Bryan Price is stepping down from his role as the Giants’ pitching coach, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reports.
From 2001-2013, Price worked as a pitching coach for the Mariners, Diamondbacks, and Reds. He took over as the Reds’ manager for the 2014 season and held that position until April 2018, when he was fired following a disastrous start to the season. He briefly returned to coaching after that, serving as the Phillies’ pitching coach for one year, before announcing his retirement from coaching following the 2020 season. However, he worked as a senior advisor to the Padres’ coaching staff from 2022 to ’23, and when long-time friend Bob Melvin moved from the Padres to the Giants, he convinced Price to come out of retirement and join him in the Bay Area.
The veteran coach explained to Baggarly that his return to the dugout was always meant to be a short-term arrangement. To that point, the Giants offered him a two-year contract last winter, but he requested a one-year deal. Price was born in San Francisco and couldn’t refuse the offer to coach for the team he grew up supporting.
It certainly wasn’t an easy season for Price, who had to deal with Blake Snell’s early-season injury woes, closer Camilo Doval’s unforeseen struggles, and Jordan Hicks’s difficult transition from reliever to starter to reliever again, among other problems. Still, the season wasn’t without its bright spots, most notably Ryan Walker’s breakout as a relief stud and Snell’s resurgence in the second half of. All things considered, the Giants’ pitching staff was slightly worse in 2024 than it was the year before – their ERA, FIP, and xFIP were all closer to league average – despite several notable additions in Snell, Hicks, and Robbie Ray. That’s not to say Price is to blame for all (or even most) of what went wrong, but it’s not as if Giants fans were begging him to stick around for another year.
It’s unclear if this is a proper and complete retirement for Price, or if he still plans to work in an advisory capacity with the Giants or another club. As for his replacement, Baggarly notes that Ryan Vogelsong, currently a roving minor-league instructor in the organization, is expected to have “an instrumental voice in the organizational pitching hierarchy.” That could mean helping to select Price’s replacement or filling the role himself. Baggarly also mentions that assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez and bullpen coach Garvin Alston are expected to return in 2025; if the Giants are considering internal candidates, either of them could be up for the job. Finally, Baggarly names Javier López, who is currently working as a color commentator on the Giants’ broadcast team. While Baggarly does not necessarily suggest the 14-year MLB veteran is a candidate for the pitching coach position, he writes that López could one day “transition into a role” in the front office or on the coaching staff.
B-Price’s 77 F Bombs to weigh in soon….
I’m sure Reds fans miss him in the dugout!
I kid, but I will say, he was fun to watch, the dude was his own entertainment show.
Brent Strom can keep up with him. He’s an F’er.
Strom’s also a spooner.
My man! Good luck in retirement
Sometimes the price is not right, but that’s the life of Bryan. Giants have a ray of hope for next year, but it’s a tangled Webb.
*applauds*
Ooof!
He probably prefers to spend the 10th anniversary of his profanity-fueled post game tirade in which he dropped 77 f-bombs (4.15.15) in the peace and comfort of his own family.
that’s so correct!
bummer, really liked him.
Andrew Baggarly’s reporting just keeps getting worse and worse. How is the story of the 2024 SF pitching staff even mentioning Robbie Ray who made all of 7 starts.
Big picture, the SFG season would have been sunk very early when they suffered a rash of injuries where they went multiple turns thru the rotation with only 2 starters (Webb, Hicks) and managed to stay afloat, Melvin/Pryce certainly deserve some credit there.
I don’t believe when they drew it up, they had Hicks making 20 starts but he did and for the first two months showed very good stuff. Where’s the comments about Hayden Birdsong and his 16 starts?? I thought Harrison’s 1st full year was ok, in a perfect world his IP would have gotten a little higher but like Birdsong he’s 22yo too.
Clearly Bag’s is still smarting from his Chapman signing story having a lot of inaccuracies and being disproven. It seems like the reporting of anything owned by the NY Times is turning to trash.
I think your criticism applies mostly to MLBTR’s writing. If you read Baggarly’s article, it puts less emphasis on Ray than this site’s post.
I agree about a decline in both Baggs and The Athletic, but this isn’t an example of that
I misread where the quotes to Bags ended and MLBTR reporting began. It does go to show how easy it was for me to think those were Bag’s words. I couldn’t justify the subscription for just mostly Keith Law content so I cancelled last renewal and can no longer read the Athletic content.
In general my take on the SFG season was their inconsistent offense and at times sloppy/inconsistent play on defense hurt them far more than the pitching staff where in reality only Doval was the under-performer.
I don’t see that any of Bagg’s story about the Capman signing was inaccurate. There was momentary push back for PR reasons from the club,but all reports and the aftermath completely support Baggersley’s story.
I agree Pete. I at first criticized Baggs. “unnamed” or “reliable” sources that Baggs referred to made me doubt the validity. BUT as you say Pete follow up articles have validated Baggs. Jackcoke must’ve missed these articles.
The blow back on Bag’s was he never spoke with Boras and the idea that possibly in an effort to be first/early part his story was incomplete as in pertained to Farhan’s health/hospitalization.
The point being the story broke, there’s no “retractions” after the fact, just follow ups however the initial narrative of what went down sort of stays in the ether. This is especially true for content behind a paywall that gets heavy referenced and decimated in the public arena. The follow up is in essence old news.
