While the club is still yet to make an official announcement, former Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines is set to be the Pirates’ next hitting coach.
If you followed the club last year, you know how daunting a job that is going to be. The Pirates finished near or at the bottom of just about every offense category, including average, OPS, runs, homers and just too many others. It ultimately cost former hitting coach Rick Eckstein his job in August and convinced Derek Shelton and Ben Cherington that the whole hitting program needs to be revamped, not just at the major league level.
Looking at Haines’ résumé, it makes sense why the Pirates were drawn to him. He has a decade of experience as a minor-league coach, instructor or manager. He was an assistant hitting coach for the Cubs in 2018 under Joe Maddon (Shelton himself was once a hitting coach under Maddon and speaks highly of him). He also has done this job the past three years for the Brewers, in which the Brewers made the playoffs each season.
But that time with the Brewers was a mixed bag. It was a stretch that saw them set a franchise record for homers one year, bat in the .220s another and feature one of the worst hitters in recent baseball memory in yet another. There was some good and bad, but the Brewers decided to make a change, firing Haines last month.
A few years ago, Haines was a rapidly-rising coach. With his second hitting coach assignment set to begin, it’s worth taking a deeper dive into his first. In this Mound Visit, we’ll evaluate his three years as the Brewers’ hitting coach by looking at how the team hit as a group and at individual players.
All rate stats (batting average, OPS, wRC+, etc.) will be based on the Brewers’ position player stats, filtering out pitchers. That makes it a more even playing field with American League teams. Collective stats (runs, homers) will factor in pitchers. I’ll also list all the hitters who finished with a league average wRC+ of 100 or better, with a minimum 200 plate appearance minimum for 2019 and 2021 and a 100 PA minimum in 2020.
2019
Batting average: .252 (15th)
On-Base Percentage: .337 (9th)
Slugging Percentage: .451 (11th)
OPS: .788 (11th)
wRC+: 102 (12th)
Runs: 769 (T-17th)
Home runs: 250, (7th)
Hitters with a 100 or higher wRC+: Christian Yelich (174), Keston Hiura (139), Yasmani Grandal (121), Ryan Braun (117), Eric Thames (116), Mike Moustakas (113)
Other Notable Hitters, by wRC+: Lorenzo Cain (83), Orlando Arcia (61), Jesús Aguilar (82)
For reference, the Brewers saw their offense output jump a bit from 2018, going from 4.63 runs per game and a .765 OPS among non-pitchers to 4.75 runs a game and .788 OPS in 2019. Some of that could be attributed to the league’s home run spike, and the Brewers themselves set a franchise-record with 250 homers, but their team results were generally favorable, even if it didn’t translate to as many runs.
That spike in home runs was more surprising because Aguilar, who hit 35 long balls in 2018, did not contribute a lot in 2019. A former waiver claim and a huge win for the Brewers’ player evaluation the previous two years, the Brewers ended up cutting ties with him this year, dumping him on the Rays at the deadline. He has never been able to come close to that 35 home run season he had in 2018, but he has been a good hitter for the Marlins the last two years.
The other notable drop off was Cain, who went from receiving some down ballot MVP votes in 2018 to one of the Brewers’ worst hitting regulars. He was hampered by a knee injury late in the year, but his struggles started well before then. Ben Clemens of FanGraphs wrote at the time that his batting average on balls in play was much lower than expected, which played a major role.
Outside of those two, however, most of that Brewers lineup picked up where they left off. Yelich did a great job defending his MVP award and might have repeated had he not fractured his right kneecap at the end of the season. Grandal, Moustakas, Thames and Braun were a quartet of vets who performed as expected. Hiura, Baseball America’s No. 17 prospect entering the year, hit the ground running after being called up to the majors.
The Brewers lost Aguilar and Cain was never right, but overall, it was a good season for their hitters, building off of the success they had the previous year. This year represented a turning of the guard though, as Grandal, Moustakas and Thames would all depart in free agency. Cain would opt out for most of 2020. Replacing them would be more difficult than expected.
