TORONTO — Chad Mottola is the new Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach while Pete Walker takes over as pitching coach as part of a staff shakeup under new manager John Gibbons announced Monday.
Dwayne Murphy moves from hitting coach to first base/outfield coach, Luis Rivera gets promoted from coaching assistant to third base coach while the club also confirmed the hiring of DeMarlo Hale away from the Baltimore Orioles to serve as bench coach.
The shuffle leaves the bullpen coach job, held by Walker last season, unfilled and ends the runs of both Bruce Walton, pitching coach since 2010, and Don Wakamatsu, bench coach the past two years, with the Blue Jays.
Neither was offered work elsewhere within the organization, although the door is completely closed on Walton if he doesn’t find work elsewhere. Wakamatsu may end up reuniting with Buck Showalter in Baltimore as the replacement for Hale.
Walker takes over from Walton after a season in which injuries ravaged the pitching staff. Affectionately known as “Papi”, Walton had been with the Blue Jays since 1996 when he served as pitching coach for the Medicine Hat Blue Jays of the Pioneer League.
“I’m very close to Bruce Walton and he’s made a tremendous impact on the guys in this organization,” said Walker. “I had a long conversation with Bruce and obviously he gave me his blessing, and after talking with him, I feel a lot better about this position and moving forward with the staff they’ve put together.”
There’s a lot of history for Walker with Gibbons, going back to 2001 when the former was with triple-A Norfolk and the latter was managing the club. The right-hander went 13-4 with a 2.99 ERA over 26 starts and was recommended by Gibbons to then GM J.P. Ricciardi back in 2002.
They should mesh easily in philosophy and approach.
“I have past experiences operating a baseball training centre where we did some visual mechanics, but for the most part I’m a feel guy,” said Walker. “What I want to do is create an atmosphere and high-comfort level for these pitchers to perform. Any time I’ve ever been on, success comes from thriving in a comfortable atmosphere, so I want these guys to feel good about where they’re coming to pitch every day and about the coaching staff, and know that I have their back.
“As a pitching coach, you don’t demand respect, you earn it, so I’m looking forward to earning the respect of these guys and working with them on a daily basis, forming some bonds that last a lifetime.”
The highly regarded Mottola, who interviewed for the hitting coach job with the Cleveland Indians in October, becomes part of a big-league coaching staff for the first time. He spent the past three years as the hitting coach for triple-A Las Vegas and former manager John Farrell suggested in September that Mottola could end up serving as a secondary hitting coach to Murphy.
Instead, Murphy will be the secondary guy behind Mottola.
