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Dave Magadan

Rockies, Hitting Coach Magadan Agree To Part Ways

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The Colorado Rockies announced Thursday morning via Twitter that they have agreed to “mutually part ways” with hitting coach Dave Magadan. Additionally, the Rockies also announced that the rest of their coaching staff, including manager Bud Black, will return for 2023 with the exception of third base/infield coach Stu Cole, who has been reassigned to a minor league staff position.

This news follows a 2022 campaign in which the Rockies endured plenty of offensive struggles. This season, Colorado ranked 10th in total runs scored of any club in the NL (698) and hit the third fewest home runs of any NL team (139), despite playing in one of MLB’s friendliest hitting environments. These figures represent a significant drop from the Rockies’ outputs in 2021 (739 runs, 182 HR’s). Statcast is not kind to Colorado’s offense either, ranking both their 2022 team Barrel% and average exit velocity as the third lowest in the NL. During the four seasons over which Magadan presided over the Rockies’ offense, Colorado’s runs per game, team batting average, and team slugging percentage have all seen consistent, marked declines.

After a notable sixteen-year playing career, Magadan broke into the big leagues as a coach when he joined the Red Sox as their hitting coach in the fall of 2006. Boston made notable improvements at the plate during Magadan’s first season, increasing their team batting average, on-base, and slugging on their way to their 2007 championship. Magadan would continue on to serve as the Red Sox hitting coach until 2012. He then spent 2013-2015 as the hitting coach of the Rangers and 2016-2018 in the same role with the Diamondbacks before he was hired by the Rockies in December of 2018.

Cole has been apart of the Rockies’ organization since 1995. After managing at Colorado’s High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A affiliates, Cole was finally named to the roster of big league coaches in 2012 as the Rockies’ third base coach. As an infield coach, Cole worked with the infielders of a Rockies defense that committed the fifth most errors in all of baseball in 2022.

Though there will be no further changes to the Rockies coaching staff, Magadan’s exit and Cole’s reassignment signal a desire for some changes in leadership in Colorado. If general manager Bill Schmidt and his staff remain intent on contending in 2023, there will need to be broader changes to the roster over the coming months.

Manager Notes: Bogar, Bochy, Martinez

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Veteran baseball man Dave Magadan can be counted as one vocal supporter of Mets managerial candidate Tim Bogar, as the longtime MLB coach spoke of Bogar’s virtues to Mike Puma of The New York Post (link). Magadan, who has worked with Bogar on several coaching staffs, describes Bogar as a “sharp”, “attention-to-detail guy” capable of integrating analytics while still relating to players. Magadan says that coaches and players were very surprised that Bogar didn’t get the Rangers managing job that he held in an interim capacity after the resignation of Ron Washington in 2014. “We all thought he was going to get the job there in Texas,” Magadan says in Puma’s article. “Especially after we turned things around that last month, and it didn’t happen and we were all kind of surprised.” The Rangers ultimately gave the full-time gig to Jeff Banister despite Bogar’s 14-8 interim record, while Bogar ended up undertaking some front office work with the Angels before a coaching stop with the Mariners and, ultimately, the Nationals. Bogar interviewed with Mets leadership for the second time on Thursday, although Eduardo Perez has since been described as the “front runner” for the position.

