Rays Hire Ozzie Timmons As Assistant Hitting Coach
The Rays hired Ozzie Timmons as an assistant hitting coach on Monday, according to a club announcement. He replaces Brady North, who departed Kevin Cash’s staff at the end of the regular season.
Timmons is back on an MLB staff after spending the 2025 campaign in a special assistant role. The 55-year-old had been on Cash’s coaching staff as a first base coach/assistant hitting coach between 2018-21. The Brewers hired him as one of two co-hitting coaches over the 2021-22 offseason. Timmons spent three years in that position before parting ways with Milwaukee last winter.
A Tampa-area native, Timmons suited up for the Devil Rays in 2000 as part of a brief MLB playing career spread across four teams. He’d worked as their Triple-A hitting coach before getting his first crack on the MLB staff in 2018. He’ll work underneath lead hitting instructor Chad Mottola, who has been the club’s hitting coach for the past nine-plus seasons.
Coaching Notes: Mets, Padres, Leiper, Rays
Many teams are still setting up their coaching staffs for the 2026 season, and some news broke about some departures on the Rangers staff earlier tonight. Let’s check in with some more coaching-related rumblings from around the league…
- The Mets have interviewed Padres third base/infield coach Tim Leiper for an unspecified role on New York’s coaching staff, according to The Athletic’s Tim Britton. SNY’s Andy Martino reported yesterday that the Mets were nearing a hire for their third base coach vacancy, so it would seem logical that Leiper might be the one being tapped as Mike Sarbaugh’s replacement. Leiper has been San Diego’s third base coach for the last two seasons, and since the Padres are looking for a new manager, it makes sense that Leiper would be exploring other options if the Padres’ staff is about to get shaken up. Leiper has close to 30 years as a coach and manager in the minors and in international baseball, plus he was also the Blue Jays’ first base coach for five seasons (2014-18).
- The Rays are looking for a new assistant hitting coach, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Brady North previously filled the role, but the team announced last month that North would be moving on to a possible new role in the organization after four years on the coaching staff. Topkin notes that Ozzie Timmons is one of the internal candidates for the assistant hitting coach role, which would mark Timmons’ return to Tampa’s staff after a four-year absence. Timmons was the Rays’ first base coach from 2018-21 before moving onto a three-year stint as a hitting coach with the Brewers. Tampa Bay brought Timmons back into the fold as a special assistant and roving coach role within the organization prior to the 2025 season.
Brewers Hire Al LeBoeuf As Lead Hitting Coach
The Brewers are shaking up their offensive staff. Milwaukee announced on Monday that they’ve promoted Al LeBoeuf to lead hitting coach. Milwaukee also promoted Eric Theisen to hitting coach. Theisen will work as a co-hitting coach with Connor Dawson, who is returning for a fourth season. Milwaukee has parted ways with former co-hitting coach Ozzie Timmons.
Milwaukee doesn’t technically have any assistant hitting coaches. It seems Dawson and Theisen will essentially work in that capacity while LeBoeuf gets the primary job. It’s the first major league coaching gig for the 64-year-old LeBoeuf, a longtime member of Milwaukee’s minor league ranks. He joined the organization as a Double-A hitting coach in 2010. LeBoeuf worked his way to Triple-A by 2012.
Unfortunately, he experienced crippling lower body pain that year. Testing revealed blood cancer in his left hip. As Adam McCalvy of MLB.com wrote in 2013, the cancer was traced back to a severe bone bruise he’d suffered when he was hit by a pitch while playing in the Phillies’ system back in the mid-1980s. The extremely rare condition slowed LeBouef’s rise up the minor league ranks, but he fortunately beat the disease and worked his way back to coaching Triple-A hitters by 2019.
LeBoeuf has held that role for the past six seasons. He told McCalvy this evening that he recently marked 10 years cancer free and is in “great” health (X link). He’ll now get a long-awaited chance to coach big league hitters. LeBoeuf has already worked with most of Milwaukee’s young core. Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Tyler Black and Brice Turang have all had recent stints in Triple-A. Jackson Chourio essentially skipped the top minor league level, though he did stop there for the final week of 2023.
In addition to his longtime work with Milwaukee, LeBoeuf has coached or managed in the minors with the Phillies, Mets, Royals and Blue Jays. As a player, he topped out at the Triple-A level with the Phils.
Theisen also worked as a co-hitting coach in Triple-A this past season. A former college pitcher with Illinois State, Theisen joined Milwaukee’s minor league ranks in 2021. He has spent the past three seasons as a minor league hitting coordinator in addition to his work as Triple-A hitting coach. This’ll be his first job on a major league staff.
Timmons moves on after three seasons. He had worked on Kevin Cash’s staff with the Rays for a few years before taking the Milwaukee job. The Brewers were an above-average offensive team this year. Milwaukee turned in a .246/.326/.403 batting line. They placed in the top 10 in batting average and on-base percentage while ranking 13th in slugging. They finished sixth in runs scored.
Brewers Hire Ozzie Timmons, Connor Dawson As Hitting Coaches
The Brewers announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Ozzie Timmons and Connor Dawson as co-hitting coaches. They’re also planning to hire an assistant hitting coach to work underneath Timmons and Dawson, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. They’ll replace Andy Haines, whose contract was not renewed last month.
Timmons has spent the past four seasons on the Rays’ coaching staff. He’d split his time between base coaching and serving as Tampa Bay’s assistant hitting coach before getting a bump to full-time assistant hitting coach last month. Just a few weeks later, he’ll land a more significant role in Milwaukee. An outfielder in his playing days, the 51-year-old Timmons appeared in parts of five big league seasons from 1995-2000.
Dawson comes over from the Mariners, where he’d been Seattle’s minor league hitting coordinator. The 28-year-old had previously spent a couple seasons coaching in the M’s system and now gets his first job on a big league staff.