Chicago Cubs latest to hire new type of coach

As the Chicago Cubs announced their coaching staff this week, the hiring of a new pitching coach was not exactly a big deal in the news media, but it signified a departure from the typical hire for the position.

This offseason, multiple teams have hired what could only be considered non-traditional coaches for openings on their staff. When the Chicago Cubs hired Tommy Hottovy as their new pitching coach, replacing Jim Hickey, he became the latest in a change in how teams approach the coaching ranks.

It wasn’t that long ago that teams had pretty limited coaching staffs. Before World War II, most teams had just two coaches assisting the manager with running day to day operations of the team. Whether it was the service of wartime or what inspired the change, by the time the 1960s arrived, it was commonplace to have as many as 5 coaches on staff, and by the time the 2000s arrived, Major League Baseball actually had to limit the coaches on the field to six uniformed staff along with the manager. In 2013, one non-uniformed coach was also allowed to be added to each staff as the “assistant hitting coach”.

These coaches have followed trends for many, many years. Early pitching coaches were almost always former catchers, leaning on the thinking that former catchers would have the most knowledge of what does and does not work with a pitcher. In the modern day, many pitching coaches are former big league pitchers.

Those taking the route to the major leagues as a pitching coach would have a fairly typical path. The potential coach would pitch for a number of years in the minor and major leagues, then he would usually take a job as a minor league pitching coach, often at a complex league. Slowly he would work his way up the minor league ladder until he reached the major leagues.

Usually that major league promotion was not directly to pitching coach, however, it was to bullpen coach (or assistant pitching coach, however the team had termed the position). The coach would then work under the current pitching coach, and after showing some skill or developing some level of reputation around the game, either he would be promoted within the organization and the current pitching coach let go, or another team would come in to hire him away to be a pitching coach.

The Chicago Cubs are just the most recent team who is bucking this traditional path in search of new ideas about pitching from different angles, and there are two different routes this offseason that have been taken. We’ll first look at the decision in Minnesota.