Oddly enough and it’s crazy I’m typing this, Twitter’s Community Notes by being tagged to an original article as a standalone work to some degree. Now that place is still a dumpster fire of bots and grifters especially the “For You” curranted tab SMH. I’ll still to my “follows” of comedians, music venues, food trucks and MLBTR
I never understood the value of a pitching coach. If you can’t pitch, you don’t belong in the majors.
I would argue that the pitching coach is the most importantly coach on the team perhaps after the manager. If you do a google search for what a MLB pitching coach does, you will see that they help a pitcher avoid injuries, increase velocity and digest scouting reports if opposing hitters. Guys like Nolan Ryan have said that a new pitching coach completely turned their career around for the better.
yeah they also work with mechanics and help them correct when they see a shoulder flying out, things that could be tipping, not repeating properly, etc. there is a whole lot more to pitching than just how hard you throw or spin the ball or whether you can hit a spot that the catcher puts up
Like hitting coaches, they all say virtually the same thing, it is just whether it resonates with the ears listening.
not nowadays. nowadays hitting coaches work with mechanics and analytics in a pretty massive way.. when the giants had more hitting coaches I think it was to their advantage because you can get more granular and it showed from 2020-2021, after 2021 they started losing guys to attrition and not replacing them
I never understood the value of a bench coach. Sounds like some Mitch Hedberg joke. “Bench, you be comfortable. I want to relax on you”. “You provided me with sufficient comfort. I am a great coach”.
Bench coach important as a second set of eyes-and-ears for the manager to utilize. Bounce ideas off of. They are typically older and been around the game forever and have seen everything under the sun that could happen in baseball. It does seem like bench coaches are going away though. When most decisions are coming down from the analytics dept and the quants, front offices see less of a need for one.
He did alright all things considered
It was obvious that the studs, Snell and Webb, were on their own all season. Harrison looked lost and Hicks was asked to do too much too soon. Plus his/Melvin’s handling of Doval was atrocious. Hopefully, Melvin has run out friends whom he wants to employ.
Very clueless EBJ and based on your own assumptions.
Price wasn’t much of a manager. But he’s earned rave reviews as a pitching coach.
Price: Here’s the Grip, Tilt and Wrist action of the Roger Beshens Football Slider, I’m going to lunch, see you after the game. You can get the Velo, Vert and horizontal on baseball savant and I will catch up with you next start. Don’t listen to the PT guy after you throw a 100 pitches I want you to rest your arm for 1 day. Rest never killed an arm. Doing band pulls the next day after a 100 keeps the Pt’s and Doctor Neal Reattachment in business.
Will never post here again
Sign Strom for 2 years, have Roger Beshens help pitchers understand and modify adjustments to his Football Slider.
That’s good enough to get to the playoffs and anything can happen.
If Vogelsong met Roger Beshens at Kutztown when he got drafted, Vogy would be a household name. Beshens lived right down Route 22 in Catasauqua. Braves Joe Caputo scouted Roger Beshens in Egypt PA in 1985 Blue Mt League game, with that slow black Decatur Ra-Gun Joe had Roger at 85 mph and Bobby Malkmus of the Indians had him 91 on the jugs gun. The Decatur raygun had a slower acquisition speed and picked the ball up around 5 feet from the plate ball already slowed up 5 miles an hour.
Roger Beshens could have taught Vogelsong his football slider if they met way back Never did. Now Vogy teaches it and wishes he knew it when he pitched.
Beshens saw Russ Ortiz, Mike Remlinger, Estes, Randy Johnson at Fischers in Scottsdale around 2005. Didn’t tell Ortiz or any of them his Football Slider then. If Roger Beshens told MLB his Football slider in 2005 then the Football Slider revolution in MLB would have started then.
Voglesong is a household name!
Signed, Mr and Mrs Voglesong.
Glad for his success, but he didn’t know the Roger Beshens Football Slider and if he did he would have hundreds of more strikeouts and a reputation throwing it.
By the way Lehigh’s Mason Black would never have been drafted if he didn’t learn the Roger Beshens Football Slider. Coach Sean Leary learned it from Roger in 2019.
Ryan is not publicly known.
What a HUGE loss! (Dripping in Sarcasm)
Bryan Price’s countless resignations are getting old. He’s a decent pitching coach but an atrocious manager. The problem is he does not understand this.
So if he’s on a 1yr contract after turning down 2yrs, isn’t the proper characterization his contract expired and he’s retiring? I mean I guess technically if he’s contract goes thru the WS he resigned.
The only thing I could figure was they wished to get his successor under contract (J.P. Martinez). Prior to returning to the dugout in 2024, he’d been in the front office with SD and hadn’t been in a dugout since 2019. MLB travel is not easy, certainly after you not done it for 5 years.
Righetti
Spaghetti
JP Martinez, another pitcher who never pitched in the Major Leagues cause he didn’t know the Roger Beshens Football Slider.
Will tell his pitchers throw the Roger Beshens Football Slider here’s his Grip, Tilt and Wrist action, On center grip, throw like Football, Stiff Wrist.
I”m going home now job is done. Be back for a repeat tomorrow.
Email Beshens about the key adjustments that I don’t know about cause I never threw pitch 15000 time like him.
If your RB Football Slider misses 3 times in a row same place, give Beshens a call he will tell you the adjustment.