The Reds on Thursday announced the hiring of Oscar Marin as their new bullpen coach. Marin, who served as the Pirates’ pitching coach from 2020-25, will take over for Matt Tracy, who’s moved from bullpen coach to assistant pitching coach. Last year’s assistant pitching coach, Simon Mathews, was hired away as the Nationals’ new pitching coach earlier this week.
Marin broke into pro ball back in 2010 with the Rangers, working as a coach and assistant in their minor league ranks for seven years. He then joined the Mariners as their minor league pitching coordinator from 2017-18 before returning to the Rangers organization as their bullpen coach in 2019.
Plenty went wrong for the Pirates during Marin’s tenure with the organization, although generally speaking, the pitching staff was far down the list of the team’s problems. Pittsburgh’s offense and struggles to develop young hitters are known flaws of the organization, but the Pirates have done well in drafting and developing young pitchers. While many Pirates top hitting prospects have stalled out in Triple-A or the majors, pitchers like Paul Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones, Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, Mitch Keller and others have had plenty of success at the MLB level with Marin as their lead pitching instructor.
Marin was one of the Pirates’ first hires after initially tabbing Derek Shelton as their manager. Shelton was dismissed in May — he’s since been hired as the new Twins’ manager — and replaced by bench coach Don Kelly, whose contract was extended at season’s end. While Kelly and Marin have worked together for several years, the Bucs opted not to renew Marin’s contract. The Pirates hired former Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy to fill their pitching coach vacancy late last month.
The 42-year-old Marin (43 next month) will now join Terry Francona’s staff and bring more than a half decade of experience as a pitching coach — some of it spent alongside highly respected Brent Strom — to a Cincinnati team that is deep in pitching talent (albeit more in the rotation than in the bullpen at present).
First the Reds get KeBryan. Now Marin. They’re signing Pham tomorrow, I hear.
Wouldn’t to far off to brand to sign Pham and another below average reliever and call it an offseason
Marin & Tommy, still smokin
From coaching Skenes to sitting in the bullpen. Career trajectory needs adjusted
I believe he went from sitting on his couch to coaching in the bullpen.
From everything I’ve read, many of the pitchers, especially Skenes, weren’t happy with Marin.
From Pitching Coach to Bull Pen Coach is couple of steps down. Must not been much of a market for his skills! Or the truth is his position equals his skills.
It happens every day in sports. Head coaches become assistant coaches, only to become head coaches at a later date. It’s not like he’s moving to a Div III college program.
Terry Franconia’s Bullpen Coach > Clint Hurdle’s Pitching Coach
Clint Hurdle has not managed the Pirates since 2019.
Thank you.. brain fart. I meant to put Derek Shelton there.
You’re welcome.Happens to everyone.