Arizona Diamondbacks hire Philadelphia Phillies pitching coach

Despite the disappointing early playoff exit, the Philadelphia Phillies decided to bring back manager Rob Thomson and his entire coaching staff.

This was largely a surprise to the fan base given how miserable the second half and postseason was, but the front office decided they wanted to take steps backwards with the current regime and make roster changes rather than blow it all up to hunt.

However, the Phillies do need to replace someone on this staff.

Darragh McDonald of MLB Trade Rumors reported that the Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Brian Kaplan as their new pitching coach, replacing Brent Strom, who would not be back after the end of the 2024 season, the club announced.

Kaplan has been with Philadelphia since 2019, initially as an integrative baseball performance consultant before being promoted to his most recent job in 2022, where he served as an assistant pitching coach and director of pitching.

There’s no doubt that pitching coach Caleb Cotham has done a fantastic job in this recent stretch, which has seen the Phillies’ pitching staff lead Major League Baseball in fWAR from 2022 to 2024, and it appears Kaplan has one big part of it.

How Philadelphia replaces him remains to be seen.

There has been no report on whether they will consider internal candidates to fill this position or whether they will resort to external options.

Either way, Kaplan has been instrumental in the recent success the Phillies have had from a pitching perspective over the past three years. So losing him will be a huge blow to this team as it seeks a World Series title.