The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve hired Barry Enright as their new pitching coach. The former big league righty has spent the past two seasons on the D-backs’ staff, working as an assistant pitching coach under Brent Strom.
Enright, 37, pitched in the Majors from 2010-13, splitting his time between the two teams for which he’s now coached. Arizona selected him in the second round of the 2007 draft and gave him his MLB debut in 2010. He spent two seasons there and also had briefer stints with the 2012-13 Halos. As Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times points out, Enright’s final year with the Halos overlapped with Mike Trout’s rookie year in Anaheim.
Overall, Enright pitched 148 2/3 innings in the Majors. While his career on the mound didn’t yield the best results, we’ve seen time and time again that a successful big league playing career is in no way a prerequisite for a successful run as a coach or manager. His time with the D-backs surely proved quite instructive, as Strom is regarded as one of the industry’s top pitching minds.
Enright joins a revamped Halos coaching staff under incoming manager Ron Washington. Since the end of the season, the Angels have moved on from hitting coach Marcus Thames, pitching coach Matt Wise and catching coordinator Drew Butera. In their places, the Angels have hired Johnny Washington as hitting coach, Jerry Narron as catching coach and now Enright as pitching coach. The Angels have also added former big league infielder Ryan Goins as an infield coach and veteran coach/manager Bo Porter to be Washington’s first base coach.