4 key Pirates coaching additions that should justify their staff overhaul

Expectations were pretty high for the Pittsburgh Pirates entering the 2024-2025 offseason. They were finally in position to add at last year's trade deadline, but their key acquisitions all struggled, and the team was left without a pulse after an 8-19 August. As a result, the Bucs made no progress from their 76 wins in 2023.

The expected response was that we would finally start to see the Pirates act with some semblance of urgency. Multiple local outlets projected an uptick in payroll (which ended the season around $86 million and saw multiple notable veterans come off the books). MLB Trade Rumors projected Pittsburgh to splurge for free agents like Tyler O'Neill, David Robertson, and Michael Conforto. Everybody expected the Pirates to put their foot on the gas this winter.

Well, everybody except the Pirates themselves. After dealing from their pitching surplus for an intriguing but inexperienced first baseman (that trade is looking really great now), the team added a handful of cheap free agents (they signed five external free agents for less than $15 million total) and couldn't be bothered to even be rumored to have interest in any hitter who would represent a significant upgrade.

The phrase that has seemingly been uttered countless times throughout the winter and into spring training is "internal improvement." The Pirates believe they can get the best out of the young players they've had in-house and are putting most of their eggs in that basket.

After last season's poor conclusion, the club cut ties with hitting coach Andy Haines and bullpen coach Justin Meccage, directly addressing two of the team's prominent weaknesses. Over the winter, the Pirates hired not two, but four coaches who could wind up making a big impact in 2025.

These four coaches should assist in achieving the necessary internal improvements the Pirates are looking for.

Matt Hague, Hitting Coach

Ben Cherington went by the script and pulled from one of his former organizations when deciding on a new hitting coach, and it's reasonable to view just about any hire as an upgrade over Haines, but there's legitimate intrigue to what Hague brings to the table.

Recently tabbed by FanGraphs as "one of the best young hitting coaches in the game," Hague had a brief career as a player from 2012-2015 with the Pirates and Blue Jays. He burst onto the scene in spring training 2012, where he hit .400 (earning himself the nickname "The Hit Collector") and tied for the league lead in home runs with some other guys named Freddie Freeman and Albert Pujols.

Hague joined the Blue Jays' minor league coaching staff in 2020, climbing the ranks before ultimately joining the MLB staff in 2024, where he coached alongside former AL MVP Don Mattingly. His ascension through Toronto's system coincided with that of Spencer Horwitz, whom the Pirates acquired at the Winter Meetings.

Hague has also worked extensively with Pirates shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who spent the first half of 2024 with Toronto and posted by far the best offensive numbers of his career (.292/.338/.420) before fading badly after a deadline deal to Pittsburgh. Kiner-Falefa praised Hague's "really good understanding of analytics" paired with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to find success in a batter's box.

Hague has also emphasized the importance of individual work with hitters, which would run counter to the organization-wide philosophy that was previously instituted. The Pirates are hoping that this approach will unlock new levels of success out of hitters like Jack Suwinski, Henry Davis, and Ke'Bryan Hayes, which would go a long way toward the club taking a step forward in 2025.

Brent Strom, Assistant Pitching Coach

The Pirates went out of their way to create a position for a coach whom they were probably surprised became available. Strom has a reputation as one of the best pitching coaches of this century. He's been in the dugout for four of the last eight World Series (three with Houston, one with Arizona) but was made the scapegoat after the Diamondbacks, who won 89 games and led MLB in runs scored, missed last year's postseason on a tiebreak.

Since 2015, seven pitchers under Strom's tutelage have received Cy Young votes, including Dallas Keuchel's stunning victory in 2015, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole getting the top two AL spots in 2019, and Zac Gallen, who found himself on the ballot twice, including a 2023 campaign where he was a finalist and received a first-place vote.

Strom seemed to have transformed the trajectory of starters like Verlander, Cole, Keuchel, Gallen, Zack Greinke, Charlie Morton, and Merrill Kelly. There may be no better candidate to enable Mitch Keller to take another step while setting the course for young pitchers like Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, and Bubba Chandler, who have some of the highest ceilings of any arms in the sport.

While Strom isn't specifically overseeing the bullpen (we'll get there in a minute), that was a strong unit on both of his previous teams as well. Four previously unheralded pitchers (Will Harris, Chris Devenski, Ryan Pressly, Joe Mantiply) all received All-Star nods while pitching out of Strom's bullpens. That bodes well for a Pirates team that needs a bounce-back from David Bednar and is looking for other arms like Colin Holderman, Dennis Santana, Carmen Mlodzinski, Kyle Nicolas, and Justin Lawrence to step up in leverage roles.

Miguel Perez, Bullpen Coach

Perez is the only member of this group who was promoted from within. While he is new to coaching at the major league level, he's far from a newcomer when it comes to the Pirates organization.

A catcher in his playing days, Perez's MLB playing career consisted of three plate appearances and two innings behind the plate with the Reds in 2005. As a minor leaguer, Perez was acquired by the Pirates six times, and this familiarity led to him joining the coaching ranks in 2013 and eventually becoming the manager of the Rookie League Bristol Pirates in 2017.

Perez climbed the minor league ladder as a manager, spending two seasons in Bristol, one in Low-A Greensboro, one in Double-A Altoona, and three in Triple-A Indianapolis. After being introduced as the new bullpen coach, Perez told the media that he sees his job as "creating winning mentalities and preparing guys for certain situations." He also recounted the joys of telling players of their promotions to the big leagues and the relationships he's built with those pitchers.

Many of those guys who pitched for Perez throughout the minors could factor into the team's bullpen in 2025. Among those are Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, Isaac Mattson, Carmen Mlodzinski, Dauri Moreta, Kyle Nicolas, Johan Oviedo, Yohan Ramirez, and Hunter Stratton. Additionally, he has overseen rehab assignments of pitchers like David Bednar, Colin Holderman, and Ryan Borucki.

Perez's experience handling pitchers as a player makes him a solid choice to lead the Bucs' young bullpen, and his pre-existing relationships with many of those players is certainly an added bonus.

Daniel Vogelbach, Special Assistant to the Hitting Department

Still playing in the majors as recently as last season, Vogelbach joining the Pirates' coaching staff signaled the official conclusion of his playing career. He was a logical fit for his new position for multiple reasons.

Vogelbach was an above-average hitter across his nine MLB seasons, with his .219/.340/.405 slash resulting in a 108 wRC+. He spent almost four months as the Pirates' primary designated hitter in 2022, before a July swap with the Mets netted the Bucs Colin Holderman. He spent the final season of his career in Toronto with Matt Hague, but their ties go back further than that.

Hague revealed during a recent Pirates broadcast that his relationship with Vogelbach actually dates back to 2018, when both were in camp vying for roster spots with the Mariners. Vogelbach appeared in 37 games with Seattle that season, was an All-Star the following season, and had been on Hague's radar ever since their spring together.

His familiarity with the Pirates organization, his pre-existing relationship with Hague, and his firsthand knowledge of hitting (and of current pitchers) all proved to be attractive traits. They created a new position specifically for him; he's not the Assistant Hitting Coach (Christian Marrero was retained and still holds that title).

He is expected to bounce between Pittsburgh and the club's minor league affiliates, working with specific hitters to provide feedback and insight while building his own relationships, which he feels is of utmost importance. Some will recall Vogelbach as a liability, as he provided practically zero value in the field and on the basepaths as a player. But he was a successful hitter for an extended period of time, and his expertise is valuable, especially to the Pirates' many young hitters.