2020
Batting average: .223 (26th)
On-Base Percentage: .313 (21st)
Slugging Percentage: .389 (23rd)
OPS: .702 (24th)
wRC+: 89 (25th)
Runs: 247 (26th)
Home runs: 75 (16th)
Hitters with a 100 or higher wRC+: Jedd Gyorko (118), Christian Yelich (112)
Other Notable Hitters, by wRC+: Omar Navarez (59), Avisaíl García (81), Keston Hiura (87), Ryan Braun (99)
The 2020 season was rough for just about every offense, and the Brewers were no exception. With that said, their drop off was one of the steepest, seeing their team OPS fall 86 points (the seventh-largest drop) while scoring .063 fewer runs per game (the sixth-largest drop).
Some of that is due to those aforementioned roster changes. Navarez was brought in to replace Grandal and had a similar offensive track record, but his power evaporated in the short season. García was brought in on a two-year deal to add some outfield depth after a strong season with the Rays, and while he has been inconsistent throughout his career, 2020 was his worst campaign. Hiura had a sophomore slump, failing to fill in for Moustakas in the infield..
Yelich also had a major drop off in his return from his knee injury. Despite that, he and Gyorko were the only two hitters on the team to finish with a triple-digit wRC+. The lineup didn’t have depth or elite top hitting performances, something the Brewers had enjoyed the past few years.
The Brewers finished with a losing record, but still snuck into the playoffs for a quick cameo. Their pitching earned that postseason berth, as the offense went from above-average to one of the worst in the shortened season. Yes, the Brewers lost some key hitters, but they were replaced with guys coming off strong seasons the year prior. That didn’t translate into 2021.
2021
Batting average: .240 (24th)
On-Base Percentage: .325 (12th)
Slugging Percentage: .410 (17th)
OPS: .735 (17th)
wRC+: 97 (19th)
Runs: 738 (12th)
Home runs: 194 (18th)
Hitters with a 100 or higher wRC+: Willy Adames (135), Avisaíl García (115), Luis Urias (111), Kolten Wong (109), Tyrone Taylor (106), Christian Yelich (101), Daniel Vogelbach (101)
Other Notable Hitters: Omar Navarez (99), Lorenzo Cain (97), Jace Peterson (97), Manny Piña (95), Keston Hiura (52), Jackie Bradley Jr. (35)
The Brewers’ team batting average didn’t rebound much, but they did a better job scoring runs and raised their team stats to almost back to league average. It’s worth noting too that they did better as the season progressed (.714 team OPS in the first half of the season, .761 in the second half).
They did it despite not having that elite hitter again, though Adames did emerge as one of the top shortstops in the National League after a midseason trade from the Rays. García bounced back, to the point that he just scored a four-year contract from the Marlins. They were the top hitters on the team that had seven hitters with a wRC+ over 100. Additionally, there were four others who finished within five percent of league average. So while the offense didn’t have many major bats, that’s a deep lineup.
With that said, there were some holes, most notably with Hiura, who was optioned midseason after failing to rebound. Bradley Jr. has always been an inconsistent offensive contributor, to the point that it’s probably fair to chalk up some of his 2020 success to the small sample size, but he crashed and burned in 2021, becoming the first player to post a sub-.500 OPS over 400 or more plate appearances in a season since Mario Mendoza in 1979. Yelich again did pretty good, but that’s still a far cry from his MVP form from a few years prior.
For every failure, there was a success story. Urias was a fellow highly-rated prospect alongside Hiura, and he finally broke out in 2021. Wong had arguably his best season at the plate. Taylor was a fringe prospect who found success in the majors.
This past season was a mixed bag for the Brewers’ offense up until the playoffs, where the Braves shut them down in four games. While team president David Stearns denied the team’s playoff performance and Yelich’s drop off led to Haines’ departure, you have to imagine that if Yelich hit like his pre-injury self, the Brewers’ offense would have been more potent and Haines might still be their hitting coach. It’s not fair to put that onus on Yelich, in the same way you can put only so much blame on a hitting coach when a team isn’t hitting.
Let's close this Mound Visit by taking a Pirate-centric look at what Haines brings to the table. While the Brewers’ farm system is pretty barren and hasn’t produced much, most of the young hitters that have passed through have found success in the majors under Haines’ tutelage. Hiura is the one notable -- and very important -- exception, but even he had a great rookie year. The Pirates are banking on player development to become competitive again, and that needs to continue to the majors. So the task isn’t just making sure players like Oneil Cruz and Travis Swaggerty can make the jump to the majors, but help Ke’Bryan Hayes unlock his swing.
Haines has mostly worked with players with several years of major league experience in his time as a major league coach. That’s going to change in 2022 with the Pirates.
