The Pirates will be hiring Kristopher Negron as their new bench coach and Tony Beasley as the third base coach, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Negron has been on the Mariners’ coaching staff for the last four seasons, while Beasley returns to the Pirates organization after spending over a decade with the Rangers.
After concluding his six-year MLB playing career, Negron took on an assistant role in Seattle’s player development department in 2020 and then was the manager at Triple-A Tacoma in 2021. He was then promoted to the big league staff as the first base coach before acting as the Mariners’ third base coach in 2025.
Negron (who turns 40 in February) now takes on his highest-profile coaching job yet, as Don Kelly’s chief lieutenant. Kelly was Pittsburgh’s bench coach himself when he was promoted to the manager’s job in May when Derek Shelton was fired, and though Gene Lamont essentially filled the bench coach role in a capacity as an advisor to Kelly, the position wasn’t officially filled until now.
Beasley is a familiar face in Pittsburgh, having spent six seasons with the Bucs as a minor league player and then several seasons as a manager, coach, and instructor at both the minor and Major League levels. Beasley’s previous stint on Pittsburgh’s MLB staff came in 2008-10, when was the club’s third base coach.
Once that stint ended, Beasley moved on to four years in the Nationals’ farm system as a manager and instructor before he joined the Rangers as their third base coach prior to the 2015 season. Beasley’s time in Texas included a World Series ring with the 2023 team and a 48-game stint as interim manager in 2022 after Chris Woodward was fired.
Negron and Beasley are the latest new faces on a revamped Pittsburgh coaching staff, as Bill Murphy was also hired as the new pitching coach a few weeks ago. The Pirates liked enough of what they saw from Kelly to give him a contract extension at season’s end, and the skipper is now apparently getting some input in reshaping his staff. In a sense there’s nowhere to go but up for a team that has endured seven straight losing seasons, and still hasn’t gotten out of rebuild mode despite the presence of Paul Skenes and an overall enviable amount of pitching depth.
Liking what I’m seeing so far with change with the Buccos. Now it’s time to change to the roster to support the excellent pitching staff⚾
At least they are changing. That is a good sign.
Our teams are similar in that if they just had the offense to go with that pitching….
Yes, but if history is any indication, it’s window dressing. They’ve wasted two seasons of Skenes. Why do I think they’ll only sign or trade for scrap that won’t change much where their hitting woes are concerned?
But yeah, if either of these guys can get into Cruz’s head alone, it’ll be a win
As I said our teams are similar. 😁
I agree with you WUOT but only to a certain extent.
Nutting invested millions of his own money to develop the area around the stadium with the goal that the fans would be willing to spend their money at the establishments before and after the games
The only way that can happen is if they put a competitive team on the pitch and attendance increases
I tend to think it’s going to be different next season
That is one beautiful stadium. I hope that succeeds. Nice to hear they are developing around it. The Reds have the same around their ballpark and those establishments get a lot of business.
I wish I shared your optimism. Maybe it won’t be Pham or Frazier this winter, but I’m betting it won’t be much better
Paul-hope springs eternal
I think the single best thing that happened is the rumor about Skenes wanting to go to the Yankees. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll wake Nutting up
If it is like when Elly said LA was his city, probably not. It didn’t wake anyone up here.
That rumor was never really confirmed about Skenes wanting to go to the Yankees and from what I’ve read Skenes has had talks with Cherington about his unhappiness regarding the lack of offense last season
It was primarily Skenes that the decision not to bring back Oscar as pitching coach so maybe his influence is more important than what we’ve anticipated
Unsubstantiated or not, hopefully it got the attention of Nutting. Would be wonderful if they signed a couple legitimate bats. Guess we’ll see
Here’s the thing I laugh about. You’ll have some people saying free agents don’t want to play here. First off, show them the money. That’ll change many if not most perceptions. But beyond that, you’re gonna tell me players don’t want to play behind Skenes, Keller, Bubba and a host of good arms coming up here? I just don’t believe that one. And at PNC?
It’s always about the money. And yes, Cherington has failed in his job where development of position players are concerned but the problem here remains a profit-obsessed owner
Maybe he’s had some epiphany. Believe it when you see it
Negron was a player in the Reds organization at one time. Smart player who just couldn’t stick in the bigs. I wish him well in his coaching career.
Thanks. I was confused, thinking Negron was a member of Three Dog Night and Smart was the drummer for some band I’ve forgotten.
I was distracted after noticing that the Guardians had hired the sax player from Roxy Music.
You might be thinking of Norman D. Smart, who played drums for Mountain at Woodstock and frequently worked with Todd Rundgren in the 70s.
I thought Negron played the pizza guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Wrong Negron. I’m sure Chuck’s mom would’ve told him not to come to Pittsburgh but lament that one is the loneliest number so he should take the gig
Who knows, maybe he’ll get the Pirates on the road to Shambala
You guys will like Negron. Players like him and pretty smart. He will add now if you can build around Skenes.
Another coach leaving the Mariners. What’s going on?
Must be the constant gloom and rain in Seattle lol. (Our city isn’t much different)
Won’t matter if we continue to sign the same expired retreads on the cheap
Pirates can’t sign Michael A. Taylor, he’s off the board.
Pirates 3rd base coaching job has to be one of the easiest in the MLB. He’s going to be a lonely guy at 3rd
Can either of them play 2nd base?
Well, they both used to play 2B as players: Negron made 29 appearances at 2B out of 170 big league games, and Beasley was primarily a 2B during his 10 year minor league playing career.
So, yes.
They must work cheap!!
I really, really liked Negron and how he seemed to have a great rapport with each player. I knew a team was going to snatch him up for a promotion.
Old friend Connor Joe is still a FA
there’s a valid reason why he’s still a free agent