The Chicago Cubs are again in the market for a new hitting coach.
Anthony Iapoce will not return in 2022, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer confirmed Wednesday. Additionally, associate pitching, catching and strategy coach Mike Borzello is leaving the staff after 10 years.
“At the end of this year both sides sort of realized that this was the right time to make that break,” Hoyer said of Iapoce. “Nothing but really positive things to say about a great baseball man. He came back here to help try to get us back to where some of those guys had been. He worked incredibly hard and (I’m) super thankful for everything he did here.”
The Cubs’ next hire will be their seventh hitting coach in 11 seasons. That group includes Rudy Jaramillo, James Rowson, Bill Mueller, John Mallee and Chili Davis. The Cubs also have employed six assistant hitting coaches in that span, three of whom were fired (Rob Deer, Mike Brumley and Terrmel Sledge). Although conversations continue with a number of people, Hoyer said the “bulk” of the coaching staff will be back for 2022. Hoyer indicated assistant hitting coach Chris Valaika will remain, noting he will be a big part of their hitting infrastructure.
Borzello, 51, was one of former manager Dale Sveum’s first hires and subsequently worked for three more Cubs managers.
“Obviously a terrific hire, and he’s done so much for the organization as a strategist, as a catching coach,” Hoyer said. “Both sides kind of felt like 10 years was the right amount of time and I have no doubt he’ll land on his feet and and do great things. But I couldn’t be more thankful for what he did here for 10 years.”
Iapoce, 48, was hired in October 2018 under then-manager Joe Maddon and was retained when David Ross took over before the 2020 season. Iapoce previously served as the Texas Rangers hitting coach for three years (2016-18) in his first lead role on a big-league coaching staff.
The Cubs were familiar with Iapoce after he spent three years in the organization as a special assistant to the general manager while overseeing the team’s minor-league hitting program from 2013-15. It was that experience that prompted the Cubs to bring Iapoce back as the big-league team’s hitting coach. He had worked with the franchise’s core group of hitters, namely Kris Bryant, Javier Báez and Kyle Schwarber, and helped develop them as they came up through the minors.
“He’s a fantastic human being, as positive as anyone can be,” Hoyer said.
The Cubs’ offensive inconsistency contributed to Hoyer’s decision to break up the team leading up to the July 30 trade deadline. Too often the veteran lineup failed to click, highlighted by the stretch following injuries to contact hitters Nico Hoerner and Matt Duffy.
The Cubs showed some improvement going from an unreliable star-studded offense in the first half to league-average production with largely unproven players after the trade deadline. Those numbers were bolstered, in part, by breakout performances from Frank Schwindel, Patrick Wisdom and Rafael Ortega.
They ranked 13th in slugging percentage, 14th in weighted on-base average (wOBA) and tied for 15th in weighted runs created plus (wRC+) with the revamped roster. Strikeouts, however, remained an issue as the Cubs led the majors in strikeout percentage over the final two months. The organization knows they must improve the lineup’s contact rate; the Cubs finished last in the majors in contact percentage (73.6%) while also owning the highest called strike plus whiff rate (CSW) at 29.2%.
Hoyer knows the Cubs need a more well-rounded offense. Too often they have been one-dimensional, lacking rallies and waiting on a home run to fuel the offense. As he looks for a new hitting coach this offseason, Hoyer believes that while on-base percentage and slugging is important, so too is being able to put the ball in play at the right times.
“That’s a hard thing to pin on a hitting coach — the lineup that we instruct in a lot of ways is more responsible for things like contact rate and there’s no doubt we have to do a better job of that,” Hoyer said. “That said, I think the ability to hit the ball in the seats is really important. … We have to have a combination of those things. I don’t want to overemphasize contact at the expense of power.
“We can’t really lose sight of any of those things.”
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