The Boston Red Sox hired Andrew Bailey as their pitching coach on Tuesday. Bailey, who pitched in Boston from 2012-2013, was the Giants pitching coach from 2020-2023. Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Andrew Bailey was hired Tuesday as pitching coach of the Boston Red Sox after four seasons in the same role with the San Francisco Giants.
He replaced Dave Bush, Boston’s pitching coach for the past four seasons.
The Red Sox pitching staff ranked 21st in ERA (4.52) among major league teams in 2023. Boston finished 22nd among major league teams in starter ERA (4.68). The Red Sox were 27th in starter total innings (7741/3), which overworked the bullpen. The Sox finished with the fourth most reliever innings (6552/3).
A two-time All-Star, the 39-year-old Bailey was 16-14 with a 3.12 ERA and 95 saves in eight seasons with Oakland (2009-11), Boston (2012-13), the New York Yankees (2015), Philadelphia (2016) and the Los Angeles Angels (2016-17).
He spent 2018 as an Angels coaching assistant and video replay coordinator and 2019 as the Angels’ bullpen coach. He switched to the Giants to work under Manager Gabe Kapler, who was fired after the season and replaced by Bob Melvin.
Bailey is director of development for the Strike 3 Foundation, founded in 2008 by Craig Breslow, hired last month as Boston’s chief baseball officer. The organization raises money for childhood cancer research. Bailey and Breslow were teammates on the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox.
But the Red Sox actually targeted Bailey as their next pitching coach even before hiring Breslow, a source told MassLive. Bailey, who has a home in Connecticut, also interviewed to be the Yankees’ bench coach and reportedly drew interest from the Orioles, Marlins and White Sox as a pitching coach.
PADRES: San Diego hired Mike Shildt as manager two years after he was suddenly fired by the St. Louis Cardinals following a third straight playoff appearance.
The Padres announced Shildt was given a two-year contract.
Shildt replaces Bob Melvin, who was hired away by the San Francisco Giants on Oct. 25 with a year left on his contract with the Padres. That ended a fractured two-year relationship with GM A.J. Preller.
Shildt was voted NL Manager of the Year in 2019 with the Cardinals. He takes over a big-spending team that flopped dramatically in 2023, a year after making a stirring run to the NL Championship Series and after increasing its Opening-Day payroll to $258 million, third highest in the majors.
Shildt has been a senior advisor to the major league staff and player development department with the Padres since 2022. His familiarity with the team’s top minor league prospects could be an added bonus in guiding a big-league roster led by stars Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts.
Shildt filled in as third-base coach early in the 2023 season after Matt Williams had colon cancer surgery. The previous season, Shildt also stepped in as third-base coach, first-base coach and bench coach due to various medical situations.
He is San Diego’s third manager in four seasons and the fifth full-time manager under Preller since midway through the 2015 season. Preller’s teams have never won a division title, and Melvin was the only manager to guide the Padres to consecutive winning seasons under the GM.
Preller and Melvin said they could work together next year. But when the Giants asked for permission to interview Melvin, the Padres consented, and Melvin was hired soon after by his hometown team.
PLAYOFF SHARES: A full postseason share for the World Series champion Texas Rangers totaled $506,263, just down from the record set when the Houston Astros won in 2022, but the total pool increased to the most in Major League Baseball history.
The pool of $107.8 million topped last year’s $107.5 million in the first season of expanded playoffs but the share was down from Houston’s $516,347.
Texas split $38.8 million into 64 full shares, 12.56 partial shares and $48,000 in cash awards, the commissioner’s office said Tuesday. The Astros last year divided their pool into 59 full shares, 14.14 partial shares and $940,000 in cash awards.
A full share for NL champion Arizona came to $313,634, up from $296,255 for Philadelphia last year. The Diamondbacks divided $25.9 million into 71 full shares and 11.49 partial shares.
ANGELS: Los Angeles hired Barry Enright to be their pitching coach.
Manager Ron Washington gave the job to the 37-year-old Enright, who has only been in coaching for five years. He was a pitching coach in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ system from 2019-21, and he spent the past two years as their assistant major league pitching coach and minor league pitching coordinator.
The Angels also hired veteran coach Tim Laker to be their offensive coordinator, working with new hitting coach Johnny Washington and the Angels’ hitters.
ATHLETICS: Right-hander Osvaldo Bido agreed to a one-year contract with the Athletics after he was let go by the Pirates.
Bido gets a $750,000 salary while in the major leagues – $10,000 above the minimum – and $200,000 salary in the minors.
YANKEES: The Yankees hired Brad Ausmus to replace Carlos Mendoza as bench coach for manager Aaron Boone.
Ausmus managed Detroit from 2014-17 and the Los Angeles Angels in 2019, winning the AL Central at 90-72 in his first season with the Tigers before Baltimore swept Detroit in a Division Series.
Now 54, Ausmus spent 2022 as the Oakland Athletics’ bench coach for manager Bob Melvin.
OBIT: Three-time All-Star relief pitcher Willie Hernández, who won the 1984 AL Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards for the World Series champion Detroit Tigers, has died. He was 69.
Tigers spokesman Chad Crunk said that Hernández died in Florida and the team confirmed Hernández’s death with his family. No cause was announced.
The left-handed Hernández had a 13-year career but is mostly known for his role as the closer on one of the most dominant teams in the past 40 years. The 1984 Tigers, led by Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and Jack Morris, opened 35-5 and cruised to the AL East title with a 104-58 mark before sweeping Kansas City in the AL Championship Series and beating San Diego in a five-games World Series.
WHITE SOX: Veteran shortstop Paul DeJong has agreed to a one-year contract with the Chicago White Sox, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
The 30-year-old DeJong, who grew up in Antioch and attended Illinois State, played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2017 until he was traded to Toronto this past Aug. 1. He was released by the Blue Jays on Aug. 21 and signed two days later with San Francisco.
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