Clint Hurdle’s coaching staff is starting to come together, and it’s got a lot of familiar faces on it. This morning Dejan Kovacevic reported that Jeff Banister and Ray Searage will join Hurdle’s staff as third base coach and pitching coach, respectively, while the Bucs’ minor league hitting coordinator Gregg Ritchie will join the staff as the hitting coach. The only new face to the organization is Nick Leyva, Cito Gaston’s old bench coach in Toronto who will reprise that role on Hurdle’s staff.
We’ve known for a while that the Pirates wanted to keep Searage as pitching coach and it’s not surprising they want to keep Banister around, either, given how late he lasted into the manager search. Given all of the young players in Pittsburgh, I think it makes sense to bring some of the guys that have worked with these players up to the big league staff and mix them in with Hurdle and the guys he wants to bring in.
