Colorado Rockies: Five potential assistant hitting coach candidates for 2022

The Colorado Rockies announced that recently that they relieved both assistant hitting coach Jeff Salazar and major league coach Tim Doherty (who was a de facto third hitting coach) of their duties.

In the coming weeks, the Rockies will hire a replacement for Salazar and, perhaps, a third hitting coach, like Doherty was in 2021.

On Monday, we made the case that the Rockies need to hire a third hitting coach and follow in the footsteps of the San Francisco Giants and other teams, like the Arizona Diamondbacks, in hiring even more coaches. Some teams are going with four pitching coaches (pitching coach, bullpen coach, assistant pitching coach, and another coach, with a title that’s different depending on the team).

But today, we will take a look at some possible fits for the Colorado Rockies in a hitting coach position.

Cesar Galvez could be a fit as an assistant hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies.

Cesar Galvez was a coach for the Colorado Rockies Triple-A team, the Albuquerque Isotopes, in 2021 and he has a lot of experience in the Rockies organization as a player and coach.

Galvez, who is only 30, would be one of the youngest coaches in the majors if he was named to the staff in Albuquerque for the 2021 season. He played with the Rockies in the minors from 2010 through 2016, making it up to Triple-A.

But he has skyrocketed through the Rockies minor league ranks as he was a hitting coach for Short-A Boise in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, he was promoted to become the manager of Boise but the Rockies elevated him up to a coaching role in Albuquerque for 2021.

Chris Denorfia has also made an impression on the Colorado Rockies

Chris Denorfia was the manager for the Colorado Rockies at Double-A Hartford in 2021 after he joined the organization in 2020, when he was supposed to manage Hartford before the pandemic. He joined the Rockies from the Cubs organization when he was a special assistant in 2018 and a quality control coach for them in 2019.

Before that, Denorfia, 40, was with the Rockies as a minor league player in 2017 before retiring. Before he came to the Rockies, he was with a few other teams in the minors after he spent time in the majors as an outfielder from 2005 through 2015.

During that playing career, he spent most of his playing time with San Diego (2010-2014). His manager for that time? Current Rockies manager Bud Black.

Eric Hinske has a lot of MLB experience as a coach and player

Eric Hinske, 44, spent part of 12 seasons in the majors as a player, winning the 2002 AL Rookie of the Year Award and he won two World Series as a player.

But since he last played in the majors in 2013, Hinske has bounced around to a few different teams in a coaching capacity. In 2014, he became an MLB coach the season after he played as he became the first base coach for the Chicago Cubs. Before the 2016 season, he changed his position with the Cubs as he became their assistant hitting coach (where he was part of a third team to win the World Series in less than a decade).

Before 2018, he became the head hitting coach for the Angels, and for the 2019 season, he became the assistant hitting coach for the Diamondbacks before he was fired mid-season in 2021.

Among those World Series-winning teams that he was on, the first one was with the 2007 Boston Red Sox, who defeated the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. His hitting coach for that team? Current Rockies hitting coach Dave Magadan.

Vinny Castilla is the biggest name on the list … and the one Colorado Rockies fans would love to have

Make no mistake about it, if Colorado Rockies legend Vinny Castilla wants to become a full-time hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies, he has the job.

The thing is that the former Blake Street Bomber, 54, is a special assistant to Bill Schmidt currently and he doesn’t have to travel with the team.

Would he want to travel and work, essentially, more than full-time for seven to eight months of the year? When we spoke with him in an exclusive conversation in 2019, he said that he would definitely consider it, especially if he liked managing in Mexico in the winter. But he was officially fired as manager in May of 2020.

He would be a huge help to the full-time coaching staff as he would be another native Spanish speaker on the staff and he would obviously be someone who knows how to play at altitude.

Also, in addition to his time as a special assistant, he has worked with hitting coach Dave Magadan before as Magadan was Castilla’s hitting coach on the San Diego Padres in 2006, which was Castilla’s final season in the majors.

Vinny Castilla would be the ultimate guy for Colorado Rockies fans if he wanted to become a full-time coach.

There will, undoubtedly, be other people that the Rockies consider both internally and externally but there are five potential guys that the Rockies will consider for at least one and potentially more openings this offseason.

Which of these would like to see join the Rockies coaching staff in 2022? Are there any others you’d like to see join? Let us know what you think on our Twitter (@RoxPileFS).