Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson has been a major part of the big-league pitching staff’s success for the last three seasons and now he will have a larger influence throughout the organization.
Johnson added director of pitching to his job duties, the club announced Thursday, which came with a contract extension for an unspecified length. He will be responsible for the development and communication of the organization’s pitching philosophies throughout the minor leagues.
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The director of pitching title was held by Kyle Boddy last season. The Reds moved on from Boddy in September after two years in the organization. Johnson has been in his expanded role for the past two weeks after traveling to Arizona to meet coaches and prospects participating in the team’s instructional league camp.
“I wanted to get as many of our coaches that we currently have in our system, get them on board with what this was going to look like,” Johnson said. “I think there was some confusion or maybe just unsure as to what was going on at that point. It was just to reassure them that we're pushing forward and a lot of the same initiatives are still in place. We do want to keep looking at our processes and seeing what's good, what needs to be rectified and that sort of thing.”
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A lot of the groundwork for the new pitching structure will be laid this winter. The Reds are hiring a second pitching coordinator to share duties with Bryan Conger, who is returning after serving as minor-league pitching coordinator last season.
Johnson, the two coordinators, general manager Nick Krall, assistant GM Brad Meador and farm director Shawn Pender will be a part of a group to develop a unifying pitching philosophy.
The Reds added director of pitching and hitting titles in the organization before the start of the 2020 season, a newer trend throughout the sport. Assistant pitching coach Caleb Cotham was the organization’s first Director of Pitching in 2020, but he was hired as the Philadelphia Phillies’ pitching coach last winter.
“There have been some really great things that have happened for us in our minor league system,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve had pitchers who have gotten better. We’ve driven some initiatives that we didn’t have when we all first got here or when I first got here. There are some really great pieces to where we’re starting back up on. Really from there, it’s taking this winter and trying to kind of hammer out all of those edges.
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“We have to create as personalized of an approach for each of these guys so that we can maximize their talents. That doesn’t go without a ton of challenges, a ton of roadblocks, but at the same time, that is what we have to do.”
The Reds saw a lot of improvements from their farm system following a canceled 2020 minor league season. Top pitching prospects Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft could be ready to contribute at the Major League level early next year, and there were a lot of positives at the lower levels of their farm system.
Johnson, who completed his third season with the Reds, has a history in player development. He was a longtime pitching coach at Vanderbilt and he was the Chicago Cubs’ minor-league pitching coordinator from 2013-15. He was named Baseball America’s Major League Coach of the Year in 2019.
“D.J. and I have had lots of conversations about how this best looked over the course of the last several years,” Krall said. “We tried some things that didn’t work out. We moved some things forward over the last couple of years. But at the end of the day, I felt D.J. was the best person to be in this role because I feel he’s one of the best pitching minds in baseball, if not the best.”
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One of the biggest challenges, of course, will be Johnson’s time management once the Major League season begins – “I don’t sleep much,” he deadpanned. There are a lot of responsibilities when working with a big-league staff during the season.
He says once the season begins, it’ll be a time where he’s less involved and hands the keys to the co-pitching coordinators. As the Reds search for a second coordinator, Johnson says the Reds are looking for someone who thinks a little differently than Conger.
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“I don’t want redundancy,” Johnson said. “I don’t want everyone to be like thinkers. We talk a lot about buy-in, alignment and things like that. That’s all important, but then there’s also the nature of the person. You think in a certain way and you’re unique in your capabilities to deliver that. I don’t want to change that."
The Reds had several player development success stories this season. Jonathan India is the frontrunner to win National League Rookie of the Year. Tyler Stephenson played a big role on the team. Vladimir Gutierrez pitched well in the rotation for much of the second half of the year and Tony Santillan adapted well to the bullpen.
With Johnson overseeing pitching philosophies in the minor leagues, the Reds think it’s a good next step.
“Our focus in baseball operations continues to be finding and developing our own talent,” Krall said. “We need to continue to build from within, from the ground up. That's the best way we're going to be successful. We're very excited with the direction our farm system is headed as a result of the new additions and taking a step forward with players that are already in the organization.”
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