More manager-centric notes from around the game…

  • The Red Sox, Padres, and Indians are speculated as three potential landing spots for Bruce Bochy if the former Giants manager decides to make a 2021 dugout return, reads a piece from Grant Brisbee of The Athletic (link). Brisbee sees current Sox manager Alex Cora as “probably safe, but not with another disappointing season”. While it may seem odd at first glance to envision a Cora-Bochy transition, the writer is probably justified in believing that Boston’s leadership will likely have World Series-or-bust aspirations under new GM Chaim Bloom, given that the club has shown a willingness to move on from championship-winning executives like Ben Cherington and Dave Dombrowski in recent years.
  • Rustin Dodd of The Athletic identifies Dave Martinez’s bilingual capabilities as a key ingredient to the manager’s success (link). Dodd relays a tale from Martinez’s experiences as a player in the Puerto Rican winter leagues, where his lack of Spanish fluency did nothing to endear him to local fans and media (one game saw a 6-foot piece of barbed wire thrown in Martinez’s direction, according to the story). These early struggles promoted Martinez to turn to Benito Santiago and Juan Nieves for Spanish instruction. Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, for one, believes that those skills have been vital to Martinez’s relationships with young players like Juan Soto and Victor Robles. This piece comes just days after–according to reports–the Spanish skills of new Padres manager Jayce Tingler were considered a decisive factor in his hiring. In 2019, game-wide Opening Day rosters featured 251 players of international origin, with 102 of those players hailing from the Dominican Republic. It stands to reason that Spanish-speaking managers like Martinez and Tingler may soon become the overwhelming norm as the demographics of MLB continue to evolve.

West News & Rumors: Haniger, Santana, Bumgarner, Rangers, Morton, Rockies, Myers

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Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger is not untouchable, but if they’re going to trade him, it’s going to take a substantial offer. General manager Jerry Dipoto is holding out for a three- to four-player package headlined by a pair of “high-level prospects,” including a pitcher, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. While Haniger may continue in Seattle, there’s a growing likelihood they’ll trade first baseman Carlos Santana for prospects, according to Divish. The expensive Santana, who’s only a little over a week into his Mariners career, has drawn interest from several teams since the M’s acquired him from the Phillies.

Here’s more from the game’s West divisions:

  • The likelihood of the Giants trading ace Madison Bumgarner this offseasn is dropping, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It’s more probable the Giants will move Bumgarner at next summer’s trade deadline – if they’re out of contention, that is – Feinsand hears. Bumgarner, 29, is entering his last year of team control (and perhaps the final season of his storied Giants tenure), in which he’ll earn a reasonable $12MM.
  • Even though the Rangers are in a rebuild, the club has “strong interest” in 35-year-old right-hander Charlie Morton, Jeff Wilson of the Star Telegram reports. Morton spent the previous two seasons in Texas, where he did brilliant work for the Astros. He’s not the only veteran starter on Texas’ list, as tweets from TR Sullivan of MLB.com and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News indicate the team has at least discussed J.A. Happ, Lance Lynn, Yusei Kikuchi, Shelby Miller, Martin Perez, Derek Holland, Nate Karns and Sam Howard.
  • Contrary to a prior report, the Rockies are not interested in Padres slugger Wil Myers, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweets. Myers presumably would’ve taken over at first base in Colorado had it acquired him, but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards. The 28-year-old is owed a guaranteed $64MM through 2023, which could make him a tough sell after back-to-back seasons of unspectacular offensive production.
  • Even after signing Chris Herrmann on Tuesday, the Athletics will continue to monitor the market for catchers, according to GM David Forst (via Jane Lee of MLB.com). However, Forst noted that “it’s nice to be in a spot right now where we have two Major League catchers who fit well,” referring to Herrmann and Josh Phegley.
  • The Rockies have hired Dave Magadan as their hitting coach and moved Ron Gideon to first base coach, GM Jeff Bridich told Nick Groke of The Athletic and other reporters Tuesday. Magadan will take over for Duane Espy, whom the Rockies parted with last month. A major league infielder from 1986-2001, Magadan has garnered significant coaching experience since his playing career ended. The 56-year-old was the Diamondbacks’ hitting coach from 2015-18, but they let him go after the season.

Mets Rumors: Bullpen, Maldonado, McNeil, Coaching Staff

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There’s been plenty of attention centered on the Mets’ bullpen needs this offseason, and new general manager Brodie Van Wagenen plainly indicated yesterday that his team is in the market for “multiple” bullpen pieces (Twitter link, with video, via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). “I can’t imagine we’d be looking to try and do a ’one and done’ situation,” said Van Wagenen. As for the type of reliever he’s looking for, Van Wagenen spoke in general terms — missing bats, controlling the strike zone — but suggested that closing experience might not be a big factor. In fact, it seems there’s no guarantee the Mets even plan to use a set closer in 2019.

