With Dusty Baker now the manager of the Washington Nationals, he is starting to put his coaching staff together for the 2016 season. One of those spots has reportedly been filled. According to William Ladson of MLB.com. the Nats will be hiring former Rangers’ pitching coach, Mike Maddux, to be their pitching coach:
Mike Maddux is likely to be named pitching coach of the Nationals. https://t.co/yGl1p9fX0H will have more.
— William Ladson (@ladsonbill24) November 4, 2015
Maddux had been the pitching coach for the Rangers for seven straight seasons, beginning in 2009. His career as a Major League pitching coach began in 2003 when he was the coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. He is also known as the brother of former Brave and Hall-Of-Fame pitcher Greg Maddux.
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Maddux, who is well regarded as one of the best pitching coaches in the game, did have a 15-year playing career in the big leagues. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth round of the 1982 MLB Draft and made his debut with the Phillies in 1986. He was 39-37 in 472 games (48 starts) with a 4.05 ERA in his career with Philadelphia, Dodgers, Padres, Mets, Pirates, Red Sox, Mariners, Expos, and Astros. His final game in the big leagues was in 2000 with Houston.
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The now 54-year-old will get a chance to be the coach of a rotation that despite losing Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister to free agency, will still feature two pitchers at the front of the rotation in Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, a veteran left-hander in Gio Gonzalez, and young pitching prospects such as A.J. Cole and, down the road, Lucas Giolito.
When it was announced that Baker would be the choice for manager, the first concern was about how Baker handled young pitchers at his three prior manager spots. However, by bringing in a coach like Maddux who has handled young pitching from his time with the Rangers such as Martin Perez and Derek Holland (to name a couple), that adds more experience to this new coaching staff.
Maddux will be taking over the role that was previously held by Steve McCatty. McCatty was the pitching coach with the Nationals from 2009-2015. He was in the running for the Tigers’ pitching coach spot until Rich Dubee was chosen by the Detroit front office. All in all, this is a good hire for the Nationals’ coaching staff and we wait to see which other coaches will join Baker in the Nation’s Capital.