The Cubs are making some coaching changes, as relayed by Jesse Rogers of ESPN on X. The club is letting go of first base coach Mike Napoli, assistant hitting coach Jim Adduci, bullpen coach Darren Holmes and “a couple of strength coaches.”
All three of the coaches are former major league ball players. Napoli was in the majors from 2006 to 2017, mostly as a catcher and first baseman. After retiring, he joined the Cubs’ coaching staff going into the 2020 season as quality assurance coach. He became the club’s first base coach going into the 2022 season.
Adduci’s major league career spanned from 2013 to 2019, but with a two-year stint in the KBO sandwiched in there, as he played in Korea in 2015 and 2016. The Cubs hired him going into 2021 with the title of run production coordinator, though his current title is listed on MLB.com as “assistant hitting coach, game planning.”
Holmes pitched in the majors from 1990 to 2003. He has worked as a bullpen coach for multiple organizations in recent years, taking that title with the Rockies from 2015 to 2019, the Orioles from 2020 to 2023 and the Cubs in 2024.
The Cubs hired Craig Counsell to be their manager in November of last year. His first season in Wrigley resulted in a record of 83-79, the same mark the club posted last year. It’s always difficult to tell how much blame/credit should go to any individual coach when staffs are composed of dozens of people, but it seems Counsell and the Cubs have decided to make a few changes as they look to take a step forward next year.
Yeah sure… Napoli, Aducci and Holmes were the problem – not the underachieving players and severly overrated ‘manager’
It’s called a new manager hiring the coaches he wants. It’s a common and expected thing. Get over it
Both can be true.
It is curious to me why they kept the coaches on last year in the first place. I guess the cubs didn’t want to pay buyouts or contract terminations?
@kscheer:
Maybe they wanted a year to evaluate the coaches?
No they kept the Coaches because Counsell’s coaches from Milwaukee all had 1 year left on their contracts and the Brewers would only let them leave if Murphy didn’t want them. He kept them all. This off season is a whole different story. So stay tuned. Not sure when Coaches contracts end but that might be an interesting day.
It will be interesting to watch. However, I also find it interesting that Counsell left the Brewers for the Cubs, yet the Brewers still managed to win without him., while the Cubbies didn’t win with him. Always the “Debbie Downer,” I’m not convinced his hiring was a good one. Time will tell.
I think Counsell is a good manager. He did more with less in Milwaukee than Ross did in Chicago. That being said there is only so much impact a manager can have. The Cubs brought back 90% of the previous roster and expecting significantly better results was pretty naive. For a big market team their largest contract is still Heyward 184MM. You need a superstar or two in this day and age. We will see when the Cubs finally decide to pony up for a legit superstar.
He’s probably a Sox fan and trolls the cubs
You can be a troll and still be right. Counsell is HORRIBLE. Milwaukee didn’t win because of him, they won in spite of him. Until they have a REAL manager they WILL NOT win. Do the real Cubs fans a favor Craig, RESIGN.
You should fully capitalize more words so people really know how right and smart you’re pretending to be.
Blame the failure on Jed Hoyer. The guy who has made a career on Theo Epsteins coattails is a poor President of Baseball Operations
Just because a coach is let go doesn’t mean they were “the problem”. Perhaps they weren’t a great fit with the team and they have someone else in mind.
It is debatable whether Counsell is overrated but are you questioning whether he is actually a manager with those apostrophes?
The biggest thing to remember in all of this: Craig Counsell is just one person. His success with the Brewers was not entirely about things he directly did. He was part of an organization. The Brewers are a pretty solid organization as evidenced by their success. If the Cubs want the value he brings, then you also need to honor his perspective on how to build a coaching staff. That might mean some changes, but if you’re committing so significantly to Counsell, why would you then kneecap him by not letting make coaching staff changes when he has his first full opportunity to do so? Also: I’ve still got to believe there are people with the Brewers he’s wanted to bring over but couldn’t last year as some were under contract. All the more reason to root for the Brewers to be bounced from the postseason as quickly as possible so the Cubs can begin to explore possible hires.
