Pirates parting ways with hitting coach, bullpen coach

The Pirates are parting ways with hitting coach Andy Haines and bullpen coach Justin Meccage, Andrew Destin and Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Monday. It’s not clear whether there’ll be other changes to Derek Shelton’s staff.

Pittsburgh hired Haines to replace Rick Eckstein over the 2021-22 offseason. The 47-year-old had spent the previous three seasons as the hitting coach in Milwaukee and logged one year as an assistant with the Cubs. The Bucs ranked 26th in scoring over the past three seasons. They were 24th with 665 runs this year while their .234/.301/.371 batting line placed them in the bottom third of MLB in all three slash stats.

As is the case with any coach, it’s difficult to judge Haines’ work based on the results alone. PNC Park isn’t an easy venue for hitters and the Bucs are light on proven offensive contributors beyond Bryan Reynolds and an aging Andrew McCutchen. Pittsburgh simply hasn’t gotten enough development from its young hitters in recent seasons. By measure of wRC+, only four of the 13 Pirates hitters with at least 200 plate appearances had above-average offensive performances. Reynolds and McCutchen were joined in that regard by Joey Bart and Oneil Cruz.

Bart, a reclamation flier from the Giants, dramatically cut his strikeouts and hit .265/.337/.462 in 80 games. The toolsy Cruz had his first 20-20 season, though he still struck out in more than 30 percent of his plate appearances. While this was a successful year for Bart and Cruz, the Pirates had a handful of disappointments.

Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jack Suwinski were expected to be key contributors, but had terrible seasons. Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo didn’t make much of an impact. Former first overall pick Henry Davis has hit .191/.283/.307 in 99 games over the past two seasons. Buy-low free-agent pickups Rowdy Tellez and Michael A. Taylor didn’t pan out, nor did bringing in Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan De La Cruz provide a jolt at the deadline. That’s certainly not all on the hitting coach, yet there’s no question the offense has held the Pirates back from breaking out of a rebuild that’ll be entering Year 6 under Shelton and GM Ben Cherington.

Pittsburgh added Meccage to the staff in 2018 as an assistant pitching coach. He moved to bullpen coach going into 2020 and has held the position for five seasons. Pittsburgh’s bullpen had the fourth highest ERA in the majors this season, allowing 4.49 earned runs per nine. It ranked 20th in strikeout percentage (22.9) while posting the seventh-worst walk rate (10 percent).

Pittsburgh coaxed a breakout year from waiver claim Dennis Santana and got decent production out of Carmen Mlodzinski, Colin Holderman, Luis Ortiz and $10.5M free-agent pickup Aroldis Chapman. None of those players are lockdown late-game weapons, though. David Bednar was expected to anchor the group out of the ninth inning. He had a very poor season, struggling to a 5.77 ERA with a dip in strikeouts and a spike in home runs to lose the closing job. Bednar had broken out as one of the game’s best relievers under Meccage’s tutelage between 2021-23.