Former Twins longtime manager Ron Gardenhire will be the next skipper for the Detroit Tigers.
He was officially named manager on Oct. 20 and he’s starting to assemble a staff that looks awfully familiar to Twins fans.
According to Star Tribune, Gardenhire plucked current Twins bench coach Joe Vavra, who will serve as the Tigers’ first-ever quality control coach – which is a new position that teams from around the league are using.
He’s also set to bring in former pitching coach Rick Anderson as the team’s bullpen coach.
Both Gardy and Anderson were together with the Twins from 2002-14 up until Gardenhire was relieved of his duties.
Anderson hasn’t been with a Major League club since being let go by the Twins and it’s not exactly clear what he’s been up to over the past three years.
What we do know is that during that last four years of Anderson’s tenure as pitching coach, Minnesota ranked second-to-last or dead last in ERA in the American League.
- 2011: 4.58 ERA 13th in the AL
- 2012: 4.77 ERA 13th in the AL
- 2013: 4.55 ERA 14th in the AL
- 2014: 4.57 ERA 15th in the AL.
Note: the American League expanded from 14 to 15 teams in 2013, when the Houston Astros moved from the National League.
Now, not all the blame can be put on Anderson, as he wasn’t the one on the mound. However his “pitch to contact philosophy” is likely not to get him very far in Detroit.
Take a look at this year’s leaders in strikeouts during the regular season – the top eight teams were all playoff teams this season.
- Cleveland Indians: 1,614
- Houston Astros: 1,593
- Boston Red Sox: 1,580
- New York Yankees: 1,560
- Los Angeles Dodgers: 1,549
- Arizona Diamondbacks: 1,482
- Washington Nationals: 1,457
- Chicago Cubs: 1,439
Plus, the Tigers finished dead last in bullpen ERA last season, so good luck fixing that.
Gardenhire ended up tabbing Chris Bosio as his pitching coach, according to the Chicago Tribune, as Bosio held the same position with the Chicago Cubs.
Bosio could turn out to be a solid hire and so could Vavra – as for Anderson, maybe he can turn things around, but his past resume isn’t helping him.
