The Pirates are hiring Matt Hague away from the Blue Jays to fill their hitting coach position, TSN’s Scott Mitchell reports. He served as an assistant coach for Toronto in 2024.
Prior to his time in the big leagues for the Blue Jays, Hague served as a hitting coach at three minor league levels in the Toronto system. The 39-year-old pitched in parts of three major league seasons — all with the Jays and Pirates — but only appeared in 43 games and had just 91 plate appearances.
The Pirates drafted Hague in the ninth round back in 2008, and he played in parts of 10 minor league seasons over a season in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and several games in the Dominican Winter League. Although Hague never had a major league appearance, he posted a career .298/.376/.423 line in nearly 800 Triple-A games.
Hague is leaving a coaching staff that is profitable in the batting department. Toronto parted ways with hitting coach Guillermo Martinez in late September and hired David Popkins, who had been hitting coach at Minnesota but was let go at the end of the season, a few weeks later. Meanwhile, the Pirates fired coach Andy Haines back on October 2 after three years in that role.
Pirates fans looking to learn more about their new hitting coach will want to be sure to read David Laurila’s Q&A with Hague from last July at FanGraphs. The former cornerback spoke well about the differences between his perspective as a player and a coach, the constant battle hitters face to adapt to the ever-changing environment of the industry, and some of his favorite techniques in helping hitters prepare for different approaches. of attacking their opponents.
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