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Justin Viele

Rangers Finalize 2025 Coaching Staff

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The Rangers formally announced their coaching staff for the upcoming season today, including the additions of bench coach Luis Urueta, assistant pitching coach Dave Bush, bullpen coach Jordan Tiegs and hitting coach Justin Viele.

The 43-year-old Urueta served as the Marlins’ bench coach under Skip Schumaker and also held a bench coach position with the Diamondbacks prior to his time in Miami. The Rangers hired Schumaker as a senior advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young earlier this month, and it was reported at the time that Urueta was expected to be named bench coach to manager Bruce Bochy. In addition to his time as a bench coach in Miami and Arizona, Urueta spent more than a decade coaching and managing in the D-backs’ minor league system.

Bush, 45, was the Red Sox’ pitching coach from 2020-23 and joined the Rangers as the organization’s director of pitching strategy back in January. He worked with both the coaching staff and front office in that role, and Bush even stepped in as interim pitching coach during the 2024 season when pitching coach Mike Maddux was briefly away from the club.

Tiegs, 37, will be suiting up on a big league coaching staff for the first time but has spent six years in the Rangers organization already. He’s been a pitching coach at multiple minor league levels and worked with the Rangers’ player development staff as the team’s minor league pitching coordinator. He’s also coached college ball at two different schools in his native Indiana (University of Indianapolis and Indiana State University).

Viele’s hiring was first reported back on Nov. 1. The 34-year-old had been an assistant hitting coach with the Giants and overlapped with current Rangers offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on San Francisco’s staff in 2020-21.

Bochy will be returning to the Rangers for his third year as manager. In addition to Urueta, Bush, Viele and Tiegs, the Rangers will welcome back Ecker, first base coach Corey Ragsdale, third base coach Tony Beasley, catching coach Bobby Wilson, assistant hitting coach Seth Conner and quality control coach Brett Hayes.

Rangers To Hire Justin Viele As Hitting Coach

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The Rangers plan to hire Giants co-hitting coach Justin Viele as their new hitting coach, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic first reported that Viele “appeared headed” to the Rangers even though he had a year remaining on his contract and had been invited back for the 2025 season.

Viele, 34 later this month, will step in for veteran hitting coach Tim Hyers, who was recently hired away by the Braves. He’s been on the Giants’ coaching staff since the 2020 season and spent several years as a college coach and a minor league coach with the Orioles and Dodgers organizations prior to his time in San Francisco. Viele and Rangers bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Eckers were both on the Giants’ coaching staff in 2020-21. A former infielder at Santa Clara University, Viele had a brief two-year minor league career after being drafted by the Orioles back in 2013.

There will be other changes coming to the coaching staffs both in Texas and San Francisco. The Rangers recently bid farewell to associate manager Will Venable, who was hired by the White Sox as their new skipper just yesterday. They’ll need to replace him.

Meanwhile, Baggarly added that Giants assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero has interviewed for a position with the Marlins, who recently gutted their entire staff. There’s no indication yet that he’ll be hired, but he’s not yet been eliminated from consideration, either. The Giants enlisted three hitting coaches this past season: Viele, Guerrero and former big league slugger Pat Burrell. With Viele departing and Guerrero potentially following, it stands to reason that San Francisco will look to bring in at least one new hitting coach to help shoulder the workload.

Giants Add Ryan Christenson, Pat Burrell To Coaching Staff

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The Giants announced some additions to their coaching staff in year one under Bob Melvin. Longtime Melvin lieutenant Ryan Christenson joins as bench coach, while former MLB outfielder Pat Burrell is taking over as hitting coach. Matt Williams is also leaving the Padres to take over as third base coach.

Incumbent hitting coach Justin Viele will retain his title, tweets Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. He and Burrell are co-hitting coaches, while Pedro Guerrero is returning as an assistant hitting coach. According to Pavlovic, assistant hitting coach Dustin Lind will not be back in 2024.

San Francisco also announced a few holdovers from last year’s group. Mark Hallberg, Alyssa Nakken, J.P. Martinez and Taria Uematsu are all returning to the staff. Hallberg is moving across the diamond from third base to first base coach. Martinez remains an assistant pitching coach, while Nakken and Uematsu are assistant coaches.

None of the additions are surprising, as all three had been rumored to join the staff. Christenson’s strong relationship with Melvin has led him from Oakland to San Diego and back to the Bay Area. He worked as a bench coach in Oakland and San Diego and spent this year as the associate manager for the Friars.

Burrell, a former number one overall pick, was a two-time World Series winner during his 12-year MLB career. The second of those titles came in San Francisco, where he closed his playing days in 2010 and ’11. Burrell hit .253/.361/.472 with just under 300 home runs in the big leagues. The Miami product has coached in the Giants’ minor league ranks going back to 2020.

Williams, of course, had an excellent playing career in his own right. The five-time All-Star got a managerial job with the Nationals in 2014. He led Washington to a 96-win season to earn the NL Manager of the Year award in his first season. After the team went 83-79 during his second year at the helm, the Nationals dismissed him and hired Dusty Baker. Williams has subsequently spent time on the Diamondbacks, A’s and Padres staffs (overlapping with Melvin in the latter two places) and managed for two seasons in South Korea.

There’s still more to come on the coaching front in San Francisco. The team has not announced the future for pitching coach Andrew Bailey, who has reportedly considered leaving to take a position closer to his family on the East Coast.

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