The Marlins announced Wednesday that they’ve hired former big league outfielder Juan Pierre as their new minor league outfield coordinator. It’ll be the first professional coaching assignment for the 41-year-old Pierre, who retired as a player upon conclusion of the 2013 season.
Pierre spent more time with the Marlins than any other organization over the course of a 14-year MLB career, first playing every game from 2003-05 for the then-Florida Marlins and eventually returning to Miami for his final season in ’13. A career .295/.343/.361 hitter in 1994 games (8280 plate appearances), Pierre was best known for the blistering speed that helped him to swipe 614 bases. He never stole fewer than 23 bags in a full big league season and topped 40 steals on nine occasions (including three different seasons with 60-plus steals). As one might expect from a player with that type of speed, Pierre drew consistently strong defensive marks for his range, though his throwing arm weighed down his overall defensive ratings.
Miami also announced a slew of other hirings, including former Twins third base coach Gene Glynn, who’ll serve as a minor league infield and baserunning coordinator for the organization. Glynn was Minnesota’s third base coach for each of the past four seasons and served as the manager for the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in Rochester prior to that. Miami also hired Eric Duncan away from the Yankees to serve as minor league hitting coordinator and tabbed longtime big league catcher Jamie Quirk as the organization’s new minor league catching coordinator.
Best move the Marlins have made in the last few years.
Definitely the best Juan
Yes!
Marlins are so bad I’m surprised Pierre didn’t get an invite to Spring Training with this announcement.
He will be a player/coach like Jackie Moon.
Did you just call me a jive turkey?
Juan was one of those players who took BP seriously by standing in CF and playing ever ball off the bat as if it were during a game. I saw him do this even in his 30’s when other players would pay a fee to not even have to shag BP.
Hopefully they have someone else to instruct them on how to throw
I don’t think that Juan Pierre struggled to throw runners out based on lack of knowledge on throwing. I’m pretty sure it was an arm strength thing
I’m glad he was their number Juan choice.
One of the most annoying players to ever face in the batters box. Super pesky hitter and as such the Yankees made weird defensive alignments just for him in the 03 series lol. Good hire by Miami
I forgot how much I missed Juan Pierre memes
Definitely Juan helluva move
Juan-derful!
He could also give lessons on how to rhyme with “Wrigley Field” when rapping
He’s only joining the Marlins because they hired his grandson’s pediatric nurse’s second cousin on the third side twice removed to be one of their parking lot attendants.
Wow. Big thumbs down.
I feel like the Dodgers just killed this guy’s career.
Ned Colletti rewarded him for traditional stats with a ludicrous contract. Pierre’s inabilities to throw or hit consistently is what did in his Dodgers career. Can’t steal bases if you ground out to second or short three times a game. Imagine if someone today gave Billy Hamilton a 5 year 55 million contract… they’d be universally mocked. I don’t think anyone but Colletti or Pierre was happy when that contract was signed.
There is absolutely no comparison between Juan Pierre and Billy Hamilton. Juan Pierre had a .295BA with a .343 OBP for his entire career. Billy Hamilton has only hit .245 with a .298 OBP and he’s still in his “prime.”
Juan Pierre is the guy Hamilton wishes he could be. Hit .295 with a .343 career OBP.
With the Dodgers he was still very good. Hit .294 with a .339 OBP. baseball-reference.com/players/p/pierrju01.shtml#2…
I am quite sure that Pierre was ecstatic to be guaranteed $55 million.
Wow! I’m over 8,000PA, this guy only struck out 479 times and walked 464.
Not official but I’ll guess he grounded out at least, what? 6 or 7 thousand times?
But if they were fly-outs that would have been different?
Someone use to refer to him as slapping-mc-pop up.
Juan Pierre is the guy Hamilton wishes he could be. Hit .295 with a .343 career OBP.
With the Dodgers he was still very good. Hit .294 with a .339 OBP. link to baseball-reference.com
I am quite sure that Pierre was ecstatic to be guaranteed $55 million.
The Reds should have signed him when they had Billy Hamilton. Pierre could have served as a personal coach/mentor to help him hit and bunt while utilizing his speed.
The Mets had Ricky help Roger Cedeño when he was on NYM (the first time). He was semi successful. The biggest thing he preached was patience. Same thing Willie Randolph did with Reyes. I would be Pierre would say the same thing with Hamilton.
I really wish FireJoeMorgan was still around. Why have you abandoned us Ken Tremendous?
I would imagine because Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place are both more lucrative and time-consuming. 🙂
But yes, FJM was a treasure.
But which would you rather have, the money and reputation for creating some of the best comedies of all time? or the adulation of a couple thousand baseball nerds?
Outfield coordinator…?
“You see the ball? Catch it.”
I’ve always been a big fan of Pierre. He was one of the most exciting players when he played. He was always dogged as a defender (rightfully so much of the time), but he was exciting at the plate. Didn’t realize he was nearly a career .300 hitter too.
The guy could go get the ball. He just couldn’t throw it.
Pierre~ French for Noodle Arm
Luis Castillo is infield coordinate with Mike Lowell!
Juan Pierre was my favorite player…in MLB: The Show.
You could bat .450 with him just drag bunting every single time and then steal bases like mad.