Diamondbacks Hire J.R. House As Third Base Coach
The D-Backs are hiring J.R. House as third base/catching coach, reports Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. The 45-year-old has held that role with the Reds for the past seven seasons.
House had a brief big league playing career as a part-time catcher. He coached and managed in the D-Backs’ farm system for most of the 2010s and still lives in Arizona. House tells Piecoro that the proximity to home was a big reason for him to leave the Reds for what amounts to a lateral move.
The Diamondbacks had hired a first-year third base coach, Shaun Larkin, last offseason. Larkin struggled in that role and had a few bad sends that led manager Torey Lovullo to remove him from the job in the middle of August. Larkin remains on staff as an infield instructor. Piecoro writes that Tim Bogar, who worked as third base coach for the final five weeks of the season, will return to a minor league player development role.
That may be the only change to Arizona’s staff. Lovullo told The Burns & Gambo Show earlier this month that they’d bring back all their coaches, though he left the door open to some role shuffling. The Reds will now need to make at least one coaching change going into Terry Francona’s second season at the helm.
Minor League Transactions
Baseball America's Matt Eddy gave his weekly look at some of the comings and goings in the minors. Here are few of the notable names involved in this week's report….
- Milwaukee signed outfielder Josh Anderson, who was just released last week by the Reds. Anderson's career .665 OPS isn't much to look at, but the Kentucky native is a decent base-stealer — he had 25 swipes out of 30 attempts with Kansas City and Detroit in 2009.
- Utilityman Kory Casto was signed by Arizona. Casto last played in the majors in 2008 with Washington, and he has posted a .540 OPS in 239 career plate appearances. He split his time at first, third and in the outfield for Triple-A Syracuse in 2009. Casto signed a minor league deal with Detroit over the winter but was released in April.
- Right-hander Devern Hansack was released by the Red Sox. Hansack pitched relatively well in limited action with Boston from 2006 to 2008, posting a 3.70 ERA and a 5:00 K/BB ratio in nine career major league games, three of them starts.
- Veteran catcher J.R. House, who last played in the majors in 2008, was signed by the Mets. Originally drafted by Pittsburgh in 1999, House was ranked at the 21st best prospect in baseball by Baseball America before the 2001 season.
- Rough week in the Ka'aihue household: Kila was sent back down to Triple-A by the Royals, and younger brother Kala was released by the Athletics. Kala Ka'aihue put up some impressive power numbers of his own in his first four seasons in the minors, but struggled over his last two years in the Atlanta and Oakland systems.