I want the Brewers bounced from the post season just because I do not like them, period, but I get the point. 🙂
You know nothing about baseball!! It’s about the manager hiring his OWN coaching staff.
He’ll have a place Boston whenever he’s ready. Just keep him off of Boylston St, away from Fireball Shots and please please keep his shirt on.
Very intelligent comment
-said nobody
Very weird response to a comment
-said me.
Seriously, everything okay dude?
Angels could throw the fans a bone and bring in Napoli. Before everyone leaves forever.
To late… that franchise is a black hole. White Sox have more going for them than the Angels.
At this point they could use his bat in the lineup
Hold on hold on wait a minute wait a minute the Cubs over rate someone? Corey Patterson will be a 5 tool future Hall of Famer one day
Stop it. You go back to Corey Freaking Patterson for that insult? I’m sure the Cubs aren’t the only team to have top prospects not work out.
LOL @ cubs and counsell.
Brewers won without him. Mgrs are typically, overrated.
Didnt even know napoli was a 1b coach. Come back to texas as ambassador of fun.
Ah yes.. “LOL”.. The last refuge of the dumb trying to sound smart..
Rondon — the last refuge of trying to be a hardass behind a keyboard
Bravely written.
No doubt a different first base coach will produce ten more wins.
They want a 1st base coach that isn’t going out and getting drunk with the players. They’re looking for an adult
The people that run this site should give us the option of a down vote without muting someone.
All of these bizarre coaching positions leaves one’s head spinning.
When in doubt fire the Italians
It was the beard.
Hand up here, Uncle. Fully expected to see Willie Harris’ name on the list. Wasn’t wishing ill—but wasn’t part of Counsell’s group…and the amount of guys thrown out had to be at the top of baseball.
Just listened to Jed’s press conference—lot of stock, expected stuff–but not having a timeline on Ben Brown at this point is quite discouraging…even with Opening Day half a year away.
Pure Pablum. Like I said, I’d be more interested in what Ricketts had to say. Or to hear Hawkins say anything. Willie is a fan favorite and a good 3B coach. Not sure why they’d get rid of him but it ain’t over yet. What happened to Keegan Sunday? I missed all of that and nobody said anything about it.
He stepped funny on his delivery. Maybe a twisted ankle? Maybe the front of his ankle?
Thanks. At least his arm didn’t fall off or explode or something.
On Keegan—-my son and I have been looking since Sunday. To the untrained, naked eye—it looked like a blown or pretty damaged achilles. Obviously, not much reason to report on that since it’s not gonna affect the roster until February.
Hey Greg, you can take the hitting coaches you hired in milwaukee
Who’s Greg?
Party at Napoli’s
WTF is a “run production coordinator”? Call me naive or old fashioned but I always thought that was part of being a manager.
Unfortunate that Blue Jays legend Mike Napoli was fired 🙁
Always the coaches, never the front office.
Unless the front office is going out drinking with players, as Napoli was rumored to have done.
Yup, it was all there fault ! Cherry pickin which coaches remain n who’s overstayed there welcome cause sh#t rolls down stream.
Forgot to get rid of Counsell.
Don’t forget GM and the manager.
Darren Holmes can come back and coach the bullpen in Baltimore again…..
Napoli will be end up back with Ross wherever he ends up as a manager. Ross will poach a couple of current Cubs coaches, maybe the pitching coach. Counsell was a waste of money.
The Cubs demise last two years can mainly be attributed to their bullpen. It took til June to straighten out the pen each year. Jed thinks he is so smart and can build a bullpen without allocating any money. Pretty sure the last Cubs reliever signed to a multi year deal was Brian Duensing! That’s comical. Now that the Cubs found success with guys like Tyson Miller and Javy Lopez and Merryweather year prior they’ll continue this same approach and it will bury them to start the season as usual.
It makes sense to me that because he was hired so late, they had to go with what they had when the season started. This is only his first offseason to have any say.