12) Mark Budzinski
Mark Budzinski is one of a few under-the-radar picks we have on our list but, in 2022, he will be entering his fourth season as the first base coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Budzinski, 48, was a player in the minor leagues from 1995 through 2005, getting to the majors for seven plate appearances with Cincinnati in 2003. He also played for Cleveland, the Cubs, Brewers, and Phillies in the minors.
After he retired, he decided to go into real estate but a decade later, he came back into baseball and was promoted to the majors very quickly. His first job back in baseball was as Cleveland’s manager at Single-A Lake County in 2014 so they drafted him and gave him his first coaching job as well. He spent the next two seasons as manager at Advanced-A Lynchburg before being promoted to their Double-A manager in 2017.
In 2018, he joined Cleveland’s MLB coaching staff as an MLB coach and he joined the Toronto Blue Jays (whose CEO Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins were both with Cleveland when Budzinski was a player and when he started as a coach again) their first base coach in 2019, where he still is today.