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Larry Rothschild

Padres Fire Pitching Coach Larry Rothschild

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The Padres announced Monday that they’ve fired pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Bullpen coach Ben Fritz will step up as the pitching coach for the remainder of the 2021 season.

“Larry has been a tremendous asset for our organization over the last two seasons, and we appreciate the experience, hard work and dedication that he brought to the position,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said in a statement within today’s press release. “We wish him nothing but the best in the future.”

Rothschild’s ouster comes after a weekend in which the Padres were overtaken by the Reds for the second Wild Card spot in the National League. San Diego has been in a freefall in the standings, losing nine of the past 11 games due in no small part to woeful performances from a pitching staff that has not lived up to expectations in 2021. The Padres have yielded an average of 5.91 runs per contest across that 11-game swoon.

Even beyond their recent slide, the Padres’ pitching staff simply hasn’t been as dominant as many would’ve hoped on the heels of an active winter. Joe Musgrove has taken his game to new heights and Yu Darvish has performed well, but San Diego starters rank 17th overall with a 4.37 ERA this season.

Left-hander Blake Snell, a marquee offseason acquisition, has had the roughest season of his career, recording career-worst marks in ERA (4.82), expected ERA (5.62) and walk rate (13.7 percent). Rookie Ryan Weathers has been hit extremely hard of late and is sitting on a 5.83 ERA. Young Chris Paddack, meanwhile, had a brilliant debut in 2019 but has struggled since Rothschild’s hiring prior to the 2020 season. Paddack posted a 3.33 ERA in 140 2/3 innings  as a rookie but has a 4.97 mark in 152 innings since. That certainly can’t all be pinned on Rothschild alone, but the timing couldn’t have helped Rothschild’s cause.

Fritz will hold things down for the remainder of the season, but Rothschild’s dismissal means there will be a search for at least one spot on the coaching staff this winter. The fate of others on the field staff could well be tied to how the team performs in the coming weeks. It’s unlikely that there will be major turnover at the top of the baseball operations department, however — not after A.J. Preller was promoted to president of baseball operations and extended through the 2026 season back in February.

Padres To Name Larry Rothschild Pitching Coach

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The Padres are set to hire Larry Rothschild as their new pitching coach, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The 65-year-old was recently let go by the Yankees with one year remaining on his contract. Rothschild will be replacing one of the game’s longest-tenured coaches, Darren Balsley, who will change gears and work as a special assistant working with the club’s minor league pitchers.

Rothschild has spent the past nine seasons as the pitching coach in the Bronx and spent nine years prior to that as the pitching coach for the Cubs. He has extensive experience working as a minor league pitching coordinator and Major League bullpen coach, and he was also the inaugural manager of the Rays — a role he held from 1998 to 2001. Balsley, according to Acee, is taking on a less-demanding role in the organization to spend more time with his son, who has committed to play for San Diego State once he graduates high school this spring.

It’s the latest of several changes in the San Diego dugout this offseason. Manager Andy Green was fired after four years on the job, and he’s been replaced by the Rangers’ Jayce Tingler. Meanwhile, the Friars are also set to announce the hiring of Phillies infield coach Bobby Dickerson as their new bench coach.

Yankees Fire Pitching Coach Larry Rothschild

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10:48am: The Yankees have formally announced that Rothschild will not return to the staff in 2020.

“I want to personally thank Larry for his near decade of commitment to this organization,” general manager Brian Cashman said in the press release announcing the move. “Larry cares deeply about his craft and the pitchers under his tutelage, and he played a significant role in our successes over the past nine seasons. There’s a reason why Larry has had the type of distinguished baseball career he’s had, and it starts with experience and dedication that is difficult to emulate.”

10:30am: The Yankees have relieved pitching coach Larry Rothschild of his duties, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (via Twitter). He had one year remaining on his three-year contract. ESPN’s Buster Olney first reported that the Yankees had discussed moving on (Twitter link). An announcement from the Yankees is expected today, at which point it will become clear whether Rothschild has been offered a different role within the organization. If he does leave, it’s worth pointing out that Rothschild was on the coaching staff of newly minted Phillies manager Joe Girardi for the majority of Girardi’s time with the Yankees.

The 65-year-old Rothschild has been the team’s pitching coach for the past nine seasons. Yankees pitchers finished the 2019 season as a middle-of-the-pack team in terms of ERA and FIP while ranking in the top third of MLB in terms of strikeout percentage. Nearly all of that success came without top starter Luis Severino, who missed most of the season due to shoulder and lat injuries, and without strikeout machine Dellin Betances, who tore his Achilles tendon in his first appearance upon returning from a shoulder issue of his own.

Looking beyond the staff as a whole, however, a number of key Yankees arms turned in pedestrian or generally poor seasons on the mound. James Paxton provided the Yankees with 150 2/3 solid innings, but he was the only regular rotation member with an ERA south of 4.00. Masahiro Tanaka (4.47), CC Sabathia (4.99), and J.A. Happ (5.01), in particular, all authored seasons that didn’t align with organizational hopes and expectations.

That’s clearly a rudimentary assessment of the staff, of course, and any shortcomings can be attributed to more than just Rothschild alone. But the Yankees organization apparently believes it’s time for a new voice to help guide its staff moving forth; Sherman suggests (also via Twitter) that the Yankees are moving toward a more modernized approach to game preparation. While Rothschild wasn’t closed off to modern, data-driven techniques, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a younger coach more rooted in such tactics brought in to take over the staff.

Prior to being named Yankees pitching coach, Rothschild spent another nine seasons as the Cubs’ pitching coach. The veteran pitching guru has extensive experience working as a minor league pitching coordinator and bullpen coach, and he was also the inaugural manager of the Rays — a role he held from 1998 to 2001.

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