The Cincinnati Reds planned to bring back all the coaches on David Bell’s coaching staff for the 2022 season, but they had a new opening Thursday.
Assistant hitting coach Joe Mather, who held the organization’s director of hitting title, was hired by the Arizona Diamondbacks as their head hitting coach. Mather spent two seasons on the Reds’ staff working alongside hitting coach Alan Zinter.
The D-Backs are planning a unique hitting coach structure, hiring Mather as head hitting coach with up to three hitting assistants below him. Two of the assistants will rotate between the Majors and the upper levels of the minor leagues.
“I just really believed in what he was talking about with an organizational philosophy,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “It was evident to me he was going to be able to take our hitting program to the next level or two. I felt like there was no ceiling to what type of leader he would be.”
Mather, an Ahwatukee, Arizona native, spent five years in the D-Backs’ player development system before he was hired by the Reds in Dec. 2019, so he has a lot of familiarity with the players and coaches.
The Reds saw offensive improvements from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season to 2021, ranking second in the National League in batting average (.249), third in slugging percentage (.431), fourth in on-base percentage (.328) and fourth in runs (4.85 per game). One focus was lowering the team’s launch angle and focusing on hitting line drives.
