Skipping Taillon in a series when he was pitching well and Steele was struggling. Ross’s handling of the staff was an embarrassment as was the pen. His lineups were equally bad, refusing to use Canario and/or PCA when the team was struggling but using Wisdom? The obvious move when Candalario came back was to play Bellinger at first and Candy at third while either utilizing PCA in center for his ridiculous defensive value or Canario at DH
Ross’s strength is putting the team in a position to lose
I guess if those two coaches were the ones responsible for Cub’s relievers throwing meatballs down the middle they should be fired.
I’m a Cardinals fan I’ll throw that out there so you understand my possible ignorance in asking a couple questions with no disrespect intended. Did Cubs fans expect the team to perform the way they did prior to the “collapse”? If not does the “collapse” warrant these two firings? They are honest question’s because I saw the Cardinals contending and the Cubs in our position at the seasons start so it’s hard for me to fault coaches who kept the team in it as long as they did. I didn’t see Bellingers year coming however but he’s just one player. Either way it feels like scapegoating. So a bullpen that at least held it together and a catching/game strategy(I blame manager for strategy ultimately btw not that I blame Ross) for the better part of the season all of a sudden suck at their jobs? I don’t like the Cubs but I give them credit for what they did this year I don’t see it as some huge blunder. Bad slump at a bad time
Hey Seth,
I can’t speak for all Cubs fans, especially since most are negative, but I did expect them to be as good as they were last season.
My pre-season prediction was a floor of 81 wins and a ceiling of 90 if a couple things happened, Steele continued his 2022 post Lester talk dominance, which he did. Hendricks bounced back, also did, and if Bellinger played closer to his MVP level, which again, he did.
Those three, with the addition of having the strongest middle infield defense, would/did more than offset the Smyly signing, which I hated as well as equally hating the Mancini signing (I was in favor of Hosmer as a bridge).
I didn’t expect Thompson to be bad but that was negated by Lieter. Everyone but Ross knew Alzolay should have been tabbed the closer for the jump.