“I think a lot of teams are going away from a traditional closer,” said Van Wagenen. “I think we had — in [Robert] Gsellman and [Seth] Lugo last year — a lot was asked of those two guys. They were about as good as they could be. As long as we can control their workload and not put them in situations that are over-taxing, I think both those guys can get outs at the back end of the game — the last three outs in particular. We’ll see whether other guys can be added to that mix.”

Here’s more from Queens…

  • In other Mets news, Van Wagenen says he feels the club is at least “covered” at the catching position, as Tim Healey of Newsday writes. That won’t stop the organization from looking at upgrades. In fact, the Mets have made a strong early push for glove-first backstop Martin Maldonado, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. It seems he’s the club’s top catching target in free agency, with Wilson Ramos of secondary interest. Meanwhile, pursuit of star Marlins backstop J.T. Realmuto does not sound particularly realistic. The Fish are evidently not enamored of the top New York prospects, so there may not be a deal to be made. (What should Realmuto cost in a trade? Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs took a worthwhile look at the subject.)
  • Though late-blooming Jeff McNeil’s MLB audition lasted just over two months last season, he looks to have done enough to assure himself a spot in next year’s lineup. Van Wagenen said at this week’s GM Meetings that McNeil is “penciled in” as the team’s everyday second baseman for the 2019 season (Twitter link via Healey). McNeil opened eyes with a .329/.381/.471 slash through 248 plate appearances, and while he only homered three times in 63 games, he also hit 11 doubles and racked up six triples in that time. Most encouraging of all, perhaps, was the infielder’s minuscule 9.7 percent strikeout rate. Even if his .359 average on balls in play regresses, as one would expect, McNeil’s knack for putting the ball in play should help him hit for a quality average and get on base at a solid clip.
  • The Mets have some coaching vacancies to fill, including hitting coach and bench coach. Puma tweets that former D-backs hitting coach Dave Magadan is among the Mets’ candidates to replace Pat Roessler at that position, while Matt Ehalt of the North Jersey Bergen Record tweets that former Cubs/Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis could also be in the mix. Meanwhile, Jim Riggleman, who recently left the Reds after being passed over for their managerial vacancy, is a candidate to take over as Mickey Callaway’s bench coach, Ehalt adds.

Diamondbacks Part Ways With Dave Magadan

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The D-backs announced Monday that they’ve “mutually parted ways” with hitting coach Dave Magadan. The remainder of the team’s coaching staff — pitching coach Mike Butcher, bullpen coach Mike Fetters, quality control/catching coach Robby Hammock, first base coach Dave McKay, bench coach Jerry Narron and third base coach Tony Perezchica — will return for the 2019 season under manager Torey Lovullo. Assistant hitting coach Tim Laker will be part of the search for Magadan’s replacement.

Magadan, 56, enjoyed a very solid playing career, hitting .288/.390/.377 with more walks (718) than strikeouts (546) over parts of 16 big league seasons. The 2018 season was his third as the Diamondbacks’ hitting coach and his 16th on a big league coaching staff. He’s also spent time as the hitting coach for the Padres, Red Sox (including their 2007 World Series season) and Rangers since retiring as a player.

The Diamondbacks were in contention for much of the season but collapsed in epic fashion over the season’s final month, following out of contention as the Rockies and Dodgers surged to a first-place tie in the NL West. The month of September was the D-backs’ second-worst of the season from an offensive standpoint, as they combined to hit just .214/.287/.374 as a team with 98 runs scored. Jack Magruder of The Sports Xchange tweets that Lovullo stressed that the decision was mutual in nature but also added that the team “did not live up to the expectations we had,” offensively.

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