DETROIT, MI (AP) — The Detroit Tigers have hired four new coaches to join manager A.J. Hinch’s staff, including third base coach Joey Cora.
The Tigers made the announcements during baseball’s winter meetings on Monday. For the 2024 season, they also hired Anthony Iapoce as first base coach, Ryan Sienko as catching coach, and Lance Zawadzki as assistant major league hitting coach.
Cora has spent the last two seasons as the New York Mets’ third base coach. From 2017 to 21, he was the Pittsburgh Pirates’ infield coach as well as their manager. Cora was a bench coach for the Miami Marlins in 2012 and the Chicago White Sox from 2007 to 2011, after serving as their third base coach from 2004 to 2006.
Cora, who attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where the winter meetings are being held, spent 11 years in the major leagues with the Padres, White Sox, Seattle, and Cleveland. He was a member of Seattle’s All-Star team in 1997.
After managing the Tigers’ top farm club at Triple-A Toledo this year, Iapoce was promoted. In 2022, he was a senior hitting coordinator for the Boston Red Sox, and he previously worked as a hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers. He oversaw the Cubs’ minor league hitting program as special assistant to the general manager from 2013 to 2015.
Sienko was Detroit’s field coordinator and director of coaching for the previous two seasons. He was a catching coordinator for the Dodgers and an associate scout for the Baltimore Orioles from 2007 to 2015.
Zawadzki worked as the hitting coordinator in Boston’s player development system for the previous two seasons.
Leave a Reply