The Brewers are shaking up their offensive staff. Milwaukee announced on Monday that they’ve promoted Al LeBoeuf to lead hitting coach. Milwaukee also promoted Eric Theisen to hitting coach. Theisen will work as a co-hitting coach with Connor Dawson, who is returning for a fourth season. Milwaukee has parted ways with former co-hitting coach Ozzie Timmons.
Milwaukee doesn’t technically have any assistant hitting coaches. It seems Dawson and Theisen will essentially work in that capacity while LeBoeuf gets the primary job. It’s the first major league coaching gig for the 64-year-old LeBoeuf, a longtime member of Milwaukee’s minor league ranks. He joined the organization as a Double-A hitting coach in 2010. LeBoeuf worked his way to Triple-A by 2012.
Unfortunately, he experienced crippling lower body pain that year. Testing revealed blood cancer in his left hip. As Adam McCalvy of MLB.com wrote in 2013, the cancer was traced back to a severe bone bruise he’d suffered when he was hit by a pitch while playing in the Phillies’ system back in the mid-1980s. The extremely rare condition slowed LeBouef’s rise up the minor league ranks, but he fortunately beat the disease and worked his way back to coaching Triple-A hitters by 2019.
LeBoeuf has held that role for the past six seasons. He told McCalvy this evening that he recently marked 10 years cancer free and is in “great” health (X link). He’ll now get a long-awaited chance to coach big league hitters. LeBoeuf has already worked with most of Milwaukee’s young core. Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Tyler Black and Brice Turang have all had recent stints in Triple-A. Jackson Chourio essentially skipped the top minor league level, though he did stop there for the final week of 2023.
In addition to his longtime work with Milwaukee, LeBoeuf has coached or managed in the minors with the Phillies, Mets, Royals and Blue Jays. As a player, he topped out at the Triple-A level with the Phils.
Theisen also worked as a co-hitting coach in Triple-A this past season. A former college pitcher with Illinois State, Theisen joined Milwaukee’s minor league ranks in 2021. He has spent the past three seasons as a minor league hitting coordinator in addition to his work as Triple-A hitting coach. This’ll be his first job on a major league staff.
Timmons moves on after three seasons. He had worked on Kevin Cash’s staff with the Rays for a few years before taking the Milwaukee job. The Brewers were an above-average offensive team this year. Milwaukee turned in a .246/.326/.403 batting line. They placed in the top 10 in batting average and on-base percentage while ranking 13th in slugging. They finished sixth in runs scored.
JUST DO IT! – Shia LeBoeuf
Beat me to it!
LMAO Was gonna make the same joke
Where’s the beef? Milwaukee.
Transformers GO!
Michael Bay has entered the chat!
Big fan of the Brewers organization. Love to see baseball lifers promoted.
“They placed in the top 10 in batting average and on-base percentage while ranking 13th in slugging. They finished sixth in runs scored.”
There’s a lesson to be learned in those 2 sentences…..which speaks volumes about the Brewers FO, manager, and coaches.
Look at you, sounding like a roto-league enjoyer. Fraud! You said batting average, obp, and slugging were meaningless. It was about grit, hustle, and melanin content.
Also, you mentioned phrenology and how you can’t play baseball with the brain pan of a stagecoach tilter
Steve Adams’ Mom;
LOL
I never wrote that. I wrote that stats often misrepresent things and that Baseball IQ and actions on the field counts……and have written that here for over 10 years.
And if you understood my last sentence you wouldn’t have written what you wrote.
LMFAO
Translated, his name means The Boeuf.
Actually, it would be “The Beef”.
I know, but the correct translation takes the fun out of it.
Al LeBoeuf’s life sounds like a true testament to determination and persistence. Hope he does well and he stays healthy. I’m a little surprised though that they let go of Ozzie Timmons in light of how well the offense did this season.
Shouldn’t be surprised once you understand the Brewers’ recent history of having a melanin quota limit in the dugout or clubhouse. This past season was a good example of their exceeding that “limit” regularly and being fun to watch.
Judging by the wording, I’m guessing Timmons contract was up? I wonder if the Brewers tried to retain him.
He was great in Titanic.
I’m just wondering how many of Milwaukee’s coaches that Counsell is going to want to add for the Cubs this off season? If I’m not mistaken, Coaches contracts run out the same time as players do right after the WS. I know most of the coaches from the Brewers had one year left on their deals when Counsell left. Heck this is FA time for them too. I would love to see Hottovy back but I’ve heard no word on whether he and Counsell get along or not but he’s still here. It could get interesting again. CC has mostly cleared the deck, Let the coaching games begin.
Pat Murphy is definitely a Hero of mine!!
So they have a Lead Hitting Coach and two regular Hitting Coaches? How many managers are they going to have? 3rd base coaches? Is this just a cynical way to make sure other teams always need permission to talk to their coaches since a Hitting Coach job with a normal operation technically wouldn’t be a promotion? Some club would have to create a President of Hitting Operations job to get the interview. JC.
They kinda did have 2 managers last season. Murphy and M.I.T. Rickie Weeks.
Then again, could say they had 2 the entire time Counsell was there, with Murphy in the background.