Colorado Rockies: Two coaching changes and potential candidates to fill them

On Friday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies announced that they will have at least two new coaches on their coaching staff for the 2019 season.

On Twitter on Friday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies announced that their first base coach Tony Diaz and hitting coach Duane Espy will not be returning to the club in 2019. Diaz was hired away by the Minnesota Twins as he will be promoted to their third base coach under rookie manager Rocco Baldelli.

Espy, who has been in baseball in a coaching capacity since 1979 and with the Rockies organization in some capacity since 2003, will not have his contract renewed.

As our own Aaron Hurt alluded to in May, it would only be a matter of time until the Rockies offensive woes in the past two season would turn to Espy and now, we have seen it happen.

The Rockies have a few internal candidates for the jobs vacated by Espy and Diaz. Also, with Bud Black‘s extensive history in baseball, going back to the late 1970s as a player as well as his time in front offices as well as a coach and manager, there are plenty of people that he has an association with that have coaching experience in the majors or minors that could fill the positions. So, let’s look at some of the candidates.

Internal candidates

Jeff Salazar: He is the Rockies current assistant hitting coach and he jut finished his second season as the Rockies assistant hitting coach. Prior to that, he was a hitting coach in Double-A for the Rockies for two seasons. He played in the Rockies organization from 2002 through 2006, making it to the majors in 2006. He also played in the minors for the Rockies in 2011.

If he were to be promoted to hitting coach, the Rockies would then have to find an assistant hitting coach.

Glenallen Hill: Of all the names on here, if you know the Rockies farm system, you should not find this to be surprising. There’s a few reasons why he heads the list of the names that could join Bud Black’s staff.

First off, he is the manager of the Rockies Triple-A team in Albuquerque. Secondly, other than manager, in his coaching career, he has done two other things: be a hitting coach and be a first base coach. Coincidentally, those are the two openings at the major league level.

Third, he has been a coach in the Rockies organization in some capacity since 2004, including six seasons as the Rockies first base coach from 2007 through 2012.

Fourth, he is a former teammate of Bud Black (1990 Toronto Blue Jays). Fifth, Bud Black was the Anaheim Angels pitching coach in 2001, when Glenallen Hill was on the team in his final big league season.

The two have known each other for close to 30 years, if not more. Also, a big league manager is in frequent communications with the Triple-A manager on people who could/should be called up or sent down soon.

With all of these in Hill’s favor, I would be shocked if he was not on the Rockies coaching staff in some capacity next season.

Tim Doherty: Doherty is the hitting coach under Glenallen Hill in Albuquerque. He just completed his first season in Albuquerque after being promoted from Double-A Hartford after one season there. Prior to that, he was a hitting coach in the Twins organization for 4 seasons. He never played in the major leagues or minor leagues but he came from the Twins organization after the 2016 organization.

Also, it would kind of be ironic if Doherty was named to the staff as the first manager that he had in professional baseball was Gene Glynn for the 2013 Rochester Red Wings.

Gene Glynn was one of the first hires in Rockies history as he managed in the Rockies minor league system in 1992, a year prior to the Rockies becoming a MLB team. He then was a coach in the minors in 1993 and on Don Baylor‘s staff from 1994 through 1998. He most recently was a coach for the Twins…as a third base coach, which is the exact spot that the aforementioned Tony Diaz will now fill.

Darin Everson: Everson has been in the Rockies organization since 2014. He has been a hitting coach for two of those seasons and, in the minor leagues, hitting coaches coach first base as well. He was also the manager for the Rockies in Double-A in 2015 and 2016. Last season, he was the Rockies minor league hitting and bunting coordinator.

Lee Stevens: Stevens has been a hitting coach for the past six seasons in the Rockies system and he just finished his first season in Double-A Hartford. Prior to 2018, he spent four seasons (2013-2015, 2017) at the Rockies rookie affiliate in Grand Junction and he spent 2016 in Advanced-A Modesto. Prior to becoming a coach, he spent parts of 16 seasons in baseball in North America plus two more seasons in Japan. Total, he spent parts of 11 seasons (1012 games) in the major leagues with the then-named California Angels, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, and Cleveland Indians. He is, perhaps, best known for being on of the pieces on the good end of one of the least-talked about lopsided trades in recent MLB history.

External candidates

Here we will look for some candidates that could fill the vacant spots on the Rockies coaching staff that are not currently in the organization. Also, everybody listed below either played under Bud Black as a player, coached for him previously in San Diego, were teammates with him, or a combination of the three.

Brook Jacoby: Jacoby has spent 11 seasons as a major league hitting coach, including with the Cincinnati Reds (2007-13) and the Toronto Blue Jays (2015-2018). He was just fired a few weeks ago from Toronto as they just hired a new manager, who could, perhaps, bring in an entire new staff north of the the border. Jacoby was a teammate of Bud Black in Cleveland from 1988 until Black was traded to the Blue Jays in the middle of the 1990 season.

Wally Joyner: Joyner spent parts of 16 seasons in the major leagues as a first baseman, primarily with the California/Anaheim Angels. He has spent parts of six seasons as hitting coach in the majors leagues, most recently with the Detroit Tigers (2014-2016). He was a player on the 2001 Anaheim Angels, where Bud Black was the pitching coach and, later, he was a hitting coach for Bud Black in San Diego from 2007 to 2008.

Kevin Seitzer: Seitzer is the current hitting coach of the Atlanta Braves and he just finished his fourth season in Atlanta. He has also been the hitting coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals, and Toronto Blue Jays for a combined six more seasons previously. He was teammates with Bud Black on the Royals.