The Rangers plan to hire Giants co-hitting coach Justin Viele as their new hitting coach, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic first reported that Viele “appeared headed” to the Rangers even though he had a year remaining on his contract and had been invited back for the 2025 season.
Viele, 34 later this month, will step in for veteran hitting coach Tim Hyers, who was recently hired away by the Braves. He’s been on the Giants’ coaching staff since the 2020 season and spent several years as a college coach and a minor league coach with the Orioles and Dodgers organizations prior to his time in San Francisco. Viele and Rangers bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Eckers were both on the Giants’ coaching staff in 2020-21. A former infielder at Santa Clara University, Viele had a brief two-year minor league career after being drafted by the Orioles back in 2013.
There will be other changes coming to the coaching staffs both in Texas and San Francisco. The Rangers recently bid farewell to associate manager Will Venable, who was hired by the White Sox as their new skipper just yesterday. They’ll need to replace him.
Meanwhile, Baggarly added that Giants assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero has interviewed for a position with the Marlins, who recently gutted their entire staff. There’s no indication yet that he’ll be hired, but he’s not yet been eliminated from consideration, either. The Giants enlisted three hitting coaches this past season: Viele, Guerrero and former big league slugger Pat Burrell. With Viele departing and Guerrero potentially following, it stands to reason that San Francisco will look to bring in at least one new hitting coach to help shoulder the workload.
I’m a little surprised the Rangers let Venable get away. I would think if they make him an under the table promise to be Bochy’s heir that would be more appealing than the White Sox job.
I see no upside for him in going to Chicago. He either gets scapegoated for the inevitable losing or he hangs around long enough to see them through the bad years only to be replaced by someone else when the team feels they are ready to “take a step forward”. The “manager for life” title that Derek Shelton seems to have in Pittsburgh is pretty rare.
For Texas, Bochy probably doesn’t intend to hang around forever. Having a ready made replacement on staff seems like a good idea.
I think probably Eckers or if interested Michael Young, Adrian Beltre or Elvis Andrus might succeed Bochy?
Giants fans turned on Viele as bad or worse than they turned on Zaidi. I liked both and we will miss him, just like we missed Ecker.
Good luck Justin, you are in good company there and I’m sorry to see you go
Hire Will Clark as a Hitting Instructor !! or Barry Bonds !!
Actually,, I think Clark would be a great hire as the new associate manager to replace Venable?
I don’t think Will the Thrill wants a full-time gig
Whoever the Giants hire to replace him needs to be focused on plate discipline and contact skills. Can’t count the number of times I saw Giants’ hitters swing and miss pitches off the plate and then take strike three right down the middle.
The better news is that the Starbucks holiday cups and holiday beverages debut on November 7th.