KNBR
SAN DIEGO — The Giants are close to announcing what will be the strangest coaching staff in Major League Baseball.
It’s possible the announcement comes Tuesday, though Gabe Kapler said there are still some moving pieces with the pitching side. When it comes, it promises to be filled with a ton of names, many of whom relatively unknown, and titles that don’t come as clean as pitching coach, hitting coach, bench coach.
Just as the Giants’ front office aspires to be a blend of ideas rather than a strict hierarchy of bosses and underlings, the coaching staff will be a melding of diversity of thought without truly defined roles.
After the season, the Giants sought feedback from players about what the clubhouse and dugout need. Their answer, apparently, is something much different.
“I think the philosophy would be collaboration,” Kapler said Monday from the team’s Winter Meetings hotel suite. “And like I said, working together as a team rather than working in individual silos. Sometimes you can have a hitting coach that doesn’t want to bring other people in and work as a group to make really good decisions for the hitters or give hitters real good feedback. I think what we’re trying to design is a team of coaches where we’re inviting each other into our spaces to have meaningful conversations about how to get players better. And we’re encouraging debate and back-and-forth conversations to get the best possible outcomes from players.”
Yep, the Giants are embracing debate. The first coach-hiring that leaked was Donnie Ecker, who is a hitting coach but may not be the hitting coach; NBC Sports Bay Area reported there may be three coaches tasked with heading up the hitting side.
Ecker is 33 — one year older than Buster Posey — and just a few years removed from being a coach at Los Altos High School. So many of the hires will surprise, especially as the Giants look through the college ranks for pitching coaches.
“I think we’re trying to bring in a wide variety of different experiences,” Kapler said. “So, some coaches that are kind of newer, but also that have studied the game from a different perspective and then some coaches that have seen the game for a really long time and in maybe a way that Major League Baseball hasn’t seen. And giving them all an opportunity to bring their ideas to the table.”
The conventional wisdom is that Kapler, 44 and with just two years of big-league managerial experience, would seek an established dugout voice for his bench coach. The traditional thought is wrong, with Kapler citing Ron Wotus — the longtime Giants staple who will return as third-base coach — as the experienced voice he needs. Kapler said he will have someone next to him during games for added wisdom, but he may not have the same typical bench-coach responsibilities nor title.
For longtime major league experience, though, there is just one person to lean on.
“Part of the position that Ron is going to be in is a mentor to the other coaches,” Kapler said. “Obviously playing a very meaningful role at third base, but we may have a younger coach responsible for infielders. But Ron Wotus, his spot and his resume combined is inevitably going to make that coach better and by extension our players better.”