In the past 24 hours, the Pittsburgh Pirates have replaced their hitting coach and bullpen coach with former major leaguers Matt Hague and Brent Strom. Both moves should make the team stronger in the 2025 season.
For years, the Pirates’ bats have not been great, and many angry fans last year called for the firing of hitting coach Andy Haines. Right after the season ended, the Pirates fired Haines, along with bullpen coach Justin Meccage, who had been with the team since 2018.
Hague and Strom are amazing replacements, as both have plenty of coaching and playing experience.
Hague had an 11-year playing career but only three of those were in the majors, playing for the Pirates and Blue Jays from 2012 to 2015.
In 2020, he was named the hitting coach for the AA affiliate of the Blue Jays, and then in 2023, was named to the same position for the AAA affiliate of the team. Last season, he got promoted to be the assistant hitting coach for the Blue Jays.
With all of his minor league coaching experience, he should be able to help young hitters get used to major league pitching and fix mistakes that they make.
Strom also had an 11-year playing career, but spent more time in the major leagues than Hague. He spent five seasons in the majors with three different teams.
Strom has been a pitching coach since 1992, splitting his time between the majors and minor league. He is best known for being the pitching coach for the Astros and coaching guys like Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, who ended up winning Cy Young awards.
Strom will be the assistant pitching coach, and with his help, the many young pitchers on the team should see major improvements.
The team’s current pitching coach, Oscar Marin, is not a bad coach, but he can learn some things from Strom and be more successful in the future.
Overall, even though these are not big names as coaches, they will help improve the team and its young players.
