PHOENIX, Nov. 30 \u2014 An active off-season Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> coaching staff overhaul culminated with five staff hirings Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n The hitting staff hired three of the five. One was a new face, while the other two were with the team in 2021. The new face is Damion Easley, who will be the Assistant Major League Hitting Coach. Easley, a retired major league infielder, played 90 games with the Diamondbacks in 2006. As a coach, he was in the San Diego Padres\u2019 organization for 10 seasons. Beginning in 2019, he was on the major league staff as the infield\/assistant hitting coach (2019) and hitting coach (2020-21).<\/p>\n The two returning faces are Drew Hedman and Rick Short. Hedman was the run production coordinator from 2019-June 2021, while Short was the hitting coach for the Triple-A Reno Aces in May and June 2021. When the Diamondbacks dismissed Darnell Coles and Eric Hinske from their roles as hitting coach and assistant hitting coach, respectively, Hedman and Short became the co-hitting coaches.<\/p>\n For 2022, Hedman and Short will be \u201chybrid\u201d coaches. Hedman carry the title of Assistant Major League Hitting Coach and Director of Minor League Hitting. Short\u2019s role will be Assistant Major League Hitting Coach and Assistant Minor League Hitting Coordinator. They will answer to new major league hitting coach Joe Mather, whom the Diamondbacks hired in October.<\/p>\n The other two new hires from Tuesday will assist with the pitchers. Both will also be hybrid coaches, officially called Assistant Major League Pitching Coach\/Minor League Pitching Coordinator. One is Dan Carlson, and the other is Barry Enright. Both played for the Diamondbacks in their careers, Carlson in 1999 and Enright in 2010-11.<\/p>\n They also were promoted from within the Diamondbacks\u2019 minor league coaching staff. Carlson has spent the last eight seasons as the Minor League Pitching Coordinator, while Enright has been the pitching coach for Short-Season A Hillsboro (2019), Single-A Kane County (2020), and Low-A Visalia (2021). Carlson and Enright will join new pitching coach Brent Strom and returning bullpen coach Mike Fetters.<\/p>\n Manager Torey Lovullo told reporters via Zoom that the goal of having hybrid coaches is \u201ccontinuity\u201d between the major and minor leagues. \u201cThat\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have really good young players inside of our system. They’re getting ready to emerge. Player development is the backbone of our organization.\u201d Rotating coaches between the majors of minor leagues is something Lovullo called \u201ca very healthy way for us to create continuity and make sure that we’re all pulling on the same rope in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Hedman and Short will not be in the same place at the same time. One will be in the majors for a bit while the other is in the minors. Periodically, they will switch sites. The same will hold true for Carlson and Enright, although the staff is still working out who will be where for what percent of the time. \u201cit’s still an evolving process for us,\u201d Lovullo explained. \u201cWe’re gonna make sure that we have everybody positioned in the right place at the right time without overlapping or having too many coaches in one place at one time. We\u2019ve got to make sure we’re spread out the right way.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that I’ve looked at it is the more coaches, the more teachers, the more eyes you have on players, the better off you’re going to be in making your evaluations. I think we added a lot of really quality baseball people to make those types of evaluations.\u201d<\/p>\n Hybrid coaches are a relatively new development in Major League Baseball, but Lovullo said \u201ca lot of teams are doing it, and they\u2019re having a lot of success with it.\u201d Two teams that used them last season are the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, who won 107 and 106 games, respectively.<\/p>\n The 2022 Arizona Diamondbacks coaching staff has now been finalized. In addition to the names already mentioned, 2021 bench coach Luis \u201cPipe\u201d Urueta will be the coordinator for major league player development and instruction. He will be responsible for scheduling group and individual coaching sessions for each major league player as needed. Replacing him as bench coach will be Jeff Banister, who joined the staff in late October.<\/p>\n The other returning coaches are Dave McKay and Tony Perezchica. McKay, who missed most of 2021 with internal injuries suffered from a fall in spring training, will be the first base coach and outfielder coach. Perezchica, the third base coach, will also work with the infielders.<\/p>\n Major league player development is something Lovullo said the team must improve. \u201cUsed to be, in years past, when you got to Triple-A, you tightened up all of your skills. By the time you got the big leagues, you\u2019d better have had it figured out. If you didn’t, you got sent out. Well, that’s not the case anymore. You can see some of the some of the patience that we’ve had with some of our players, and it’s paying off handsomely. We want to shorten that gap, and we want to develop players at the big-league level.<\/p>\n \u201cThat just goes doesn’t just go for younger players. It\u2019s older players as well. So there’s a lot to learn every single day, no matter what. A wise man once said that it’s what you learned after you think you’ve learned everything that matters the most.\u201d<\/p>\n That wise man? John Wooden<\/a><\/strong>. Given the results of the past two seasons \u2014 and given how few free agent signings the Diamondbacks have done in the meantime \u2014 applying Wooden\u2019s philosophies to major league player development might be the best available way to ensure better results in the win-loss column.<\/p>\nThe New Members of the Diamondbacks Coaching Staff<\/h3>\n
New Hitting Coaches<\/h4>\n
New Pitching Coaches<\/h4>\n
Diamondbacks Coaching Staff Embraces \u201cHybrid\u201d Coaches<\/h3>\n
2022 Diamondbacks Coaching Staff<\/h3>\n
Continuing Development in the Majors<\/h3>\n
Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>