Pirates to hire hitting coach Andy Haines after 3-year stint with Brewers

The Pittsburgh Pirates have an agreement in place to name Andy Haines as their hitting coach, a source confirmed to the Tribune-Review, filling one of the two vacancies on the major league coaching staff.

The Pirates have yet to announce the hire.

Haines will replace Rick Eckstein, who was fired Aug. 30 after two-plus seasons as the Pirates ranked last in the majors in home runs, RBIs, runs, slugging percentage, OPS and OPS+ and batting average with runners in scoring position. The Pirates kept assistant hitting coach Christian Marrero on staff.

Haines, 44, spent the past three seasons as hitting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers but was fired after they were eliminated in the NL Division Series by the eventual World Series champion Atlanta Braves. Previously, he worked for two seasons with the Chicago Cubs, one as a minor league hitting instructor and one as assistant hitting coach.

Those were qualifications Pirates manager Derek Shelton was seeking in the next hitting coach, someone who could lead them through a hitting program as their top prospects reach the majors. Haines worked under Joe Maddon, a Shelton mentor since his days as hitting coach for the Tampa Ray from 2010-16.

Like Shelton, Haines climbed through the minor leagues. He worked his way up through the Miami Marlins farm system from rookie ball to Triple-A. He managed the Greensboro Grasshoppers, now the Pirates’ High-A affiliate, to the 2011 South Atlantic League championship.

It was with the Marlins that Haines established a relationship with Brewers star outfielder Christian Yelich, the 2018 NL MVP. Yelich followed by slashing .329/.429/.671 with 44 home runs and 97 RBIs before suffering a season-ending knee injury in September 2019.

Yelich’s struggles the past two seasons contributed to the Brewers slipping to 23rd in slugging percentage (.396) and 27th in batting average (.233), ranking ahead of only the Marlins in the National League.

The Brewers batted .192, scored six runs, had 48 strikeouts and drew nine walks and were shut out twice by Atlanta in the NLDS.

Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said he tried to take the four-game series out of consideration in what he called a “very difficult decision that we grappled with.”

“Andy is a very good coach and he contributed to a lot of wins here, and he deserves recognition for that,” Stearns said. “At the end of the day, we felt this was the right time to make a change; this was the right time for a new voice, maybe a little bit of a different message.”