Former Colorado Rockies coach Tim Doherty joins Washington Nationals

Former Colorado Rockies major league coach and de facto third hitting coach Tim Doherty has latched on with the Washington Nationals in their minor league system.

Doherty, 55, was on the Colorado Rockies coaching staff in 2021 before the Rockies announced that he and assistant Jeff Salazar would not be returning to the coaching staff in 2022. Doherty and Salazar were replaced by former New York Yankees assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere and former Rockies minor league coach Andy González, both as official “assistant hitting coaches.”

Former Colorado Rockies coach Tim Doherty is joining the Washington Nationals in the minor leagues.

After leaving the Colorado Rockies, Tim Doherty is joining the Washington Nationals as their hitting coach at Advanced-A in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Doherty is one of a slew of new hires to the Nationals organization in their player development as they had, by far, the smallest player development staff in 2021, partially due to the pandemic, as Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post reported back in December.

Prior to joining the Rockies coaching staff in 2021, Doherty was in the Rocking minor league system. He was their hitting coach at Triple-A Albuquerque in both 2018 and 2019. He was slated to be there again in 2020 but he wasn’t since the pandemic wiped the minor league season out.

He was promoted to Albuquerque from Double-A Hartford, where he was their hitting coach in 2017 and he was with Rookie-level Grand Junction in 2016, which was his first year in the Rockies organization.

Prior to joining the Rockies, Doherty was the Triple-A hitting coach for the Minnesota Twins from 2013 through 2016. He joined them after he was the assistant hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox in 2012. The head hitting coach there in 2012 was Dave Magadan, who was the Rockies head hitting coach in 2021 and still is entering 2022.

Among others joining the Washington Nationals are former Boston Red Sox World Series Champions Bill Mueller and Coco Crisp, former Mets bench coach Dave Jauss, and former Phillies hitting coach Joe Dillon.