Marlins To Hire Pedro Guerrero As Hitting Coach
The Marlins have hired Pedro Guerrero as their new hitting coach, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo and Andrew Baggarly. Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported earlier tonight that Guerrero and the Marlins were nearing a deal, and Baggarly reported last week that Guerrero was interviewing with Miami about an unspecified position on their coaching staff.
Guerrero comes to the Marlins after three seasons as an assistant hitting coach with the Giants. Notably, the first two seasons of Guerrero’s tenure in San Francisco continued his association with Gabe Kapler, who was then the Giants’ manager and is now Miami’s assistant general manager. Before coming to the Giants, Guerrero was also an assistant hitting coach with the Phillies from 2018-21, overlapping Kapler’s time as Philadelphia’s manager during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Miami has basically nowhere to go but up when it comes to hitting, as the 62-100 team naturally ranked near the bottom of the league in most major batting categories. Former hitting coach John Mabry and assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart can’t be entirely blamed for the lack of production, of course, as the Marlins’ rebuild left the roster increasingly gutted of big-league caliber talent as the season developed. That said, the Fish also didn’t even hit much when they reached the playoffs in 2023, as Miami ranked 26th in the league in runs scored but benefited from an exceptional 33-14 record in one-run games.
Now that Clayton McCullough has been installed as the Marlins’ new manager, Guerrero is the first member of what will be an entirely new set of coaches. Miami underwent an internal overhaul after the season that saw the club fire not only the whole incumbent coaching staff, but also everyone from the training staffers to clubhouse attendants. This leaves the Marlins with plenty of positions to fill in the coming weeks and months, and with McCullough now in place as manager, hirings figure to begin quickly.
As for the Giants, they’ve now lost two members of their three-person staff of hitting instructors, between Guerrero’s departure and Justin Viele leaving to become the Rangers’ new hitting coach. Woo and Baggarly write that the Giants will install just one new hitting coach instead of two, and that sole new hire will team with the returning Pat Burrell as the hitting-coach tandem.
Rangers To Hire Justin Viele As Hitting Coach
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.