YANKEES HIRE 3 UNKNOWN COACHES WHO’VE ALREADY TAUGHT THEIR FIRST CLASS

It only took the Yankees 2 months to hire coaches for their vacated spots.  After firing last season’s hitting coach, Kevin Long and First-Base/Infield Coach, Mick Kelleher, the NYY have replaced the 2 of them with 3 coaches.  The extra coach was added because, for the first time in the Yankees’ history, they chose to staff an Assistant Hitting Coach.  Now, they and 21 other teams have one.  Perhaps the Royals, Mariners, Rays, Rockies, Marlins, Brewers, Pirates, and Nationals will eventually join the growing trend of doubling up on hitting coaches.

When the Yankees announced the coaches’ names (Jeff Pentland, Alan Cockrell, and Joe Espada) yesterday, my very first reaction was, “Who?”!  Then, I vaguely remembered reading and hearing each of their names as potential candidates, but I never thought the Yankees would hire all new unpopular guys and inexperienced former players.  In fact, the only coach who even made it to the Major Leagues was Alan Cockrell who played in only 9 games (for the Rockies), while the other 2 were only Minor League players!  I thought they’d at least hire one of the popular candidates/former successful MLB players who were supposedly considered - Luis Sojo, Hideki Matsui, Tino Martinez, Willie Randolph, Chili Davis, Dave Magidan, or Raul Ibanez as a coach - but, obviously that wasn’t the case.

As I thought about it further, I began to remember that many All-Star players failed to become successful coaches and/or managers after they retired.  In fact, one of the greatest hitters of all time (some would say “the” greatest), Ted Williams, managed his teams to a losing percentage .429 during his 4 years as a manager - including a 100-loss season for the Texas Rangers in their initial 1972 season.   As another example, Wade Boggs, when acting as Tampa Bay’s Hitting Coach in 2001, assisted that team towards scoring just 672 runs (the worst in the American League that year) and towards a meager .258 batting average (the second-worst average in the American League that year).

On the other side of the spectrum, so-so offensive player Casey Stengel excelled as a Manager (leading the Yankees to 7 World Series Championships in 10 years), becoming one of the winningest managers of all time.  Likewise, Tony La Russa was an awful player, but he found his ticket to the Hall of Fame as a 3-time World Series Manager.   Similarly, Charlie Lau was only a .255 career hitter, yet he not only helped many hitters achieve significantly improved batting averages, but was also accredited by All-Stars Hal McRae and George Brett as their greatest Hitting Coach.

Below is an outline/breakdown of the past experiences each of these new coaches have:

Jeff Pentland (Hitting Coach) – He played first base, catcher, and even pitched a little in his career, but as mentioned above, never made it to the Major Leagues.  Pentland was the Hitting Coach for the Marlins (in late 1996), Cubs (1997-2002), Royals (2003-2005), Mariners (2005-2008), and Dodgers (2008-2011).  During his time with the Cubs, he coached Joe Girardi in hitting and later worked for him when Girardi became the Cubs’ Manager.  On that team, Pentland also worked alongside the Yankees’ current Pitching Coach, Larry Rothschild.  During Pentland’s time with the Royals he worked for Tony Pena and also helped coach Carlos Beltran (.307 average/26 homers/100 RBIs) with the Royals during 2003.  Another All-Star hitter who Pentland coached was Gary Sheffield, who has publicly stated that Pentland was the best Hitting Coach he’d ever experienced adding that Pentland’s key teachings are geared towards focusing on each hitter’s strengths instead of concentrating on opposing pitchers’ arsenal.

Alan Cockrell (Assistant Hitting Coach) – After his 9 games as a MLB player, he eventually became the Hitting Coach for the Rockies (2007-2008) and the Mariners (2009 through early 2010).  He also served as a Hitting Coordinator for the Diamondbacks (2011-2013).  His proven success as a coach was during 2007 when he helped lead the offense of the Rockies into the World Series.

Joe Espada (Infield Coach and Third-Base Coach - Rob Thomson was restructured as the Bench Coach) - Just like Pentland, Espada never played a game in the majors.  He served as the Marlins’ Third-Base Coach during 2010-2013 and even coached for the Puerto Rican National Baseball Team during the World Baseball Classic in 2013.  He was previously hired by Brian Cashman as a Special Assistant to the General Manager.

In addition to Rob Thomson shifting from Third-Base Coach to become the new Bench Coach, the Yankees also maneuvered Tony Peña from Bench Coach to First-Base Coach.   Their other 2 coaches, Larry Rothschild and Gary Tuck remain as their Pitching Coach and Bullpen Coach respectively.  Have you been able to follow all of this?  If so, then you know the coach answer to, “Who’s on First?” is not “Who” in this case, but Tony Peña.