Pittsburgh Pirates Fire Hitting Coaches

In their first official move of the offseason, the Pittsburgh Pirates have announced changes to their coaching staff

Since 2014, Jeff Branson has been the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His assistant hitting coach during this time was Jeff Livesey. However, neither will return with the Pirates in 2019.

On Monday afternoon, the Pirates announced that neither Branson nor Livesey will return in 2019.  “We appreciate all of the time, energy and effort that Jeff and Jeff put into the team. Both are high-character, hard-working, good baseball men. We felt that this was the right time to take our Major League hitting program in a different direction,” Pirate general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement released by the team on Monday.

Under Branson’s watch, the Pirates had a potent offense in 2014 and 2015. But the team’s offensive output as continually regressed since 2015. Additionally, highly prized hitting prospects such as Gregory Polanco, Josh Bell, and Kevin Newman have all struggled with their development under Branson.

In 2018 the Pirates ranked 20th in Major League Baseball in runs scored with 692 (4.3 runs per game). Their 157 home runs was sixth lowest in the Majors, and this came one year after the Bucs ranked next to last in baseball in home runs hit with 151.

Firing Branson and Livesey is a move that was overdue. This is a move that should have come following the 2017 season, or at some point during the 2018 season when the Pirate offense was struggling. But, as the old saying goes, better late than never.

With Branson and Livesey moving on to whatever their career’s hold next, it is now up to Clint Hurdle to replace them on his coaching staff. Hurdle made his mark as a hitting coach, so, he should be able to identify a talented coach capable of helping a Pirate lineup that has more than enough good hitters improve in 2019.