The Pirates are parting ways with hitting coach Andy Haines and bullpen coach Justin Meccage, report Andrew Destin and Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s not clear whether there’ll be other changes to Derek Shelton’s staff.
Pittsburgh hired Haines to replace Rick Eckstein over the 2021-22 offseason. The 47-year-old had spent the previous three seasons as hitting coach in Milwaukee and logged one year as an assistant with the Cubs. The Bucs ranked 26th in scoring over the past three seasons. They were 24th with 665 runs this year, while their .234/.301/.371 batting line placed them in the bottom third of MLB in all three slash stats.
As is the case with any coach, it’s difficult to judge their work based on the results alone. PNC Park isn’t an easy venue for hitters and the Bucs are light on proven offensive contributors beyond Bryan Reynolds and an aging Andrew McCutchen. Pittsburgh simply hasn’t gotten enough development from their young hitters in recent seasons, though. By measure of wRC+, only four of the 13 Pirates hitters with at least 200 plate appearances had above-average offensive performances. Reynolds and McCutchen were joined in that regard by Joey Bart and Oneil Cruz.
Bart, a reclamation flier from the Giants, dramatically cut his strikeouts and hit .265/.337/.462 in 80 games. The toolsy Cruz had his first 20-20 season, though he still struck out in more than 30% of his plate appearances. While this was a successful year for Bart and Cruz, the Pirates had a handful of disappointments.
Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jack Suwinski were expected to be key contributors but had terrible seasons. Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo didn’t make much of an impact. Former first overall pick Henry Davis has hit .191/.283/.307 in 99 games over the past two seasons. Buy-low free agent pickups of Rowdy Tellez and Michael A. Taylor didn’t pan out, nor did bringing in Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan De La Cruz provide a jolt at the deadline. That’s certainly not all on the hitting coach, yet there’s no question the offense has held the Pirates back from breaking out of a rebuild that’ll be entering year six under Shelton and GM Ben Cherington.
Pittsburgh added Meccage to the staff in 2018 as an assistant pitching coach. He moved to bullpen coach going into 2020 and has held the position for five seasons. Pittsburgh’s bullpen had the fourth-highest ERA in the majors this season, allowing 4.49 earned runs per nine. They ranked 20th in strikeout percentage (22.9%) while posting the seventh-worst walk rate (10%).
Pittsburgh coaxed a breakout year from waiver claim Dennis Santana and got decent production out of Carmen Mlodzinski, Colin Holderman, Luis Ortiz and $10.5MM free agent pickup Aroldis Chapman. None of those players are lockdown late-game weapons, though. David Bednar was expected to anchor the group out of the ninth inning. He had a very poor season, struggling to a 5.77 ERA with a dip in strikeouts and a spike in home runs to lose the closing job. Bednar had broken out as one of the game’s best relievers under Meccage’s tutelage between 2021-23.
bucsfan0004
The only way this headline could get even better is if Shelton was being scrapped along with Haines and the bullpen coach.
YourDreamGM
Shelton isn’t in charge of player development, trades, or free agent signings. He just writes in the names that Cheringtons analytics department tells him to. Firing Cherington would have been the only firing that mattered.
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
This is like winning the pennant in Pittsburgh
piratesanddbacksfan
Dealing with a clueless hater figures
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Is getting moved off of shortstop, striking out a gazillion times, and having scary contact issues a successful season? Is getting 20 homers and 20 steals that important?
Are people calling esteury Ruiz a good offensive player because he steals a ton? Are people calling 2022-24 Joey gallo a good offensive player because he hits 20 homers?
Sorry with all of the questions I can give so many more examples
holecamels35
He had an almost .800 OPS and came on pretty strong second half of the season. Tearing the cover off the ball, finally seeing that exit velocity mean something. Insane strikeout totals but can still draw a walk, just needs to tune things up, and I think moving to CF was great for him.
mlb1225
He looked 100x better in CF than I, and probably many others, could have expected. Hope he conitnues to make strides there next year, because based on the small sample size of playing time, he was getting some very good jumps and was tracking the ball down very well.
Rsox
Pirates offense has sputtered for a couple of seasons now, in theory there’s nowhere to go but up now
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I just hope Jerry Dipoto doesn’t hire him.
nrd1138
A hitting coach that cannot do his job? I sense the White Sox will pick him up for their ‘playoff push’ next season \sarcasm
lowtalker1
Idk about that, pnc and the nl central is a hitters division
Monkey’s Uncle
It’s a start. A very good start. Haines wasn’t the whole problem but he definitely want part of the solution.
YourDreamGM
It’s probably also the finish. If you were going to fire Cherington you would have done it before the hitting coach you would think. And Cherington fully expected Shelton to be back so Cherington isn’t firing him. Very sad news for Pirates fans.
Unclemike1525
Seems to me the only thing I remember of the 1 year Haines was the hitting coach of the Cubs was that they sucked. So good job!
YourDreamGM
F- The manager and gm thought this guy was great. Should have been fired at least a year ago. Really though should have never been hired. Milwaukee got rid of him for a reason. Cherington thinks Shelton is great. Anyone see the August collapse? Shelton should have been fired. Firing the hitting coach while keeping the awful manager and gm isn’t going to accomplish much. They have no idea what they are doing. Will likely just hire Haines 2.0. Keep going to games and paying your cable bill. Mr Nutting appreciates you watching this clown show.
YourDreamGM
Bart hit immediately as soon as he arrived. If Haines was so good he fixed players that fast well he wouldn’t be getting fired all the time.
Rowdy Tellez made a huge impact.. after he gave up on Haines and reached out to his childhood coach for hitting help.
YourDreamGM
Any Pirates fans think Haines is good and shouldn’t have been fired? Did any of you just realize he needed fired now? I would bet everyone thought he should have been fired long long before Shelton Cherington realized. But don’t worry. I am sure these imbeciles will hire a fantastic new hitting coach.
mlb1225
This is a huge step in the right direction. Keep going Bucs, don’t stop there! There’s time, but still got work to do.
mlb1225
The Pirates had 4 hitters with a wRC+ of 95 or greater in 2023 with MAT, Joe, Suwinski, Triolo, and Edward Olivares. Those 4 combined for 52 home runs in 2023. They all saw a drop of over 10 points in wRC+ and none reached double-digit home runs. Every team is going to have a player or two fall off, but when 4 guys that were supposed to be key parts of the line-up go from league average or better hitters one year to well below average the next, you gotta do something.