Blue Jays finalize coaching staff for 2019 season

Confirming a few bits of news that had been previously reported, the Toronto Blue Jays have finalized the coaching staff for Charlie Montoyo for the 2019 season.

According to an official release from the team, the Blue Jays have finalized the coaching staff for the 2019 season. Charlie Montoyo will be re-joined by pitching coach Pete Walker and third base coach Luis Rivera, as was previously expected.

Furthermore, Dave Hudgens, who’d previously been confirmed to be on the staff, will be joined by the reported Mark Budzinski at first, Matt Buschmann as the bullpen coach, Guillermo Martinez as the hitting coach, and former player Shelley Duncan as the field coordinator.

Finally, John Schneider, the former manager of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, will be joining the major league staff as a “major league coach”, though the official press release, which can be found at this link, notes that he will “have an emphasis on the development of Major League catching”.

Overall, not too much is surprising in this announcement. Budzinski, Buschmann and Duncan had all been reported within the last 48 hours, with Martinez being reported by Shi Davidi as being the new hitting coach a little farther back.

One of the more intriguing names to be added is Duncan, 39, who had a seven-year major league career with the Yankees, Indians and Rays, having his best season in 2010, when he appeared in 85 games for the Indians and smashed 11 homers and racked up 36 RBI. Duncan, who is a native of Tucson, Arizona, confirmed the hiring on his Twitter account.

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Schneider, who’d previously been mentioned as a possibility to succeed John Gibbons as the team’s manager, is also excitedly being added to the coaching staff. Though his position is, at this point, somewhat ambiguous, he’ll surely be a welcomed addition to the group.

Budzinski, a former member of the Cleveland Indians organization, is an experienced coach in numerous facets. A former minor league coach, he recently served in Schneider’s position, the unknown “major league coach”, for the Indians in 2018.

With Buschmann and Martinez, both under the age of 35, adding an element of youth to the group, this coaching staff seems pleasantly diverse while also, in some ways, appearing rather experienced. Hudgens, who has been lauded as a fantastic hire to the organization, will now work with some younger baseball minds with a different approach to strategy and gameplay.

While it’s not yet known just what approach this new, diverse staff will take in the upcoming baseball season, it’ll surely be one of the many stories to watch as the organization undergoes a plethora of profound changes in the way it plays baseball. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.