Pittsburgh Pirates Add Tarrik Brock To Their Coaching Staff

The Pittsburgh Pirates coaching staff is continuing to fall into place

Since being hired as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates on November 27th Derek Shelton has been busy assembling his coaching staff. Shelton has retained hitting coach Rick Eckstein, third base/infield coach Joey Cora and assistant pitching coach Justin Meccage, who is now the team’s bullpen coach.

Shelton has also made multiple outside hires. First, Pittsburgh native and ex-Pirate Don Kelly was hired as Shelton’s bench coach. Then earlier this past week, Oscar Marin was hired as the team’s new pitching coach. On Friday, Shelton made another addition to his staff.

46-year-old Tarrik Brock was hired as the Pirates new first base coach on Friday. Brock comes to Pittsburgh from the Dodgers. With the Dodgers, Brock served as the organization’s minor league outfield and base running coordinator for the past three seasons.

Brock will also serve as the teams outfield and base running instructor. He replaces Kimera Bartee who served as the Pirates first base coach, as well as outfield and base running instructor under previous manager Clint Hurdle.

From 2007 through 2013 Brock served as the outfield and base running coordinator for the Miami Marlins. In 2014 he was the Houston Astros first base coach. He then joined the San Diego Padres as a minor league coordinator in 2015, before serves as their first base coach in 2016. After his two years in San Diego he took the position with the Dodgers that he served in the past three seasons.

Brock will look to improve the Pirates who were a bad base running team in 2019. During the 2019 season the Pirates made 60 outs on the base paths which was the second most in the Majors.

Next up for Shelton is to hire an assistant hitting coach to replace Jacob Cruz who took the same position with the Milwaukee Brewers. Once that hire is made there will be just one opening left on the Pirate coaching staff.