Diamondbacks hire Brian Kaplan as pitching coach

The Diamondbacks announced that they have hired Brian Kaplan as their new pitching coach. He will replace Brent Strom, who had been in that role for the previous three seasons. It was reported last month that the club would not bring back the 76-year-old Strøm.

Kaplan has been with the Phillies since 2019. He spent his first three years with that club as an integrative baseball performance consultant. For the past three seasons, he has been the assistant pitching coach and director of pitching.

It’s impossible to separate player performance from the contributions of an individual coach, but for what it’s worth, the Phils have been hitting well lately. Over the past three years, Philadelphia pitchers had a combined earned run average of 3.95, which ranked them 12th out of the 30 major league clubs. Their 3.82 FIP is far friendlier, putting them third, behind only Atlanta and San Francisco. In that same span, Arizona had a 4.46 ERA and 4.26 FIP, both of which placed them in the bottom third.

The Arizona pitching staff could get a shakeup between now and next season as their starting rotation attracts trade interest from other clubs around the league. Either way, Kaplan will see if he can help the Snakes find another gear when it comes to their pitching staff.